Tobias Koch & Thibault Lac

Composer Tobias Koch as well as the two dancers Thibault Lac and Stephen Thomson collectively choose the figure of the harlequin as their starting point, developing a performance to delve into a world in which movement, sound, and sculpture coalesce into an artful exploration of performative languages. As an archetype within Italian commedia dell’arte and a recurring character in art history, the harlequin offers the trio, in collaboration with visual artist Thore Wallert, a frame and, at the same time, a poetic means to reflect and break traditional theatre conventions. In subtle costumes by Ottolinger, which imitate the trousers and smock of the foolish servant, the work captivates with its playfulness, stealth and the urge to move, which gives the evening a contemporary drift. By means of an open stage layout that is reminiscent of a street situation, the audience immediately finds itself in an acoustic and optical landscape and shares a collective experience full of musical and choreographic intensity.

Thibault Lac studied architecture before enrolling at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S.) programme in Brussels. He performed in works by Ligia Lewis, Noé Soulier, Eleanor Bauer, Daniel Linehan, Mathilde Monnier, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Daniel Jeanneteau, Jérôme Bel, and others. He repeatedly danced in Trajal Harrell’s works, most notably in his Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church series.

Tobias Koch studied audio design, composition, and music theory at the Basel University of Music. He works as a sound designer and musician for film, performance, theatre, and the visual arts. His collaborations in theatre and dance brought him to New York’s MoMa, to Documenta 14, Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater, the Munich Kammerspiele, to Wiener Festwochen, to Schauspielhaus Zurich as well as to several other stations.

Duration: 60 min.

“Basel sound composer Tobias Koch and dancer Thibault Lac take a figure from theatre history and transfer it to the present with opulent mastery. […] The two of them brilliantly succeeded in updating this theatre archetype for a dance present. But not, by far, exclusively for that.” Timo Posselt – BZ Basel