Jonathan Burrows / Matteo Fargion

Choreographer Jonathan Burrows and composer Matteo Fargion have shared a close artistic collaboration for 30 years, blurring the boundaries between dance, music, performance and comedy. As part of the MATERIAL GOODS conference, they will present two of their duets, REWRITING and BOTH SITTING DUET, created from sightings of unfinished ideas and materials collected over the decades of their collaboration. REWRITING is a long rhythmic choreography set to music for a Casio keyboard, and increasingly complex, with 108 cards, each with a written thought, triggering a stream of consciousness and formulating questions about the impossibility of choreographing. This is followed by the performance "Both sitting duet," inspired by a composition by American Morton Feldman. Burrows and Fargion sit on chairs, place their musical scores in front of them, and begin to dance with their hands and arms. In a play of shifting rhythms and well-controlled continuity, they delve into an entrancing, tension-filled dialogue between gesture, music and dance. Burrows and Fargion have toured the piece in over 20 countries and won the "Bessie" Award, among others.