TWO PEOPLE IN LOVE NEVER SHAKE HANDS
BALLET / DANCE · 2024
Music for a ballet work by Nicola Wills and Ballet X
About the work
Created for BalletX in Philadelphia, Two People in Love Never Shake Hands explores the unpredictable nature of romantic relationships and the role of chance in bringing people together or pulling them apart.
Inspired by Yoko Ono's Lumière de L'aube exhibition, the work examines the complexities of love, longing, attraction and rejection. Set against an atmosphere of old Hollywood nostalgia, the choreography follows relationships as they develop and unravel, exploring how affection, expectation and emotional vulnerability shape the connections between people.
The production combines original music by Adam Vincent Clarke with compositions by Joep Beving.
COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN
ADDITIONAL MUSIC
CHOREOGRAPHY
INSTRUMENTATION
Adam Vincent Clarke
Joep Beving
Nicola Wills
String quartet, harp, brass band, voice
PREMIERE
COMMISSIONED BY
6 March 2024, The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia, USA
Ballet X
Press
“Smoothly pivoting tensions in the work’s score by contemporary composer Adam Vincent Clarke underline the contours of Wills’s charged choreography”