Our Solo

Our Solo is a trip back to the past and memories of it. The performance “recycles” elements from various pieces in Croizé and Guilloteau’s repertoire, including “‘The Farewell,” a 2009 solo by Croizé based on the sixth and final movement (Der Abschied) of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

In Der Abschied, the fleetingness of the present symbolizes the fragility of life. Croizé and Guilloteau wondered what it would mean to create Das Lied today, when our relationship to the earth has become so fraught with guilt and anxiety. Despite our burdened relationship with the earth, can we still achieve a romantic sense of peace and trust in nature? In doing so, both artists sought a sense of wholeness, not (only) in nature, as Mahler did, but (also) in the microcosm of artistic creation. In Our Solo, the entire creation is reduced to that artistic microcosm: something small enough to grasp, but large enough to contain our solitude.

Set to the tones of poppy English lyrics – set to music by violinist Aisha Orzabayeva – Our Solo sounds and looks like a heartwarming musical dance dialogue full of hope…. like an antidote that makes us transcend our fear of loneliness and, in all simplicity and vulnerability, offers us new connections.