New Ocean

NEW OCEAN marks Richard Siegal's first full-length ballet at the Schauspiel Köln. The piece is inspired by the choreographic work of Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2019. Siegal draws a connection to his contribution to the evening EXITS AND ENTRANCES (Bavarian State Ballet, 2013), in which his work UNITXT was first presented as acomplement to Merce Cunningham's BIPED. In particular, Siegal starts from Cunningham's legendary work OCEAN, which was planned as a collaboration with John Cage, who died in 1992 during the preparations. NEW OCEAN sees itself less as the successor of the gigantic project, which was finally premiered in 1994 as a dance in the round, surrounded by an orchestra of 150 musicians. Reflecting on the environmental developments of the present, Richard Siegal rather designs a rigorous mathematical system that uses a newly developed algorithm totranslate climate change records into choreographic acts. Siegal picks up certain working principles of Cunningham and connects them with the formal language of his Ballet of Difference.