Since 2008, when choreographer Cyndy Van Acker and composer Mika Vainio created Lanx, Electron has constantly supported the special relationship within the creative process generated by the intersection of the two disciplines of dance and music. Following in the footsteps of a number of companies such as Alias, Anna Huber Company, Fabienne Berger, Myriam Gourfink, Hideto Heshiki, Marie-Caroline Hominal, the dancers of the Grand Théâtre de Genève and others who glorify the composer’s work on a piece’s movements as much as the final concert, it is now Foofwa d’Imobilité and the Geneva Chamber Orchestra’s turn to reveal the close links between dance and music, to which John Cage and Merce Cunningham have dedicated the past 50 years...
One fine day in 1990, scarcely two years before he passed away, John Cage was at L’Usine to appear before an admiring Geneva audience at a music conference. Now, over two decades later, Electron, the Foofwa d’Imobilité Company and the Geneva Chamber Orchestra are coming together to create a dance show in this mythical space to pay tribute to one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century and a legend who inspired generations of artists. John Cage was born in Los Angeles on 5th September 1912, and was a musician, a writer, a painter, a mycologist, a thinker and the architect of a life seen as an ongoing process which escapes all categorisation. A student under SchönbergSchönberg
, John Cage distinguished himself as a composer of experimental contemporary
music and as a philosopher. He is also seen as the inspiration behind the Fluxus
movement, Spanish group ZAJ and radical musical experiments to accompany the dance work of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where he also served as musical director then musical advisor until his death in 1992. He shared his life with Merce Cunningham Merce Cunningham
for 50 years.
Thirteen, created in the year of Cage’s death in 1992, will be performed by the musicians of the Geneva Chamber Orchestra under the baton of David Greilsammer.
David Greilsammer, conducting the Geneva Chamber Orchestra (l'OCG).
Foofwa d’Imobilité, choreography
Foofwa d’Imobilité, Anja Schmidt and Marthe Krummenacher, dancers
This performance by Foofwa d'Imobilité on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of John Cage’s birth is supported by the Fluxum Foundation and The Fondation Leenaards.