Baba Yaga
Songs and Dances of Death
“As a music theatre piece it was entrancing and engaging. Rowan Hellier’s achievement in conceiving and creating the work was stupendous.”
Baba Yaga: Songs and Dances of Death is a theatrical, interdisciplinary song recital; at once a deconstruction and an adornment of the classical concert format. In a programme for pianist, two female dancers and one female singer, it brings together music, dance, spoken word and a specially-commissioned song cycle by Elena Langer.
Devised by mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier, and inspired by the writings of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Baba explores the idea that there is a wildness and wisdom inherent in women, through music and integrated movement between all performers. It looks to reclaim the figure of the witch as an alternative to society’s script for ageing women, via the ambiguous Slavic-folklore figure Baba Yaga, and her related female archetype: the Skeleton Woman, in Modest Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death.
Elena Langer’s new song cycle is commissioned by Oxford International Song Festival.
Baba Yaga: Songs and Dances of Death is a coproduction between Beethovenfest Bonn and Oxford International Song Festival.
“Hellier’s musical performance resonated enormously and the remarkable feat of combining this with dance was notable.
But you did not notice the different moving parts, what the performers created was a remarkable synthesis.”
Trailer
Image by Tall Wall Media
Baba Yaga team from left to right:
Andreas Heise - choreographer + co-director
Rowan Hellier - idea + concept + co-director + vocalist
Sholto Kynoch - pianist
Ana Dordevic - dancer
Carola Schwab - dancer
Photo above + workshop images 1 -3: Pascal Bünning, workshop images 4 - 6: Tina Dubrovsky.