The Devil’s Hour

Seductive dances are at play in ‘The Devil’s Hour’, a dance piece by choreographer and dancer July Weber for four dancers, set to composer Laure M. Hiendl’s ‘Ray Ray of Light’. Inspired by courtship dances from the animal kingdom as well as medieval couple and round dances, July Weber unfolds a choreography of seductive dances for non-human audiences like ghosts and demons, performed at the historically charged midnight hour – when supernatural forces are said to be especially powerful.

The attraction and strength of the unknown becomes the engine of movement, giving rise to dances that range from the precisely choreographed to the airily somatic, seeking to seduce an unknown, fleeting body like that of a ghost. Drawing on the archetype of the court jester, who in the Middle Ages enjoyed the right to criticize and parody without punishment, the piece questions the need for staged self-expression, entertainment, and decoration. Against minimal scenery, air currents generated by wind machines render the ephemeral tangible and transform into sculptural material that shapes movement in an ethereal yet exceedingly powerful way.