Rehearsal Insights American Signatures

Choreographer Jessica Lang: „This programme is called „American Signatures”, and it will feature the works of four American choreographers, starting with Jerome Robbins, who is iconic from New York City Ballet and the Broadway, and then you have Lar Lubovitch, who is one of the masters of American choreography, and then you have Pam Tanowitz and myself, who are on the same generation of this mid-career choreographer. My work is entitled „Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee”, which comes from a line from the music, which is „Stabat mater”. It’s written by Pergolesi in 1736, and I can’t believe that it’s almost 300 years old and still so relevant today. It’s a beautiful masterpiece of 12 movements that identify the mother standing at the cross mourning the loss of her son, and I can’t think of a more empathetic gesture of this music that has humanity at its core and understanding what it feels like to really empathise with someone rather than sympathise with someone. It’s about a mother mourning the loss of her son, and while it’s the mother and the son, we can also translate that to any mother and any son. It can become about humanity, and the more we can lock into that emotional depth, the more we're going to experience something real on stage.”