Whim W’Him artistic director Olivier Wevers stands before the Whim W’Him dancers, ready to introduce a yet uncreated work.
Poulenc’s Organ Concerto in g minor is the music. That is clear.
The piece will have to do with spirituality and virtual reality, with the idea of dance, and clouds: The way we all live in the electronic cloud these days, and what that does to open up or obscure our relationships. “I don’t even have a structure in mind yet,” he says.

What Olivier does have in mind is images.
•Clouds, literal and metaphorical
•Seven dancers in white, flowy tops and shorts
•Light sculpture illuminating the floor only
•Pillows—seven of them, 40″ by 40″ with a 4″ flange on all sides—that serve as images of comfort or an obstacle between two people trying to connect or…?

Also, a mode of choreography different than his usual, to allow more collaborative creativity with each dancer. “I want to lose a little bit of the control I usually have,”
he tells them. “But I need to have you moving in surprising directions, not usual or normal—add your own exaggeration of something. I’ll be saying ‘no’ or ‘more’ or ‘less.'”

At the end of a whole sequence of moves, he repeats and the dancers follow. In this piece he will emphasize the” not-blending” of sequences of movement. “Push to the extremes of one movement, then switch to the next.” Without smooth transition.

Olivier stands for a moment, thinking, then leans, right leg very bent, to the side, the other stretched long out in the other direction, right hand down to the floor tracing along in front of him and up. ‘Really go to the floor.’ He seems to be improvising.
Always amazing to me that they can follow, then remember and do it back again.

Little vignettes emerge:
Lara climbing a stairway of bent backs and falling into pillows.
Moments when hands are reached, eyes gaze, but connection isn’t made.
An instant embodying the roundness of clouds, two dancers melting into each other.

It’s still so new, it hasn’t even quite made its way into words…

The new piece will be one of three, all premiers, to be performed eight times between May 15 and 13. For tickets: Whim W’Him at the Erickson- #unprotected

Also check this out: Whim W’Him and Power 2 Give, where your gift is doubled.
Your donation will help create the May production.
Thanks to RD Merrill for the matching funds.

Photo Credit: Bamberg Fine Art