ŻAL – HOMAGE TO FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN is a dance concert about the life and works of the artist. The performance is a combination of contemporary dance theatre and a piano concert. Projections of images and texts intertwine as unique forms of art and communication.

ŻAL was created in collaboration with the London based dance theatre playwright Daniel Kayser and a work in progress was shown at the 2005 'Blickfelder' Festival in Zurich. The production portrays the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849) whose works of genius continue to have their effect on music today because they arise from a profoundly human archetypal dynamics: violent revolt against and inmost devotion towards one’s own destiny. Chopin recognized this feeling in the polish word 'żal' and burnt it into his heart and music.

The performance begins with Frédéric Chopin’s journey to Paris where he arrives in September 1831. Before long Chopin is considered as an insider’s tip. He is a coughing pianist who looks like a young maiden and drinks milk. A sentimental Pole who prefers an unadorned polonaise to all the glamour of Paris. Despite being incredibly homesick, he cannot go back to Poland, and so he pours his entire sorrow in splendid virulence all over the piano... and dies.


This production is supported by

Bildungsdirektion Canton of Zurich, Gebrüder Bachmann Pianos, Kulturecho, Migros Kulturprozent, Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation, Präsidialdepartement City of Zurich, Verit Real Estate, Bewegungsräume Brugg