Palomo Spain designs the costumes for Iván Perez's play 'Silk'

For centuries, silk was the world’s most valuable fabric. Produced exclusively in China from the microscopically delicate, kilometre-long threads of the cocoon of the silkworm larva, it reached the wealthy elites of the world via its legendary transport route, the Silk Road. Iván Pérez, artistic director of the Dance Theatre in Heidelberg, choreographically explores this exquisite fabric and focuses his artistic attention on its influence on the human body. What happens to the body when it comes into contact with this sumptuous fabric? What person, figure or even divinity does it become? What value does the distinction between the masculine and the feminine have in relation to silk?

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To answer these questions, Alejandro Gómez Palomo has created a second skin of transparent silk for each of the dancers. With the help of these silk cocoons, Silk explores moments of sensuality and androgyny with the dancers in synchronised movements at the beginning of the evening, which gradually emancipate and individualise. The result is a complex choreography woven beyond binary attributions, crafted from supple movements.

Silk’s setting also reflects the cultural importance of silk: it envelops the 10 DTH dancers in their vaporous silk costumes like a large protective silk cocoon. Yoko Seyama, who already worked with Iván Pérez at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg for Reality and the Cosmos, complements the floor with yellow elastic ribbons covering the stage of the Marguerre Hall from top to bottom, which simulate the threads of a larva.

To contrast the fluid and silky appearance of the dance, the live music – composed especially for the evening by scientist, performer and composer Miguel Ángel Clerc Perada – is constructed with electronically generated dominant sounds, which makes a perfect counterpoint to the supple movements of the DTH dancers.