The title of the first choreography by Martin Chaix for Ballett am Rhein takes us straight into the ballet studio. On the day of his arrival in Düsseldorf in the autumn of 2009 the dancer and choreographer discovered on the wall of the ballet room the written words. “we were right here!! at the right time”. In the concept of the piece Martin Chaix tells how he stands to the words, which gave him repeated food for thought, whether lurking behind something or catching his eye directly. A reflection based on the localization and apprehension of an anchorage in here and now, making a reference back to the past and a perspective forward to the future from this anchorage. An attempt at the theme of the omnipresence of change and, now fearful and now joyful, our dealings with it.

The aspect of change and the question of self-localization also brought Martin Chaix to Alfred Schnittke and his concerto for choir, the first movement of which supplies him with the music for his world première. Schnittke as a strayer among religions and cultures, a searcher for his own identity, seemed to him the ideal musical counterpart. Besides, the immediacy of choir singing, which is made of tones produced solely by the human body, suggested to Martin Chaix an affinity with dance, which “presupposes the presence of the human body, the mere fact of being there”.

French-born Martin Chaix was trained at the ballet school of the Opéra National de Paris and after his studies joined the ensemble there under Brigitte Lefèvre. In 2006 he moved to the Leipzig ballet as soloist under Paul Chalmer. His first choreographies were for the Pariser opera in 2006, and for Leipzig there followed in 2007 “Lady”, “Lob der Tränen” (in praise of tears), “Und so weiter …” (and so on) and then in 2010 for the Noverre Society in Stuttgart “Voices”. He has been a member of Ballett am Rhein since 2009.

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“WE WERE RIGHT HERE” (World Première)
Martin Chaix

MUSIC
1st movement of the concerto for choir by Alfred Schnittke

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