Needcompany | Probabilities of Independent Events (Switzerland)

Probabilities of Independent Events (Switzerland)

Director & choreographer Grace Ellen Barkey
Musical director & arrangements Rombout Willems
Needcompany orchestra & performers Sung-Im Her, Jules Beckman, Jan Lauwers, Simon Lenski, Maarten Seghers, Emily Hehl, George van Dam, Rombout Willems
Dancers of the Höhere Fachschule für Zeitgenössischen und Urbanen Bühnentanz Zurich Arlette Dellers, Jana Dünner, Sheyla Carmelita Gomez de la Cruz, Sofia Kovaleva, Michaela Kvet, Pia Ringel, Elisa Pinos Serrano, Branca Scheidegger, Selina Sigrist, Christian Waespi

Costumes Lieve Meeussen
Assistance costumes Charlotte Seeligmuller
Dramaturgy Elke Janssens
Choreography assistant Sung-Im Her
Stage manager Koen de Saeger
Technical director & lighting designer Ken Hioco
Sound Pierrick Drochmans
Monitor mix Bart Aga
Production manager Marjolein Demey

Production Needcompany
Co-production Theater- und Musikgesellschaft Zug, Migros Culture Percentage Dance Festival Steps
With the support of the Flemish authorities

Premiere 4 May 2022 at Theater Casino Zug as part of the Migros Culture Percentage Dance Festival Steps

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Original version Probabilities of Independent Events (2019)

Dancers Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp

Production Needcompany
Co-production Concertgebouw Brugge
Supported by the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter and the Flemish authorities

Special thanks to Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp – AP Hogeschool, Yasemin Kandemir, Karel Tuytschaever, Nienke Reehorst, Tax Shelter Financing Fund nv, Melissa Thomas, Christel Simons

Premiere 5 December 2019 at Concertgebouw Brugge

The sun will probably rise, but there is a chance that it won’t. How do you plan for chance? How often can you perform an experiment, and does the chance of success increase? In Probabilities of Independent Events, Grace Ellen Barkey asks absurd and quirky but vital questions on the probability (or improbability) of things. She seeks out the human significance behind the mathematical notion that independent events are not influenced by previous occurrences.

Where visual art, dance and performance meet, that’s where you will find Grace Ellen Barkey’s productions. The musical dramaturgy always plays a pivotal part. In Probabilities of Independent Events, her choreography starts out from pop and folk songs by Zappa, Queen and other musical icons. The arrangements are by the composer Rombout Willems, who also is the musical director.

Originally performed with students from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp at Concertgebouw Brugge in 2019, Grace Ellen Barkey & Needcompany will re-stage this brilliant work exclusively for the Migros Culture Percentage Dance Festival Steps with young graduates of the Höhere Fachschule für Zeitgenössischen und Urbanen Bühnentanz in Zurich. Together with the Needcompany orchestra, they will make a party out of merry pointlessness, packed with humour and all that’s radical. A dazzling encounter between three generations.

In Probabilities of Independent Events, Barkey returns to absurdity. Anything is possible. It can’t fail.

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