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Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and NYU Skirball present the North American premiere of SOMNOLE. In this rare solo performance by Boris Charmatz, the award-winning French dancer, choreographer and Artistic Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch explores the idea of somnolence — the feeling of being on the brink of sleep.

Known for his large-scale, group performances, for this piece he distills his choreography into the minimalist form of a dance solo. In a score comprised only of whistling, melodies surface, blend and break apart. The nature of the relationship between the sound and the movement constantly shifts from deliberate to halting, hazy to insightful. Like a body seeking sleep, Charmatz invents a form of insomniac dance where hypnotic rhythms and gestures bring the audience to the frontier between wakefulness and sleep.

French choreographer Boris Charmatz is widely celebrated for his radical approach to contemporary dance. Dancer, choreographer and creator of experimental projects, Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints which redraw the field of possibilities. From 2009 to 2018, he directed the Musée de la danse – Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes et de Bretagne. In January 2019, he founded [terrain], in partnership with le phénix, scène nationale in Valenciennes, the Lille Opera and the Amiens Maison de la Culture. Boris Charmatz is also an associate artist of Charleroi Danse in Belgium. He became director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in Germany, in September 2022.

SOMNOLE is part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival in New York.