Boris Charmatz: Somnole

Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and NYU Skirball present the North American premiere of SOMNOLE. In this rare solo performance by Boris Charmatz, the award-winning French dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, explores the idea of somnolence — the feeling of being on the brink of sleep. Known for his large-scale, group performances, for this piece he distills his choreography into the minimalist form of a dance solo. In a score comprised only of whistling, melodies surface, blend, and break apart. The nature of the relationship between the sound and the movement constantly shifts from deliberate to halting, hazy to insightful. Like a body seeking sleep, Charmatz invents a form of insomniac dance where hypnotic rhythms and gestures bring the audience to the frontier between wakefulness and sleep.