Aszure Barton / Ambrose Akinmusire

When choreographer Aszure Barton premiered a work with Academy Award-winning pianist Hauschka at the 2019 Summer Festival, it was a stroke of luck both for the audience and dance as an art form. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung at the time, “Barton’s creation is a brilliant remix of modern dance, postmodern high-speed aesthetics and all manner of dance fashions between voguing and break. The Canadian choreographer overwrites half a century of dance history.” Since William Forsythe, few artists have reconciled the high-performance sport of ballet with the realness of contemporary dance as elegantly and cool. This was also noticed worldwide by major companies, from the English National Ballet to the Bavarian State Ballet, which commissioned Barton with pieces. For A A | AB: B E N D, she now elevates her exploration of dance and music to a new level in collaboration with multi-award-winning trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire. He masterfully combines genres from jazz to hip-hop and is considered to be “one of the very best musicians in jazz – or any other style of music” (PopMatters). Barton’s 11 dancers are joined on stage by Akinmusire himself – in a world premiere at the end of the festival, which shows two art forms in an intensive dialogue on a world class level.