Review: Moving Being
Choreography: Ton Simons.
Dance: Dance Works Rotterdam.
Worldpremiere: Rotterdamse Schouwburg, november, 19 2008.



Algemeen Dagblad November, 21 2008 by Hans E. Merts

For a moment heaven touched earth

It is a rather daring enterprise to make a dance performance to the music of the composer with a permanent position as court composer of heaven: Johann Sebastian Bach. Rotterdam choreographer Ton Simons shows his daring once more. The challenge to capture the essence of Bach’s divine music in movement is no sinecure. Simons succeeds with flying colors in his production “Moving Being”. He creates an impressive trinity. In conjunction with the fabulous piano-playing of the just 25 year old Manuel Araújo and the computer-engineered projections by visual artist Peter Struycken, Simons manages to capture the audience’s attention with his movement metronome in a way that makes you hold your breath. The sounds of Bach’s “Wohltemperierte Clavier” dance extraordinarily beautifully through time and space, matched by the dancers of Dance Works Rotterdam in movements and patterns which truly touch the audience in the deepest of the heart. Simons proves able to give physical expression, in an accomplished way, to what makes Bach the greatest composer of all time. We also see polyphony and harmony, so very characteristic for Bach’s music, in the sometimes mathematical images by Peter Struycken. These reinforce the very natural and eloquently expressive looking choreography of this grandmaster. National funding institutions pay attention: this is a messenger of God. Sound, image and movement are united serenely and sacrally. It would be sacrilege to end the existence of this company.