herdeg&desponds - Palco Dimitri

herdeg&desponds

blend dance, theatre and virtuoso piano-playing into poetic and dramatic performances.

Their pioneering work covers a broad range from theatrical productions, site-specific pieces, commissions and events for a young audience. Sophisticated and sensitive, these are works strong in intensity, where both music and dance play a balanced role in terms of importance, virtuosity and prominence.

Their pieces have played widely in theatres throughout Switzerland, and internationally. Current theatrical work now touring includes żal – homage to frédéric chopin and nuit blanche – homage to ravel.

herdeg&desponds are also recognised for their unique site-specific work, taking dance and music out of a theatrical setting

The Company have a strong interest in cultural and educational programs for young audiences. Their excellence is this field is recognised through multiple commissions. Over 5000 young people have seen their exhilarating and educative work to date.

herdeg&desponds was founded in 2003 by Andrea Herdeg and André Desponds to bring into collision dance, theatre & recital; the Tanzkonzert.

Andrea Herdeg

Dancer and choreographer Andrea Herdeg is based in Zürich and Locarno. Her professional background includes both dance and theatre. She trained at Accademia Teatro Dimitri (Switzerland) and the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance London (UK). Since 1999 she has danced with many companies in England, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. In 2003 she founded the company herdeg&desponds (Zürich) with pianist Andre Desponds, creating highly accomplished performances that blend music, dance and theatre, to great critical acclaim. Andrea Herdeg is frequently invited to choreograph for dance and for theatre, collaborating among others with theatre director Volker Hesse (opening ceremony for Gotthard Base Tunnel 2016). She is a guest teacher at the Zürcher Hochschule der KünsteZHdK and is a longstanding member of the teaching faculty (dance) at Accademia Teatro Dimitri Verscio. She is winner of the choreography prize at the Rome Theatre Festival 2009.

André Desponds

Concert pianist André Desponds was admitted at the age of 16 to the Musikhochschule Zürich where he studied under Sava Savoff. He is renowned for his interpretations of Chopin, Schubert and Gershwin, and is a highly respected jazz improviser and silent film pianist. Desponds has performed all over the world, including the Gasteig Munich, the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the UN Headquarters in New York. He is a founding member of the Gershwin Piano Quartet (1996). Desponds has recorded widely, plays frequently for radio and television, and is a composer in his own right, specialising in theatre, ballet and film scores. As an accompanist he frequently collaborates with noted artists (soprano Noëmi Nadelmann, vibraphonist Thomas Dobler, and violinist Melina Mandozzi). André Desponds is a professor of improvisation and of chamber music at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK.

tanz&to

with
André Desponds, klavier
Andrea Herdeg, tanz
Adrian Schulthess, tanz

Two dancers and a pianist take the young audience on a playful journey through the history of dance and music, starting with Bach and Ballet, then Jazz and Step and through to Break-Dance. It all begins very simply. The pianist plays a melody and the two dancers react as expected: Baroque with Bach, Modern with Jazz. Very soon though, the order is overthrown and Bach meets Contemporary Dance. Then the roles are switched and the music follows the dancers. Be it loud or gentle, classical or off-key: dance and music are always a couple, flirting with each other, forever causing creative friction. Once again a melody changes and the dancers react to it: three different melodies to one kind of dance... Then the pupils can have a go and let the dancers and the musician follow their lead and imaginations.

Within the framework of the Schoolhouse Concerts, interactive production tanz&ton has already been shown over 100 times in the cities and cantons of Zurich and Zug since 2005.

short works

with
André Desponds, piano
Andrea Herdeg, dance

herdeg&desponds offer a series of light-hearted virtuoso musical and visual sketches for galas and private events. Their shows tango and cancan can be booked independently or in combination with their show with guests.

The shows can be customised to suit the event's needs and can include guests (an actor, a jazz vibraphonist, a chanson singer and an opera singer) and can incorporate accompanied silent movies.

'The renowned pianist and master of improvisation André Desponds and the acrobatic dancer Andrea Herdeg have a flair for the extraordinary: exhilarating music and dance, virtuously performed and unconventionally staged, made for a glamorous performance for all our senses'. Christoph Meier, CEO, Marpa Communications

a pianist called chopin

for young audience

with
André Desponds, piano
Andrea Herdeg, dance
Jean-Martin Moncéro, narrator

Storyteller Jean-Martin Moncéro guides young spectators through the turbulent life of Frédéric Chopin, who, at the age of 21, emigrates from Poland to Paris where he soon makes his mark amongst the glamorous of the city. Nevertheless, Chopin becomes terribly homesick for Poland, to where he cannot return. The piece is a blend of a dance theatre piece and a piano concert about the life and works of this piano genius. Projections of images and texts intertwine with the character of Chopin played by André Desponds, a virtuous pianist, and acrobatic dancer Andrea Herdeg, who embodies his soul. A timeless tribute to a timeless artist.

a pianist called chopin was commissioned within the framework of Concerti per le Scuole di Locarno in 2007 and was seen by over 3000 schoolchildren at Teatro Locarno. Since then it has played at the Theater- und Musikgesellschaft Zug as part of its education programme and in various theatres in Zürich as part of multiple educational programmes.

Inizio richiesta Inizio richiesta