Trajal Harrell / Franz Schubert / Opera Ballet Vlaanderen

The Austrian composer Franz Schubert died at a young age but left behind an extensive body of work, including more than 600 Lieder. Shortly before his death, he composed his famous ‘Winterreise’.

In a cycle of 24 songs for voice and piano, we follow a wanderer on his solitary journey through a winter landscape, alienated from the world and wrestling with his existence. The leading American choreographer Trajal Harrell has long been exploring the relationship between dancing and walking.

Drawing on queer subcultures from the ballroom scene and styles such as vogueing, he invariably has his dancers parade down a catwalk – as is the case in ‘Winterreise’. To the music of Schubert, Harrell choreographs a fashion show presenting a collection of winter coats.

For the first time in his career, he is working with dancers from a ballet company for this project. How do they relate to the universe through which their catwalk takes them? And what is going on beneath the fashionable winter coats?