Pam Tanowitz: Pastoral review – Beethoven explodes into bright bursts of gorgeous dance
Barbican, London
Spinning off from the classic symphony with composer Caroline Shaw and artist Sarah Crowner, Tanowitz’s dancers find fresh thinking space
Pam Tanowitz’s work is the antidote to the trend in dance for dark and shadowy stages, buckets of theatrical haze, claustrophobic soundscapes and gloopy movement. This stage is so bright and clean, like a sharp palate cleanser, and full of white space – literally, and in a more figurative manner. Tanowitz’s dance can be eccentric, odd even, but it’s also seriously thought-through and specific, every choice utterly distinct and deliberate, every angle planed to the exact degree.
This UK premiere of Pastoral is a collaboration between New York choreographer Tanowitz, Pulitzer prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and artist Sarah Crowner. Inspired by Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and the idea of the pastoral in art, Shaw pulls apart and deconstructs the Beethoven, with three live musicians (on various reed instruments) and excerpts of orchestral recordings that emerge like echoes or memories, plus real-world sounds of the street, the skies and the city.
