Embers

About

At midnight on Museum Night 2013, the world premiere of Ernst Meisner’s Embers took place in the Kerkzaal of the Hermitage in Amsterdam (now H’ART Museum Amsterdam). Meisner, who had been directing the Junior Company since its founding in August 2013, created a small, intimate duet tailored to the acoustics and atmosphere of the Kerkzaal, set to Max Richter’s Embers, whose melancholic character immediately moves the audience. Meisner sees the lingering glow of embers—flint, coal, or wood—as a metaphor for a relationship in which deep love remains, yet the partners can no longer be together for any number of reasons. He invites the dancers to decide their own backstory for the breakup, so each performance of this intense, melancholic duet carries a subtly different atmosphere and interpretation.