Art Happens

On stage we see seven piano stools, one for each performer. A musical score of a surprising nature awaits them. In 1975, Keith Jarrett noticed on his arrival at the Cologne opera that the piano on which he was to play was not the right one. Despite his annoyance, he began an hour-long improvisation, the recording of which would become one of the best-selling albums in the history of classical music and jazz: The Köln Concert. Trajal Harrell takes a delicate approach by associating Keith Jarrett’s playing with four melancholic songs by Joni Mitchell. This first collaboration with Zurich Schauspielhaus Dance Ensemble had to take into account the need to limit physical contact during rehearsals. Draped in black, on tiptoe, Trajal Harrell and his six fellow performers display their own form of dance at the crossroads of different genres, mixing voguing with influences ranging from Ancient Greek to Noh theatre. The Köln Concert is tender, vulnerable and danceable. A post-corona performance that, after the physical distance, turns to proximity.