Agitato — Jo Lloyd

— rewriting tragedy

An encounter with Fanny Mendelssohn’s largely unknown ‘Allegro molto agitato in D Minor’ (1823), a small jewel buried in the truncated past of a musical career obscured by conventions.

Delivering a corporeal rather than a historical reflection on the music, Agitato uses every piano key in the manuscript as choreographic control in an agitated space. Its form becomes a whirlwind of confrontation between Fanny’s perfection in musicality and Jo’s impulse to provide a counterbalance that tackles formalism — a counter aesthetic.

An interaction of sustained hesitation and restraint set within a chaotic undercurrent. Agitato leaves chance within the body of the dance and the dancers to locate systems contained in the chaos.

Lloyd underlines the complexity of the formalised difficulty in Fanny’s music through a contemplation of the stillness of her concealment and the aftermath of its defiance.

The dance, formlessness formalised, becomes a palimpsest of the music seen through a contemporaneous mirror. The outcome laid out as a public offering — an understanding between centuries, from one to another.

Choreographer: Jo Lloyd
Dancers: Jo Lloyd, Harrison Ritchie-Jones, Lee Serle, Thomas Woodman
Composer: Duane Morrison
Costume Designer: Andrew Treloar
Dramaturg: Anny Mokotow
Lighting Designer & Production Manager: Shiv Geaney
Producer: Michaela Coventry

Agitato has been supported by Dancehouse, Creative Australia and Studio 24.