Richard Siegal

Video: „Copirates“

Richard Siegal is a choreographer and dancer devoted to fathoming the interdisciplinary depths of new forms of contemporary dance.
His works are presented at international festivals and regularly developed and shown on renowned stages and at cultural institutions in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

His latest piece, “Civic Mimic” (2011-2012), questions interactions and translating processes between choreography, music and architecture.
At the core of this work, conceived as a performance-installation, lies the interplay of space and body, of choreography and dance, and of sounds and visualisations.

Complex systems often function according to simple rules. “If/Then” is how American choreographer Richard Siegal refers to the action-reaction scheme he has meticulously crafted for years now. Meanwhile, he has perfected this game with self-extending decisions to such a degree that entire groups can utilise it and produce highly-complex performative textures. The audience is interwoven as well, taken by their swarm intelligence and subtly challenged by the actions surrounding them.

Siegal’s production platform, The Bakery, unites architects, software engineers, and sound artists. In his choreographies he plays with pirating and copying, with quotes and dance assemblages.
In “©oPirates“(2010) he mixes party and discourse. In “Civic Mimic” (2011–2012) he develops as a theme – on, above, under, and all around a room-sized architectural object – imitation and mimicry.

The self-reference to foreignness allows the focus on one's own self to become foreign. How do we become a group and how do we function together? Siegal’s productions allow this to be experienced.

Civic Mimic (2011-2012)
6 performers – 75 min – with installation „Logic Gate“ – 90 min

©oPirates (2010)
6 performers and local performers – 65 min

homo ludens (2009)
4 performers – 60 min

As If Stranger (2008)
3 performers – 55 min