Navy Blue
Oona Doherty
HebelHalle
»Navy Blue« is a dark choreography for twelve dancers. Based on Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, in which he processed his depression and his overcoming of it, Oona Doherty transfers the classical ideal of crisis and redemption into the present: she infuses the symmetry of classical ballet with an existential horror that is only replaced in the moment of rebirth, by the attempt at freedom and the hope for a new future. Her style is angry and defiant to the point of physical pain, but always also sensitive and tender, self-aware, and in search of meditative healing. Thus, in all its disloyalty, »Navy Blue« is also an appeal to the beauty of life and social change.
Oona Doherty is an Irish choreographer and dancer who has been active internationally since 2010. Her sociocritical productions deal with structural violence and her own white privilege. In 2021, she was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale 2021.