About HAUCH#2

HAUCH #2 is a collage for music and dance. Here, passages and fragments of existing solo pieces and a duet merge within a new work. Along the way, Saunders is interested in the tensions arising when the »soliloquies« of the solos clash in a shared space, superimposing one another and interweaving. The result is a carpet of sound upon which the dancers move in a choreography by Rafaële Giovanola. This emphasizes the physicality of the two artistic means of expression, a physicality binding them together.

In the performance of 'Hauch #2', music and dance enter into a physical dialog with existing modules. Although the material that the composer and choreographer bring with them was created in complete independence from each other, it will be recombined in

a joint development process in order to open up new perspectives from the encounter. It is precisely the tension between aesthetic independence and artistic dialog that makes the concept of

HAUCH #2 so special.

The reworking of HAUCH, HAUCH #2, is the second collaboration with Ensemble Modern after the enthusiastically received world premiere of HARD BOILED VARIATIONS by Arnulf Herrmann in 2022. Ensemble Modern has been working intensively with the exceptional composer Rebecca Saunders for multiple years.

HAUCH #2 is conceived from the outset as a polyphonic spatial installation in which musical and choreographic modules enter into a dialogue with one another and form a shared dynamic network.

There are great affinities in the working methods of Rebecca Saunders, Rafaële Giovanola and the CocoonDance ensemble, as well as in the conception of artistic production between CocoonDance and the Ensemble Modern, one of the world's best-known and leading formations for contemporary music. Founded in 1980 and based in Frankfurt am Main, 18 soloists currently determine the activities of this democratically organized ensemble decide on artistic projects, collaborators, and more.

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Press reviews (translated by DeepL)

The interaction gives the half-dozen Saunders pieces enormous visual appeal, and the dance deepens their perception, triggering moods without telling them. (Eva-Maria Magel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Rhein-Main-Zeitung/ FAZ.NET, retrieved: February 19, 2024) 

It is rare for dance to engage with music in this way, as the latter is often used to support the dance with mood and rhythm. Here, however, it was as if both got lost in a process of pondering and trying out, with both arts being very contemporary and respectful of each other. (Sylvia Staude, Frankfurter Rundschau, retrieved: February 20, 2024)

The collaboration between the Cocoondance Company and the Ensemble Modern is characterized by a gentle radicalism. The music and dance ensembles try to enter into a dialogue with each other in their own languages. This is not so easy, because the chamber music collage “ Hauch #2 -  Music for Dance”  by British composer Rebecca Saunders is quite a challenge. ... The music is not based on a traditional melody, but on modules that the composer has precisely measured and the musicians have interpreted, and these pose a challenge for the audience. ... In this way, the music can be experienced more physically. And that can sometimes be painful. In this respect, it helps that the five dancers, dressed in trousers and delicate blouses, consistently perform gentle, flowing movements in the choreography by Rafaele Giovanola. They form a contrast to the nervous, often irritatingly fragmentary music. At times, they move organically across the floor. Then again, they perform almost soldier-like, robot-like movements while standing. The dancers absorb the vibrations of the music and let them flow organically through their bodies – like a breath. And when, at the end, the musicians gently stroke the rim of several vessels with a stick, the evening has finally arrived at tenderness. (Annette Stiekele, Hamburger Abendblatt, 01.03.2024)

Perfect match: Rafaële Giovanola's company meets the music of Rebecca Saunders in the sold-out Small Hall [title]

It's quite a leap from the Endenicher Theater im Ballsaal, where the Cocoon-Dance Company has been at home since its foundation more than two decades ago, to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. It is all the more remarkable that the Bonn-based company was able to present a new piece, “Hauch#2”, in front of a sold-out audience in the small hall of the spectacular concert hall. In a way, this success is also the result of a happy and exclusive collaboration between the Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders, the Bonn-based company and the Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern. ... The fact that they are very much kindred spirits in their way of working and their view of art was impressively demonstrated at the Elbphilharmonie. The experiment of merging music and movement into a single entity, of letting both musicians and dancers perform as equal protagonists, went very well that evening. ... That the approaches are related was evident in every phase of “Hauch#2”.  In Hamburg, as previously in Frankfurt, where the piece premiered on February 18, it became clear that Faust Prize winner Giovanola and her CocoonDance Company have long since become a nationally recognized flagship of the Bonn cultural scene. (Bernhard Hartmann, Bonner General-Anzeiger, 02.03.2024)