Phaedra / Eurydice in the Underworld

Weiss Tanztheater presents: 

Phaedra

Music: Gustav Mahler (a recording by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein)
Libretto after Racine
Choreography, set design, lighting: Izadora Weiss
Costumes: Hanna Szymczak

Eurydice in the Underworld | world premiere 

Music: Karol Szymanowski (a recoreding by the Meccore Quartet), Dimiri Shostakovich (a recording by the Kronos Quartet), Eugene Ysay (performed by Weronika Weiss on violin)
Choreography: Izadora Weiss

Phaedra 

Phaedra is a story of a woman’s tragic love for her young stepson. Izadora Weiss’s choreographic interpretation of this iconic piece of French literature makes a poignant performance exploring impossible love, guilt, and helplessness in the face of unexplainable desires, lies, and death that offers the only way out of the entrapment. Phaedra is an aesthetically sophisticated piece investigating ruthless hierarchies existing in art and life. While causing a great deal of injustice, they also serve as a powerful motivator to overcome our weaknesses and fears.

Eurydice in the Underworld

Eurydice in the Underworld is the latest creation by Izadora Weiss and her Weiss Tanztheater. It shows how vulnerable individuals may be overpowered by groups of fanatics controlled by demagogues and their fallacious ideologies. The choreographer does not pinpoint which ideologies she wants to call out. She purposefully avoids going into the specifics in order to showcase a universal model of violence that may be used by a group towards unrelenting individuals to subjugate them and crush their ability to make their own judgements. Orpheus, who tries to guide his beloved away from this idealogical underworld, is, as the Greek myth has it, a poet and a dreamer. He believes that love and good can conquer evil. 

As usual in Izadora Weiss’s pieces, the choice of music in Eurydice... is of fundamental importance. The choreography is so closely linked with the emotions contained in the rhythm, melody, and timbre that only the most careful listener will fully appreciate the movement of dancers. Weiss Tanztheater is one of those rare companies which treat music as one of the dramatic personas. The choreographer also considers it crucial to tell concrete life stories: she finds abstract movement to be an insufficient means of expression. For this reason, she chooses exquisite musical works by great composers, which – in her opinion – convey a humanistic message and the faith in human beauty. This time she chose quartets by Karol Szymanowski and Dimitri Shostakovich as well as Eugene Ysaye’s enchanting violin ballade. 

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