Red Bull Flying Bach

Overview

Envision the music of Bach in dance form and what you get is probably not a 9-headed b-boy crew pulling off head spins and power moves. But that’s what Artistic Director Christoph Hagel and choreographer/mastermind Vartan Bassil have done with Red Bull Flying Bach: An explosive streetdance driven by the music of the visionary 18^th century composer.

The dancers are Berlin-based breakdance crew Flying Steps, formed by Bassil and Kadir “Amigo” Memis almost 10 years ago. While their moves are normally driven by urban sounds, this time head spins are inspired by piano keys and b-boy freezes by Bach’s fuges. Though that might be putting it too simply: What they’re really doing is interpreting Bach’s music rather than dancing to it. Different dancers represent different notes, and electronic beats fuse the gaps between the two disparate worlds without at all bastardising the original score.  If there was any way Bach could have seen this coming 300 years ago, he'd no doubt approve.