"Positive echoes of Chariots of Fire are felt in this meditative and intense work, whose qualities generally rest in its sometimes exhaustive, sometimes relaxing but always compelling emotive physicality" The Big List

Körper & Leib is a moving meditation designed by the choreographer Oona Doherty to create sensation in the sternum of the viewer. Two hearts fall in together to hold each other up. They sink into and move through relationships as, embryos, siblings, strangers, lovers, fathers, fighters, athletes, spacemen, mythical gods and shards of light. Körper is the German word for the body and Leib for soul.

The creation has been influenced by Maplethorpe’s flower series; William-Adolphe Bouguereau; Dante and Virgil; and the Tao connection to body, nature, the universe.

First performed

March 2017, The MAC Belfast

Duration

19 minutes

Reviews

“It is a work whose intensity and constantly changing visual imagery will live long in the memory” Culture Northern Ireland

Principal funders: Arts Council of northern Ireland and Belfast City Council

Audience Comments

“Moving and mesmerising”

“Breathtaking and provocative”

“Beautiful body control”

“Raw, real, captivating”

“Fantastic dancers”