Aerowaves 2014: Simone Truong (Switzerland), Is this the beginning of it all, again?

Choreographic loops as human harmonics. Flash review from Aerowaves 2014 Spring Forward festival.


In music, two notes form an interval, three a chord. Simone Truong’s Is this the beginning of it all, again? – a trio – is not a portrait of human relations, but a study of human harmonics. Three dancers perform phrases made up of different “notes”: an arm swizzle, a forward flop, a lunge, and so on. As they recycle this material in seemingly endless loops with slightly varying speeds, placements and pauses, we become aware of fluctuating patterns of consonance and dissonance in the chime or clash of their phrasing.

To this compositional intelligence Truong adds a sensitive use of sound (from three turntables) and an understated lighting design to build a quietly revelatory piece. We sense not just the parts and the performers, but the larger music that they form.