Most of us use aluminium foil for wrapping a packed lunch or covering leftovers in the fridge. But Israeli choreographer Ilan Azriel saw a slightly different application for this material than you would normally expect, and turned it into the key element in his dance performance: the Aluminum Show.
Since its premiere in Israel in 2003 the show has toured the world and drawn capacity audiences. Accompanied by modern dance music, audiences have seen aluminium in the form of gigantic cushions that hover over their heads, giants controlled by the dancers, an pera-singing ball gown, and in the form of enormous Slinkys, those spiral toys that were able to walk down stairs.
The performance is a mix of dance, music and special effects, topped with a generous serving of imagination and creativity.
At the press conference prior to the European tour in 2008, Ilan Azriel explained how he hit upon the idea:
“I was looking for inspiration for my next show and happened to find a piece of aluminium duct from an air conditioning system. I stuck my hand in the duct and realised how flexible it was, and my imagination took over from there. Once I’d decided to use aluminium I discovered that you can do almost anything with this material.”
He received assistance with the technical details from Yuval Keden, a special effects designer, who made the most of all the crazy ideas the choreographer had. The performance can be interpreted as questioning whether man controls technology, or technology controls man, but can also be seen purely as light entertainment.
For the dancers, however, this is no light task, as they frequently have to dance wearing outfits made from aluminium.
“Rehearsing for the performance wasn’t easy,” reports Ilan Azriel.
“Dancers like to show themselves off, but here they are mostly hidden inside a variety of aluminium shapes. It takes time getting used to dancing in aluminium, but because they are all professionals it eventually becomes as natural as any other costume.”
And yes, of course, all the aluminium that is used in the performance is recycled.
Text Henrik Emilson