ECHOS

Echo—connection and distance at once. It carries voices through time and space, amplifies calls or lets them fade away, it creates a sense of closeness or highlights silence and isolation. From this sound, the events on stage unfold:

 The sound reaches us from all directions and transports us to a primal world where rhythm, breath, and community become palpable—as if an elemental force were unfolding. In this work by Frank Fannar Pedersen and Javier Rodríguez Cobos, which blends concert and dance performance, we experience vocalist and musician Christian Zehnder—who revolutionized overtone singing—on stage for the first time alongside his son, electronic musician and sound designer Till Zehnder, and the dancers of the Tanzkompanie St. Gallen.

We all know that feeling of being filled with wonder at the nature that surrounds us—a sense that is both reverential and familiar. It is home to us all, yet it remains beyond our control and our imagination. In ECHOS, rather than following a strict narrative, intuition, deep-seated power, and unbridled expression follow their own path—a mood that allows us to be moved: an invitation to resonate.

Frank Fannar Pedersen completed his dance training at the National Ballet School of Iceland and at the Ballet School of the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. His first professional engagement took the Icelandic dancer to the Iceland Dance Company, before he moved to Barcelona to join IT Dansa. In 2011, he became a soloist with the Hessian State Ballet in Wiesbaden under the direction of Stephan Thoss. From 2014 to 2022, Frank Fannar Pedersen was under contract with Richard Wherlock and the Ballett Basel. Throughout his career, he has danced in choreographies by Jiři Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Johan Inger, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Sharon Eyal, Stijn Celis, Ed Wubbe, Bryan Arias, Stephan Thoss, Richard Wherlock, and many others. At the same time, since 2012, he has been creating his own choreographic works and commissioned pieces for various theaters, including Theater Basel, the National Theater Mannheim, the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden, Theater Ulm, the MiR Dance Company in Gelsenkirchen, and the Iceland Dance Company. Frank Fannar Pedersen’s choreographies have been presented at various festivals and venues in Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

His piece “Til,” which he created for the Iceland Dance Company, was nominated for Dance Production of the Year at the 2013 Icelandic National Theater Awards. In 2015, the yearbook tanz honored Frank Fannar Pedersen as “Rising Star of the Year.” From 2022 to 2024, he was a member of the programming team for the Migros Culture Percentage dance festival Steps. Since the 2023–24 season, Frank Fannar Pedersen has been the artistic director of the Tanzkompanie St. Gallen and is responsible for several choreographies per season.

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Cast:

Concept, choreography: Frank Fannar Pedersen, Javier Rodríguez Cobos (in close collaboration with the dancers)

Composition, vocals/overtone singing, accordion, live electronics: Christian Zehnder

Sound design, musical direction, live electronics: Till Zehnder

Set design: Tina Tzoka

Lighting: Lukas Marian

Costumes: Désirée Müller

Dramaturgy: Lisa Leopold