Witness

Witness
2016

Duration
13 minutes

Direction and Choreography
Wayne McGregor

Music
Nils Frahm 'Immerse!'

Set Design
Wayne McGregor

Lighting Design
Clifton Taylor

Performed by
Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo

Premiere date and venue
7 October 2016, Fall for Dance Festival, New York City Center, New York, USA

Dates

'WE PERCEIVE. WE SEE. WE SEE WITH OUR EYES AND WE SEE WITH OUR MINDS. WE WANT TO SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE AND ALL OF BEAUTY'

- Agnes Martin

Commissioned for Fall for Dance Festival in 2016, Witness is a pas de deux directed and choreographed by Wayne McGregor, with music by Nils Frahm and minimalist lighting design by Clifton Taylor.

Inspired by the painter Agnes Martin, the piece was choreographed on prima ballerina assoluta Alessandra Ferri and American Ballet Theatre principal Herman Cornejo.

Since 2016, Ferri and Cornejo have regularly performed the duet together at venues and dance festivals around the world, including the 2017 CONTEXT Festival in Moscow, the Ravello Festival in Italy in 2018 and at the Linbury Theatre, London in 2019 as part of TRIO ConcertDance, Ferri and Cornejo’s mixed programme with American concert pianist Bruce Levingston.

Commissioned by New York City Center for the Fall for Dance Festival with generous support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Witness is made possible with major support from Barbara and David Zalaznick.

Images: Nicolay Krusser.