The Defenders

William Forsythe manages to create a claustrophobic space with an uneasy atmosphere which gives us a more immediate and more worldly image of political perspectives and positions while bringing us physically under its spell./ Gerald Siegmund, tanzjournal

The Defenders is the first part of a multifaceted installation project by Forsythe. A large room is filled by a vast, monolithic white rectangle, hanging less than a metre above the dance space, creating a wide horizontal plane of oppressive proportion and sensitized acoustics. Within this narrow perspective, a panorama of evolution unfolds. The performers, who are unable to stand upright, traverse the space from end to end, engendering images which suggest a recounting of sentient development, from the primordial to the heights of human achievement. Each passing scene of this allegory extends an ironic spectrum of questions about civilization and the progress of mankind.

NOTE  Please be aware that as a result of its special staging, all seating for The Defenders takes the form of cushions at floor level.

A visiting production by The Forsythe Company.

The Forsythe Company is funded by the state capital Dresden and the state of Saxony, the city of Frankfurt and the state of Hesse. It is company-in-residence at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden and at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt.

Special thanks to Frau Susanne Klatten for her support of The Forsythe Company.