A response to 'Dig Deep'

In January 2013 Arkadi Zaides was invited to take part in the Aire De Jeu project, at Les Subsistances, an international choreographic research center in Lyon, France. In this project choreographers are invited to create a piece using music by contemporary composers played live on stage. Zaides was asked to choose a music score by the New York based composer Julia Wolfe.

Wolfe's music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. For his performance Zaides chose Wolfe's score for a string quartet named Dig Deep, which, as hinted in its name, generates an intense sonic movement inwards. In his physical response to the quartet, Zaides focuses on a state of ongoing oscillation, examining the tension between restlessness and stability in his body. By focusing on this tension Zaides wishes to 'dig deep' and explore a somatic response to his personal experience of immigration, homelessness and an ongoing desire to bridge between different communities in Israel. Zaides offers the audience a kinesthetic, non-narrative practice and continues to challenge both the physical and conceptual identity of his work.

music score: 'Dig Deep' by Julia Wolfe
performed by: Quatour Leonis & Arkadi Zaides
special thanks to: Myriam Van Imschoot
light: Thalie Lurault 
commissioned by: Les Subsistances, Lyon(FR)
co produced by: Hateiva, Jaffa(IL)
duration: 30min.