Concept and performance: Alex Deutinger, Michael Dolan, Alexander Gottfarb, Marta Navaridas, Anna Maria Nowak
Music and Composition: Guenther Berger and Stephan Sperlich - 78plus
Costumes: Hanna Hollmann
Light design: Peter Thalhamer
Outside Eye: Jacob Banigan
In coproduction with D.ID/Dance-Identity Burgenland with Kunstverein Archipelago Wien and Performanceinitiative 22 Graz
With the support of Kulturamt der Stadt Graz, Abt. 9 Kultur Land Steiermark, MA 7 Kultur Stadt Wien, bm:ukk, OHO Oberwart, Burgenland Kultur, uni-TGraz.
This is event is made possible by INTPA – International Network for Dance and Performance Austria of Tanzquartier Wien from funds by BMUKK and BMeiA

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theloosecollective.wordpress.com

The starting point of this futuristic performance is the original score of the musical extravaganza The Black Crook of 1866 – the first Broadway hit to be staged as a major production.

The Austrian-based international collective of performers, choreographers and dancers uses strategies and the potential of a feel-good genre like the musical. By the dramaturgical means of leaping forward in time to the year 2110, the group aims at opening imaginary-physical spaces, which could maybe exist in the musical of the future. Along with emotionally charged ballads, sampling earwigs and electronic bossa nova, they pose questions to the aesthetics of the future: What fields are there still to be conquered? Which »holy cow« needs to be slaughtered? What can »pre-enactment« mean on stage? How responsible are we for the fulfillment of our own prophecies?

The whole piece "Here Comes The Crook" ticks with counterpoints of traditional and futuristic elements. The musicians Berger and Sperlich rigorously explore all kinds of musical references from experimental soundscapes to melodious power-ballads. The dancers throw anything into the mix - from minuet to classical ballet and expressionistic dance. Even the costumes by Hanna Hollmann are a mix between baroque pomp and contemporary street-wear. Yet the real achievement of the team around Navaridas and Deutinger is not just to quote these influences, but to generate their own style, which deeply questions an existing genre while shamelessly making use of its love for bombastic entertainment.
Christoph Hartner, Kronen Zeitung, 6. 2. 2011.

THE LOOSE COLLECTIVE is an Austrian based group of international contemporary dancers, musicians and choreographers. Alex Deutinger, Alexander Gottfarb, Marta Navaridas and Anna Maria Nowak founded the collective in 2009 out of the desire to create dance and concert performances in a non-hierarchical structure parallel to their individual artistic projects. For their production Here Comes The Crook they have teamed up with the Irish performer Michael Dolan as well as two members of the Viennese band 78plus, who are also performing live on stage.

Trailer