[memori] a living archive
by Wayne McGregor
Fire Sketch
by Angelin Preljocaj
Premiere: 30 March 2007
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Main hall and courtyard
furthermore 31 March and 1 April 2007
Dancers: D.A.N.C.E. [master and guest students of the Palucca Schule Dresden]
Avatara Ayuso, Silvia Bastianelli, Marine Bodin, Yoann Boyer, Sabin Ceulemans, Christophe Degelin, Eric Eernerstedt, Vito Giotta, Manon Greiner, Hannes Langolf, Madeleine Lindh, Angel Martinez, Nicola Migliorati, Asli Öztürk, Camille Revol, Marija Slavec, Nina Vallon, Joseph Walkling, Jessica Wright
Electronic diary of the D.A.N.C.E. apprentices: D.A.N.C.E. BLOG
[memori] a living archive
Choreography: Wayne McGregor (UK)
assistant choreographer: Kerry Nicholls (UK)
Music: Deru, Alva Noto
Stage design: Wayne McGregor und Lucy Carter
Light design: Lucy Carter (UK)
Video: Pipo Tafel (Köln)
Technical Director: Chris Charles (UK)
"You never know with Wayne McGregor where his insatiable curiosity will lead him. McGregor is a choreographer who loves to think outside the box." The Times
In his first comprehensive creative work for TANZPLAN DRESDEN, the internationally celebrated choreographer Wayne McGregor will, together with a small group of radical lateral thinkers, produce a living archive. In doing so, he will apply and broaden his experience in the field of cognitive sciences (psychology, neurology, linguistics, human-computer-interaction etc.) and choreography. McGregor and his team want to explore the autobiographical memory as a powerful source of decision making and creativity. An autobiographical memory combines personal biographical memories with specific moments of experience. The ability to draw on this inexhaustible memory is doubtless a uniquely human one. Embedded in the rich personal photo album of perception are perceptive, sensory and emotional pieces of information – information which is generally invisibly encoded and memorised in the brain. The Living Archive exposes this data and makes the invisible visible by means of extraordinary body control and technique.
Vita Wayne McGregor 
Vita Wayne McGregor
Wayne McGregor was born in Stockport 1970 and studied dance at University College Bretton Hall and the José Limón School, New York. He is founder of Random Dance, Resident Company of Sadler’s Wells, for which he has made over thirty works including Amu, Nemesis and AtaXia. He has created works for The Royal Ballet – Engram, Qualia, Symbiont(s), NDT1, Stuttgart Ballet, ENB, San Francisco Ballet and Rambert Dance Company. He has worked at such opera houses as La Scala, Milan (Dido and Aeneas), Lyric Opera of Chicago (The Midsummer Marriage), Scottish Opera, ENO, ETO and Grange Park Opera. His theatre credits include The Woman in White (London, Broadway) and productions at The Old Vic, NT, Royal Court and with the Peter Hall Company. He has worked on Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros) and for Channel 4, BBC TV and Arte. His awards include Time Out awards (2001, 2003), IMZ Dance Screen Award (2002) and two Laurence Olivier Awards (2004 & 2007)and The Critic's Dance Circle Award (2007).
Fire Sketch
Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj (F)
Assistant choreographer: Emilio Calcagno, Dany Léveque (F)
Music: Laurent Garnier (F)
Assistant music: Benjamin Rippert
Light design: Thomas Veyssiere
Costume design: Angelin Preljocaj, Assistance: Claudine Duranti
"I suggested that Laurent Garnier compose music based on Stravinsky’s score of ‘The Firebird’ for this piece. The piece – based on the mythical Phoenix; the firebird that is reborn anew from its ashes – is an allegory and as such also a homage to Cézanne, whose works, which are to this day still so relevant, attest to his timelessness." Angelin Preljocaj
Vita Angelin Preljocaj
Vita Angelin Preljocaj
Choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet Preljocaj – National Choreographic Centre, Angelin Preljocaj has been living and working in Aix-en-Provence since 1996.
Born in 1957 of Albanian parents who had immigrated to Paris, he began his career studying classical dance, before turning to contemporary dance with Karin Waehner at the Schola Cantorum and studying with Merce Cunningham in New York in 1980. In 1987 he studied Noh in Japan. After making his debut as a choreographer, 1996 he founded his own company.
Major works in his repertoire include his interpretation of Stravinsky’s Noces and Prokofiev’s Roméo et Juliette, Le Parc, Annonciation (also made into a film), La Stravaganza, Le sacre du printemps and The 4 seasons…. He created works for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, the New York City Ballet and the Berlin Staatsoper.
Angelin Preljocaj has won numerous awards including the Villa Medicis hors les Murs award, Grand Prix National de la Danse, Benoit de la Danse award for Le Parc at the Bolshoï in Moscow, the Bessie Award for Annonciation, and the Grand prix International de Vidéodanse for Le Parc. He has also been made an Officier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and in May 2006 was named Officier dans l’ordre du Mérite.