Director and Choreographer
John Heginbotham

Designer
Maira Kalman

Music
Hans Huber, Suite Op. 89 and Romance Op. 30 No. 1

Lighting Design
Nicole Pearce

Costume Design
Maira Kalman and Maile Okamura

Performers
David Barlow, Susan Bernofsky, Maira Kalman, Maile Okamura, Daniel Pettrow

Musicians
Caitlin Sullivan, cello
Pedja Muzijevic, piano

Rehearsal Director
Amber Star Merkens

Run Time
60 minutes

Based on texts by Robert Walser, translated from German by Susan Bernofsky and Christopher Middleton

Photos: Stephanie Berger

Following their 2017 collaborative debut The Principles of Uncertainty, choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman co-conceive a new dance-play, HERZ SCHMERZ. Early 20th century Swiss author Robert Walser’s witty writings inspire an eccentric and hyper-detailed landscape of movement, text, visual design, and live chamber music, creating an impressionistic observatory of life's beautiful minutiae and most important themes. The evening-length work is performed by Maira Kalman, actors Daniel Pettrow and David Barlow, dancer Maile Okamura, and writer Susan Bernofsky.

World Premiere: October 10-12, 2019
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York,  NY

Press for HERZ SCHMERZ

Dancing to Robert Walser
The New Yorker, by Marina Harss (October 9, 2019)

Dancing to the Rhythms of Robert Walser
The New York Review of Books, by Erica Getto (November 8, 2019)

Goings On About Town
The New Yorker, by Marina Harss (October 7, 2019)

The creation of HERZ SCHMERZ was made possible with support from the Ford Foundation 2017-2018 Art of Change Fellows program and Baryshnikov Productions. 

HERZ SCHMERZ is also made possible thanks to a Late-Stage Stipend grant from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Spoken excerpts from The Walk by Robert Walser, translated by Christopher Middleton with Susan Bernofsky, copyright © 2012 by New Directions, translation copyright © 1957 by Christopher Middleton, 2012 by Susan Bernofsky. Use by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.