Ginkgo

This first part of the Rituals of Transformation trilogy is a visual dance opera in which we say goodbye to the world as we know it, an exercise in a possible future. Dancing on the rubbish heaps of civilization, where melancholy pieces of music distort and evaporate, humanity is heading towards its demise. Master of ceremony is thereminist Chrysler, embedded in the apocalyptic compositions of Gary Shepherd, reinforced by the twelve singers of Consensus Vocalis. In the decor, consisting of mountains of discarded items, five dancers dance their last dance to the epic and apocalyptic electronic music of producer and regular composer Shepherd. Music in which melancholic pieces such as Le Cygne by Camille Saint-Saëns crumble and Chrysler’s hands touch invisible strings with which she leads the audience as master of ceremonies to the downfall of man. Consensus Vocalis sings their last song while only the Ginkgo tree, the Japanese nut tree that even survived the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima, remains.