Do you Believe in Gravity? Do you Trust the Pilot?

2001

Do you Believe in Gravity? Do you Trust the Pilot? is a solo performance by Thomas Hauert for which he wrote songs as a complement to the dance and the electronic music. The texts, dealing with the self and the limitations of one’s perspective, were explicitly inserted to create a particular context for interpretation of the dance movements.

After three group pieces created with the other members of ZOO, Thomas Hauert decided to return to the solo format. In his former performance Pop-Up Songbook, he had already used singing to explore the connection between movement and the voice. In this solo, particular attention goes to the ballads’ texts, written by Hauert himself. The solo has been chosen as a useful format for experimentation, but there are also other justifications for its use here, as the performance explores the connections between the individual and the world at large.

The starting point is the circle, an enlarged dot, a circular entity which could represent the individual’s conscience. If a human being confines himself to the level of this conscience, however, he soon starts to go round in circles. There is no other solution than to leave the area and to launch out, either inwards – into the self – or outwards. Do You Believe in Gravity? Do You Trust the Pilot? is about that movement, the search for the self, communication and existential questions. It is about love, the fundamental part the others play in establishing our personal world view, the indispensable trust we have to put in them and our ensuing vulnerability.

Hauert soon leaves the emotional level to explore the metaphysical domain: beyond scientific assumptions and clear-cut, binary logic he investigates concepts such as chance, intuition, creativity and volition. Actually, while developing these philosophical notions reminiscent of fuzzy logic, Hauert carries on, but at a different level, the investigation that led him to improvisation: how to bring about the unexpected, the unthinkable, that which can’t be conceptualised? In return the dance feeds upon a new understanding of its areas of meaning and of what’s at stake. Hauert steps out of the infinite number of possible walks of life to stand alone in front of the audience, sincere, generous and vulnerable. From his retreat, a red round rug, he invades the stage and gets into communication with Simon Siegmann’s bright set and Bart Aga’s electronic music, symbiotically developed with the text and movement, to present the audience with a fleeting glimpse through his private window on the world.

Created & performed by Thomas Hauert
Text Thomas Hauert
Music Bart Aga
Songs Thomas Hauert & Bart Aga
Light design Simon Siegmann
Sound Bart Aga & Karin Demedts
Voice coaching Rahel Studer
Technical direction Karin Demedts
Technique Jan Van Gijsel
Production ZOO/Thomas Hauert
Coproduction Luzerntanz am Luzernertheater

4 April 2001
Luzerntanz Luzern (CH)
5 April 2001
Luzerntanz Luzern (CH)
6 April 2001
Luzerntanz Luzern (CH)
7 June 2001
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
8 June 2001
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
9 June 2001
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
13 June 2001
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
14 June 2001
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
30 July 2001
4 August 2001
Impulstanz Vienna (AT)
5 August 2001
Impulstanz Vienna (AT)
15 August 2001
16 August 2001
3 October 2001
Théâtre Sévelin 36 Lausanne (CH)
7 October 2001
Duncan Center Praha (CZ)
8 October 2001
Duncan Center Praha (CZ)
8 November 2001
9 November 2001
10 November 2001
13 November 2001
14 November 2001
27 March 2002
5 June 2002
19 July 2002
Julidans Amsterdam (NL)
20 July 2002
Julidans Amsterdam (NL)
5 December 2002
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
6 December 2002
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
11 December 2002
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
12 December 2002
Kaaitheater Brussels (BE)
28 February 2003
Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main (DE)
1 March 2003
Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main (DE)
2 March 2003
Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main (DE)
7 March 2003
STUK Leuven (BE)
1 June 2003
Dance Week Festival Zagreb (HR)
29 August 2003
Podewil Berlin (DE)
30 August 2003
Podewil Berlin (DE)
12 November 2003
13 November 2003
14 November 2003
15 November 2003
16 November 2003
11 September 2004
12 September 2004