How often do we wish we could make things undone, turn back time and ask ourselves what would have happened if we had taken a different path? 

Time ist the most important factor in our world. It decides a large part of our lives. Perhaps it is the all dominating element. Our days on earth are limited and it is therefore up to us to make good use of them. Each grain of sand that falls through the hourglass will never return, it is gone for ever.

In addition our conception of time has changed a lot. A journey that today takes six hours to reach the destination, used to last weeks if not months. In this sense time can also be relative. When we are enjoying something, we can spend hours on it without noticing how the minutes or hours have passed. The thought: “what if“ is mostly pointless but if this question takes hold of one it makes one dissatisfied.    

company Idem dances this topic in its choreography, in which the dancers perform the sequences only to repeat them in short extracts in reverse. If the dancer goes back to the correct chronology, he or she moves either in a different set of movements or returns to the original choreography and dances it again. It is like a VHS video spooled backwards. In order to emphasize and strengthen the impression of the reverse and blocking movements, our short piece is accompanied by Michio Woirgardt’s music.

Matthias Kass (choreographer & performer)

Clément Bugnon (choreographer)

Michio Woirgardt (composer)

Karen Schultze (photos)