SIMEON is an Indian contemporary dance performance with live music by the Matangi Quartet and in collaboration with Festival Classique. A double bill based on the famous works Canto Ostinato and Lemniscaat by the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, in which Kalpana Raghuraman focusses on the 'individual' and 'the group' and the pressures of everyday life.

Following Kalpana Raghuraman's success with Kandam Ostinato, a research piece on Canto Ostinato in 2014, Kalpana makes a new version in 2017. She adds Lemniscaat as a new choreography allowing SIMEON to be a full-length evening production. In Canto Ostinato as well as in Lemniscaat the well-known Matangi string quartet is performing live on stage.

Kalpana is captivated by the passion and sense of determination which are at the heart of these compositions by Ten Holt. In this double-bill, musicians and dancers work closely together and create a new perspective on dance and the work of Simeon ten Holt. In Indian dance live music is an inherently essential part of theatrical works, the symbiosis of dance and music is organic and natural. The project is also of immense value to Kalpana personally since it sheds light on the important topic of how humans deal with the pressures of society, with holding on to his own values and with the complexities of the automatic-pilot life that has become the norm.

"The longer you listen to the music of Simeon ten Holt, the more you hear. I wanted to connect this to everyday life. The more consciously you look at your own life, the more you see and the easier you can move to create change."
- Kalpana Raghuraman

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Check out the trailer of Simeon