The paintings of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch inspired Erna Fröhlich to devise this dance programme. With her the dancers Eva Boehm, Petra Walter and I interpreted his paintings into dance. Above all, the archetypal representations of Munch's theme of "The Woman in three stages: white-red-black" promted new dances where we explored the potential for dramatic expression of Raqs Sharqi. In the colours of white, red and black, the protagonist’s development unfolds from the self-forgetting, dreaming, thirsting-for-life young woman through the lover and sufferer, to the wise woman, the ally of life and death.
Together with the musician Tim Garside from London we realized the vision of the Munch-dance production. On October 2nd, 2004 - shortly after the spectacular robbery of two of Munch’s most important pictures from the museum in Oslo - "While my Soul was Travelling” had its premiere in the Munich theatre “Leo”. |
