A  S o l o  f o r  t w o

-Faszinierend dann "A Solo for Two" von Valérie Kommer und Karoline Strys aus Köln. Zu einer Fuge von Bach entwickeln die Tänzerinnen ein intimes Spiel mit- und gegeneinander. Die Kostüme und die komplexen Armbewegungen stecken voller Zitate, die Persönlichkeiten der Tänzerinnen entfalten sich mit subtilem Humor, der in einem gespielten Selbstmord endet.- 29th of February 2016, Rheinische Post

-Then –fascinating – “ A Solo for Two” by Valérie Kommer and Karoline Strys from Cologne. Following a fugue from Bach the dancers develop an intimate game with and against each other. The costumes and the complex arm movements are full of quotes, the personalities of the dancers enfold upon subtle humor that dies in reenacted suicide.-

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- Wie lässt sich Musik in Tanz überführen? Normalerweise wird zur Musik getanzt. Aber Tanz als Musik und umgekehrt? Mit „A Solo for Two“ gehen Karoline Strys und Valérie Kommer der möglichen Verschränkung von Klang und Bewegung auf den Grund. Anhand der barocken Fuge suchen sie nach einer Übersetzung der musikalischen Ebene in die Sprache des Tanzes. Mit Kraft, Geschmeidigkeit, Verspieltheit, Präzision, aber auch mit Härte, Witz, Leichtigkeit und einer großen Portion Humor tanzen sie sich durch eine gemeinsam verinnerlichte Partitur. Großartig! - 28th of October 2015, "Erhellende Kleinode" from Bernhard Krebs for Kölnische Rundschau

- How to convert music into dance? Usually you dance to music. But dance as music and vice versa? In “A Solo for Two” Karoline Strys and Valérie Kommer are getting to the bottom of a possible interlacing of sound and movement. By means of the baroque fugue they are looking for a translation of the musical layer into a language of dance. With strength, fluency, playfulness, precision but also harshness, wit, ease and a big portion of humor, they dance through a collectively internalized score. Sublime! -

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"A Solo for Two" is a contemporary dance duet that was developed in collaboration with Valérie Kommer and is following the musical structure of the fugue and is shaped through material deriving from the gestural score of the Baroquean Opera.

The Fugue can be understood as an entity consisting of temporary themes. Various voices are combined, layered, interlaced and repeated. How can we translate those voices and the ideas inherent in music into a language of contemporary dance? Is it possible to interlace or provoke musical events with danced, physically felt experiences? Two performers meet in a space where two fields seem to oppose, collaborate and eventually melt into each other. Where do the edges blur between the two performers or when are they acting as one? Is it really acting with each other in harmony or are two soloists moving in the same space? Is it the same space of ideas connecting them, as they move through a common internalized score? 

Choreography, Concept and Dance: Valérie Kommer and Karoline Strys
Mentoring and support: ZAIK
Mentoring during summer residency at University for Dance and Circus (DOCH), Stockholm, Sweden: Tove Salmgren and Anna Efraimsson
Costume: Polyestershock: Anna Krus

Music: J.Sebastian Bach, The Art of the Fugue, Rinaldo Alessandrini; Matmos, The rose has teeth in the mouth of the beast; Chopin, Etudes Opus 25, Nocturnes No.1 Opus 9;

Length: approx. 30 minutes

"There is, in every event, whether lived or told, always a hole or a gap, often more than one. If we allow ourselves to get caught in it, we find it opening onto a void that, once we have slipped into it, we can never escape.” - Brian Evenson, Fugue State