As if never been

Act I - When I was very young - in 1953 - something very strange 
has happened in my country - our currency was reformed...
For us, children it was very funny, because the new money looked
very colourful. But for our father, who was the first economist of 
the “Czech Savings Bank”, it was a total disaster. He lost almost 
all his money. And as there was an acute shortage of money 
in our family, my mother decided to start knitting for anyone 
who needed a sweater, shawl or a funny hat. I used to help my 
mother to make a ball of wool. There was always one of us who 
held the wool around the wrists and the other who wound it, 
in order to make a ball of wool, which was so much easier to 
handle while knitting... When I think of it now, I feel that it was 
a very subtle and surreal symbol of relation between someone 
who gives and the other who receives - someone who speaks 
and someone who listens. Only, in our case the communication 
was just a silent string of wool passing from one to another...
End of act one.

Act II - When I was a dancer in Stuttgart (1968 - 1975) the 
dancers who were involved in my choreography “Kommen 
und Gehen” gave me a book with the paintings by Leonor Fini.
In this book, I have found the same image: One person holding 
wool around her wrists, and the other winding it in order to make 
a ball... This time, I found the surreal significance of this very 
simple interaction exciting... End of act two.

	
	
Act III - Finally, I have come into contact with Samuel Beckett’s
text “Ohio Impromptu”. This is a text for two people - One who 
speaks and one who listens and keeps silent... End of act three.

In my interpretation I have decided to use all these elements, 
which have accumulated in my head and my soul over many years:

1) Two people who try to feel some kind of connection between 
    them by the means of a string of wool.
2) Music by Lucas Foss - “Orpheus and Euridice”
3) A small chorus of five dancers sitting on the soles of the feet 
    of black upside down statues, reciting Beckett’s “Ohio Impromptu” 
    in "sign language".

After this, it became very clear to me, that a simple coexistence 
between two people is not possible. It always hangs on a very thin 
and very fragile string...

                    Jiří Kylián - The Hague, July 2012