Newton's Äpfel III — den Fall des Apfels umkehren

* from the script *

scenario

It is spring - a blossoming apple tree is the end point of this performance designed as a parcours in the castle park of Château Mercier in Sierre. Together with the audience, I want to reverse the fall of the apple at this one tree, which, according to legend, inspired Isaac Newton to write the law of gravity. The path and the search for the apple tree is also a reflection on gravity and dance.

On a pre-determined route, I have hidden in selected places several apples and objects which I have used in past performances - a pair of galvanised handholds, Bally brand women's shoes and a stone wrapped in strings. Hidden are these items by a bronze dog sculpture 'decorating' the pond, then under a large rosemary bush, in a tulip bed, on a window ledge, in an empty fountain, in the branches of a tree, beside a wall and in a rose bed. I am blindfolded and describe to the spectators the hiding places to which they must lead me without touching me, only with verbal instructions. While I move along 'our' path in the park with these directions, I explain Newton's law of gravity with text fragments from an internalised monologue and the etymological relationship between dancing and throwing - the Old French 'baller' means dancing, the Greek 'ballein' means throwing or hurling. Women's shoes of the brand "Bally" accompany me. I also associate the brand term "Bally" with the Old French word "baller", etc. I put the Bally women's shoes on my hands and move them. I swing and hurl the stone I am carrying into the air and explain further what ballistics, the Bally shoes and dancing have to do with each other.

At first I hold all the apples found during the parcours in my hands, but as soon as their number becomes too large, I stow them everywhere, in my T-shirt, in my trouser pockets and in the waistband of my trousers. After about 1¼ hours of searching and finding, we arrive at the blossoming apple tree. I declare this apple tree to be Newton's apple tree and invite the audience to 'hang' the apples they have found back onto the tree on strings, thus reversing Newton's law. When all the apples are hung, I stand in front of the tree and take off the blindfold. As I gaze into the distance, to the other side of the Rhone, I shake my body in place, a goat bell in each hand. The shaking makes the bells ring brightly, their sound filling the surroundings of the apple tree and beyond.

script