Dystopian Dream Nitin Sawhney, Sébastien Ramirez, and Honji Wang A Sadler’s Wells Production WHEN: VENUE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4 MEMORIAL FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5 AUDITORIUM 7∶30 PM Production photography by Johann Persson Program Credits Dystopian Dream Original Concept, Co-Devised and A Sadler’s Wells Production. Coproduced by Wang Ramirez / Clash 66; Album Composer: Nitin Sawhney Direction and Choreography: Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Théâtre de la Ville-Paris; Wang Ramirez Stanford Live; Théâtre de l’Achipel, scène nationale de Perpignan. Performed by Sébastien Ramirez, Honji Wang and Eva Stone With thanks to: Creative Consultancy: Farooq Chaudhry Hervé Le Bouc, Delphine Lombard, Béatrice Abeille Robin, Melih Yoru, Set Design: Shizuka Hariu Sandra Goldmann, Alex Frith, Tina Arena, Manon Martin, Jia Xuan Hon, Alex Firth, Video Design: Nick Hillel Tandem Scenery, Paddy Dell, Isabelle Drummond, Lucy White, Alec Kensit Sound Design: David McEwan Lighting Design: Natasha Chivers World Premiere: September 29, 2017, Costume Design: Hussein Chalayan Grand Theatre, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Rehearsal Assistant: Winston Pyke Aerial consultancy: Jason Oettlé This program is generously supported by the Koret Foundation. Nitin Sawhney’s 2018-19 residency is supported by Production Manager: Adam Carrée the Stanford Presidential Residencies on the Future of the Arts. Touring Production Manager / Rigger: John Maddox Stage Manager / Rigger: Jef Mitchell Company Stage Manager: Maddie Cupples Video Programmer: MJ Holland Dystopian Dream is supported by COLAS. Head of Sound: Mark Webber Lighting Programmer / Relighter: Gerald McDermott Costume Supervisor: Roxanne Armstrong Company Wang Ramirez—Clash66 receives the sponsorship of For Sadler’s Wells Colas “We open the way” for the production Dystopian Dream; Executive Producer: Suzanne Walker it receives generic structural support by Head of Producing & Touring: Regional Cultural Affairs Directorate Occitanie, Bia Oliveira by Regional council Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée, Senior Producer: Ghislaine Granger Producing & Touring Coordinator: by County council Pyrénées Orientales and by Foundation BNP Paribas. Florent Trioux Marketing Manager: Daniel King The program will last approximately one hour and 15 minutes. Press Officer: Alicia Powell PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you. 2 A Word From Nitin Sawhney infinite space and time, between life and to create a narrative onstage that death and between reality and dreams. evolves from the metaphor of a I once told a journalist that dystopian runner’s journey through parallel dream was like the light at the end of universes and dreams... an endless tunnel. We keep running but never move. In many ways the light This production uses a combination of feels like a projection of meaning cutting edge projections, aerial and rather than a purposeful destination. contemporary choreography, dramatic performance and live and recorded I have been fortunate in having music, inviting the audience into an parallel careers as a composer for the unprecedented theatrical realisation of visual mediums of film, television, a completed and released album.” video games, theatre and dance so Photo by Suki Dhanda the idea of a visual realisation of DYSTOPIAN DREAM TRACK LIST dystopian dream really appealed to Although I make my living as a me. The album focusses on themes of 1. FIRES composer and produce records, I never loss, isolation, celebration and 2. DAYS R GONE surrender so these abstract ideas felt really started an album with music. 3. DARK DAY perfect for examination through Every time I make an album it’s more 4. TIMETRAP physical movement. like a personal diary entry than any 5. SILENCE kind of exploration of rhythm, harmony 6. LOSE US ALL or melody. I need the catharsis The grace and energy of Honji and 7. DYSTOPIA because it all begins with a feeling. Sébastien’s choreography felt like it had 8. SCAPE a great synergy with the concepts and 9. TERE KHYAL Dystopian Dream was initially a response emotions of my album and so we 10. WHEN I’M GONE to my father passing away and then begun our journey together in 2016 with 11. SPIRALS gradually became something else. It a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. 12. CAN’T BREATHE 13. KEEP THE LIGHT ON became my response to mortality and 14. REDSHIFT our search for our own significance As we continued our rehearsals 15. DIMENSION when we are sandwiched between produced by Sadler’s wells, we looked A Word From Wang Ramirez We are excited to present the fruits of essence and the emotions that you one has its own particularity, a piece this collaboration. From an existing feel by listening to each of his tracks. based on an existing album. album, Dystopian Dream, to a dance Getting to know where his mind was What will be shown on stage is the theatre piece, it has been a long journey and what his inspirations were while result of our interpretation of what has of reflections, exchanges and try outs creating his music. been discussed, researched, felt and for all the creatives in this project. exchanged during our meetings. Then it was our turn to digest and At the beginning of the process we reflect on all that heritage on stage In this process we tried to absorb all immersed ourselves in the world of and create a piece with all its aspects. emotions and feelings, and express Nitin Sawhney’s album as much as them with a vision and a language possible, trying to understand the Every creation is a challenge and this that are associated with what we do. 4 A Word From Our Sponsor How could we not accompany between traces of the past, the present priority given to innovation. The Solar Dystopian Dream, when roads are at time and our representation of the road and the Porcelaine road have the very core of the story? future. Indissociable from quest, shattered our references: harvesting intellectual audacity and innovation, light to make energy accessible to all, Roads are the threads that bind. By roads unfold a continuous ribbon of the road paves the way to a new exploring the musical climate of dreams and projects. model, and Dystopian Dream, in its own composer Nitin Sawhney, way, beckons us. choreographers Honji Wang and The road embodies a forward-looking Sébastien Ramirez breathe life into the vision. Colas’ new corporate signature, Hervé Le Bouc human geology made up of We Open the Way, underlines the Chairman and CEO of Colas encounters and exchanges, a vector of singular narratives and collective myths. Leading figures in contemporary dance influenced by hip hop, combining cutting-edge technologies with singing and dancing, the performers venture out into territories to be discovered together, in a decor of roads of light, beacons of their respective itinerancies. Dystopian Dream is a journey. Every seasoned traveler knows that along the way, on the road that transports us geographically from one point to another, an interior space inhabited by images and sensations gradually appears. Roads never cease to explore the intimate, building an in-between time when imagination abolishes borders and makes you want to take other paths. While roaming, roads slowly reveal their dark and luminous stories, infallible witnesses of the link 5 About the Artists HONJI WANG Director, choreographer, performer Honji Wang is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director born and raised in Germany by Korean parents. Her dance language is an abstraction of hip hop dance and has influences of earlier martial arts and ballet training. She is recognised as an artist who brings contemporary and hip hop together in an exceptionally organic fashion. Together with Sébastien Ramirez, Honji Wang received the Bessie Award 2013 as “Outstanding Performer” following the presentation of AP15 at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Their work Monchichi is also one of the 2017 Bessie Award nominees for “Outstanding Production” following its performance at BAM Fisher. Wang was invited to Madonna’s final auditions in New York, where her outstanding performance earned her an invitation to tour and perform for the Rebel Heart Tour. She was invited as a guest artist to perform a duo with acclaimed British choreographer Akram Khan titled The Shahin Novrasli. She also collaborated Molina in the duet Felahikum, as well Pursuit of Now, which was with the most compelling and avant- as with New York City Ballet principal accompanied by well-known pianist garde female flamenco dancer Rocío dancer Sara Mearns in the duet No.1. 6 SÉBASTIEN RAMIREZ He was also invited by Sadler’s Wells Sadler’s Wells (London), Apollo Theater Director, choreographer, performer as one of the five choreographers of (New York), Mercat de les Flors Born in the south of France, Sébastien RIOT OffSpring, a unique dance piece (Barcelona), and receives the support of Ramirez is an internationally performed to Igor Stravinsky’s iconic important international co-producers. renowned dancer, choreographer and The Rite of Spring played by artistic director. Ramirez specializes in Southbank Sinfonia. The company also receives company the use of aerial work as well as support by Regional Cultural Affairs choreographic rigging development. Directorate Occitanie, Regional council Since the foundation of his company, COMPANY WANG RAMIREZ of Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée he developed a new vision of space Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang and the County council Pyrénées and choreography, bringing hip hop cultivate a dance rooted in hip hop Orientales. dance to a wider and new audience. that incorporates all artistic languages. This French-Hispanic-Korean-German The Foundation BNP Paribas supports Together with Honji Wang, Ramirez has couple, inseparable in life as onstage the development of the Company’s produced and choreographed several translates their complicity in difference projects.