wilhelm scream

Wilhelm Scream

Wilhelm Scream is a movement concert performed by two dancers and an orchestra of objects. The dancers direct a dialogue between image and sound. It is a play of meaning which occurs through aligned actions, challenging the associations between the two. What is the image of a sound and what is the sound of an image? How does it sync, and what happens in the friction. Is there harmony in the uncanny 'out of sync’?

Wilhelm Scream is the name of a sound effect that has been used in cinema since the early 50's. Still today many film directors use it, and some even try to use it in all of their films. It has been used in over 200 films and is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explotion. In the manner of a foley artist the performers recreate the ambient sounds of cinematic scenes using various objects. A traffic cone, a bucket, chains, balloons and vegetables create the sounds of for example a sledge hammer, a body falling, a train crash, gunshots and ambiguous body sounds. Together they hint at a narrative which is responded to through movement. Through repetition the performers stress how the sound influences one's perception of movement and vice versa. Wilhelm Scream is a performance that crosses the borders of sound production and dance.

Choreography and Performance: Inga Huld Hákonardóttir & Rósa Ómarsdóttir
Credits: made at and with support of P.A.R.T.S.
Thanks to: Danae Theodoridou, Andros Zins-Browne and Tom Pauwels.

Performed at:
Volksroom Brussels, Belgium. November 2013.
Musée de la Danse - Rennes, France. December 2013.
Museum Dhont-Dhaenens - Deurle, Belgium. January 2014.
Concertgebouw - Brugge, Belgium. February 2014.
Bozar Palais Des Beaux Arts - Brussels, Belgium. March 2014.
P.A.R.T.S. Student Performances - Brussels, Belgium. March 2014.
Kaai Studios - Brussels, Belgium. June 2014
Malta Festival - Poznan, Poland. June 2014
BiMERAS - Istanbul, Turkey. July 2014
Reykjavík Dancefestival - Reykjavík, Iceland. August 2014

The piece was nominated as one of the best dance performances in Iceland in 2014 by the daily newspaper Morgunblaðið

Reviews:
“In the performance Wilhelm Scream, Inga Huld Hákonardóttir and Rósa Ómarsdóttir performed a sort of movement concert with two dancers and an orcestra of objects. The work was well composed, full of humour and nicely presented. It gave a new breeze to Iceland’s dancescene.”
-Sesselja Guðmundsdóttir, Fréttablaðið

Un son, associé d’habitude C une image violente (coup de fusil, marteau qui frappe, grattement strident, etc.), induit C distance une souffrance, dans un conditionnement pavlovien. Que se passe-t-il quand deux danseuses, aussi habiles C produire toutes sortes de sons avec des instruments de fortune qu’C mimer les affres de l’agonie, se livrent C un affrontement sans pitié, par sons interposés ?
-Unidivers.fr