The show must go on

Jérôme Bel is one of the most internationally in demand artists in the contemporary dance and performance scene, who revolutionised contemporary dance among others with his performance The show must go on, which received its world première in 2000. In the cult work, 20 performers and a DJ move to a series of unforgettable songs from 30 years of pop history – including hits by The Beatles, Nick Cave, Céline Dion, Simon & Garfunkel, The Police, Tina Turner and Queen. Jérôme Bel takes the songs literally and uses them to spin small tales on the stage, which partly ironically and partly affectionately, but always with their very own poetry, challenge the audience to think about what dance, the human per se, might be. Ten years after it was written, the work is now uniquely being rehearsed anew by professional and non professional dancers from Vienna for Hall E of the Tanzquartier Wien. So a unique Viennese version of the masterwork of new European dance and performance history, which in the meantime has itself become a pop hit of the international dance stage, emerges on the basis of Jérôme Bel’s original score. It has been performed in over 50 different countries world wide.