Music Music

ImpulsTanz [ENA] In o’ Music Music, Trajal Harrell offers an exceptionally intimate and deeply affecting meditation on the relationship between movement, memory and time. The seventh chapter of his ongoing Histoire(s) du Théâtre series does not treat music as a decorative accompaniment to dance; instead, it allows music to become a living archive—one that carries emotions, personal histories and earlier versions of the self.

Harrell’s artistry has always emerged from striking encounters between apparently distant dance traditions, and this work demonstrates the extraordinary subtlety of his choreographic language. His movement is at once precise and vulnerable, poised between stylisation and emotional exposure. A gesture may appear casually elegant, almost humorous, before opening into something fragile and profoundly human. Harrell does not simply dance to beloved music; he seems to enter into conversation with it, allowing each rhythm, pause and melodic line to awaken memories embedded in the body.

The evening’s central achievement lies in its sense of transformation. Harrell makes visible how the passing of time changes not only the dancer’s body, but also the emotional meaning of the music that once shaped him. The solo becomes a meeting between past and present: a reunion with former selves, remembered desires and artistic influences that continue to resonate. Lula Pena’s live presence gives the work an additional, unforgettable dimension. Her distinctive Fado voice is rich with longing, gravity and quiet intensity. Rather than merely supporting the choreography, her singing becomes an equal partner in the performance.

The encounter between Pena’s vocal expressiveness and Harrell’s refined physicality creates an atmosphere of rare concentration. o’ Music Music is a moving and sophisticated work of contemporary dance. It reveals Trajal Harrell not only as a major choreographer of his generation, but also as an artist capable of turning personal memory into a shared, deeply resonant theatrical experience.