Lissabon Project

The 75 minutes masterpiece is reflecting a story about Lisbon as the 'underwater city' but there is no water on stage, instead there is a fish.

The romantic city remains intact after the completion of the Second World War, only natural calamities had affected the city, like the enormous earthquake in the 18th century. The Lisbon story has been compiled together with musicians Hans Tutschku and Michael von Hintzenstern in the music city' streets and cafes for the dance and music composition.

The dynamic, fluid and beautiful dancing performance accompanied by romantic rhythme of Portuguese musical background has won the heart of all spectators in the Jakarta Art Building. The dancers, women and men alike were dancing skillfully, whole-heartedly as a group or sometimes as an individual, where they could freely expressing their role.

The meeting of some ladies and gentlemen in a place nearby the sea exposed with great nostalgia and sometimes melancholy, but showing also a happy moment, knowing that they will part but soon they shall meet again.

As Schlömer said by quoting Novalis, this choreography of Lisbon Project lies somewhere between the questions ' where do we come from' and 'where are we going', which have a deep philosophical meaning: what is life? The audience should search the reply in this meaningful choreography.

The most important thing, this evening performance of Dance Theatre of Basel has given a great satisfaction to Jakarta's audience, with no less than five long ovations before the curtain definitively closed, at the end of the performance. The sincerity of Joachim Schlömer and of course the whole dance ensemble has been proved in a high professional manner. Congratulation Schlömer and all the crew and dancers of Dance Theatre Basel!

Critics write:

« Joachim Schlömer’s ‘Lisbon Project’ for the Basel Thatre contains some of the most beautiful ensemble dancing the choreographer has ever created; never before has Schlömer produced such fluid, sculptural and meaningful choreography. »

« In one of the most beautiful and typical scenes of the piece, the dancer Norbert Steinwarz keeps on trying in vain to get off with a pretty colleague. He hopefully presents his idol with a green balloon. As she lets it go and scornfully goes off with someone else, Steinwarz for a moment, doesn’t know whether he should catch hold of the balloon or the woman; by the time he has got up onto a chair the balloon is out of his reach, and he has lost both the woman and the balloon. »

Jochen Schmidt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26th January 1998

« Schlömer uses the themes of saudade, melancholy and the demise of traditions in a modernized society. »

Brigitte Guggisberg, tz, 19th January 1998