STAGES INTO THE NOW is both a series of films and a solo for Scott Jennings, the former acclaimed dancer in Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal. Alexandra Waierstall has been collaborating with Scott for several years and is always inspired as a maker by his effortlessly striking presence and minimal nuanced interpretation.

In this solo a specific history and location is referred to. With a stunning solo performance, an unravelling music score by Volker Bertelmann aka HAUSCHKA and the mesmerizing lights by Caty Olive we weave the past and present in a choreographic encounter with Wuppertal and its opera house, while it was sadly abandoned during the pandemic and devastated by floods in 2021. This is a house and city Alexandra Waierstall has a personal connection to, with her father’s German lineage rooted there, and has been a starting point for the work.

A dance emerging from this dream-like setting, bringing us into a state of drift and subtle dialogue with Pina Bausch, Discoteca Flaming Star and Sappho, and ultimately with the permanence of change.

Choreography, concept, direction: Alexandra Waierstall; Performance, collaboration: Scott Jennings; Artistic collaboration: Ying Yun Chen, Olivia Ancona; Light design: Caty Olive; Video coordination: Cédric Hopf; Director of photography: Sören Parker; Composition: Volker Bertelmann © Needle Wood Publishing Edition/Bosworth Music; Text: Alexandra Waierstall, Maria Iole Karolidou, Scott Jennings; Costumes: Alexandra Waierstall, Horst Weierstall; Management: Judith Jaeger

Production: Noema Dance Works e.V.; Coproduction: tanzhaus nrw; Supported by: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Kunststiftung NRW. And the kind support of: Opernhaus Wuppertal, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch und Pina Bausch Zentrum, Kulturbüro Wuppertal.

The roof orbits the stage. It goes round and round in endless circles. Ceaseless orbits as I am trying to find a point of stillness.

I am entering the stage. Closing the door behind me.

May I move more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, more sensitive than nerve.

My virtual self will not age as you and I will. And as long as the batteries don’t run out, he will keep dancing for months, years, decades, and centuries to come.

Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember you.

Eyes, eyes orbiting.
Tiny asteroids.

The roof orbits the stage. It goes round and round in endless circles. Ceaseless orbits as I am trying to find a point of stillness. I try to keep my balance. I lean on the periphery. The periphery of the stage. I lean on my ear, I lean on the periphery.

I touch, I am touched.
I wish I were more still. Not this constant moving. Rather the need for resting.

The walls are closing in ever more tightly around us. But it turns out that in depth there is a lot of space.