Strasbourg 1518

Can dancing start a revolution?

Would you be a part of it?

Could you lose yourself in dance and never come back?

If dance could change the world, would you dance yourself to death?

Strasbourg, 1518. A city on the brink. The triple threat of escalating inequality, rampant misogyny and a devastating drought threaten to break the town in two. When a lone woman steps out of her house and begins to dance, everyone is bewildered. But within days, hundreds more have followed her lead. As the authorities invent ever more bizarre ways to resolve this new crisis, the city falls one by one into a delirious hypnosis of a real-life dance with death.

Directed and choreographed by Lucy Marinkovich and written and composed by Lucien Johnson, Borderline Arts Ensemble’s world premiere explores the unsolved and enigmatic true history of the 1518 Strasbourg dance epidemic. With live music and an outstanding company of dancers including the legendary Michael Parmenter, this production is a visceral, explosive exploration of the limits of rationality, the power of the subconscious and the pivotal need for dance in human lives.

Commissioned by New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Supported by Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council, Wallace Arts Trust and the Australian High Commission.

Directed and choreographed by

Lucy Marinkovich

Written and composed by

Lucien Johnson

Featuring

Michael Parmenter

Premiere 12 March 2020 in the New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

#Strasbourg1518

Commissioned by New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Supported by Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council, Wallace Arts Trust and the Australian High Commission.

STRASBOURG 1518.com

New Zealand Festival