Leaning Tree (2023)

I have always been fascinated by the sheer physicality present in a musical instrument – the variations in breath enabling long sustained pitches or short outbursts of sound, muscle memory, the precision of movement and interdependence of limbs, the imprint of sudden physical gestures.

Leaning Tree explores and challenges the many individual colors found in an orchestra, while simultaneously paying tribute to the musicians that bring this giant body of sound to life.

The orchestra is divided into eight separate entities.  The music moves between homogenous unity and individual identity in sound and timbre, set in a large surround-sound format. Leaning Tree is written as a musical ecosystem of materials, moving from one chamber group to another – like that of tiny blood vessels transporting blood around in the human body.

The subtly choreographed microcosmos of movements found among the instrumentalists, find a new visual life larger in scale and size, metamorphosing into new shapes through the moving bodies on stage.

Leaning Tree is written as an attempt to bridge the disciplines of music and dance – it is a play on perspective, a constant shift between the visually tangible and what lies beyond – an inner world of emotions and imagery triggered by movements in body and sound.

- Signe Lykke

More about Leaning Tree

SANS FOR DANS with Signe Lykke (in Danish)

SANS FOR DANS with Fernando Melo (choreographer) (in English)

SANS FOR DANS is a podcast by Danish Dance Theatre.