The Köln Concert as part of the Malta Festival

The performance was born out of a longing for closeness in times of isolation. Trajal Harrell brought to the stage the emotional landscape of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert, creating a choreography filled with tenderness, melancholy, and community. The audience was invited not so much to watch as to share in the experience.

In one of the most anticipated events of the dance season, American choreographer Trajal Harrell presented a piece inspired by Keith Jarrett’s iconic The Köln Concert. Released in 1975, the album — the best-selling solo record in jazz history — has set the standard for musical improvisation for decades and continues to inspire artists worldwide. Harrell, known for blending seemingly distant aesthetics from voguing to butoh responded to this masterpiece with movement, atmosphere, and gesture.

The piece was created during the pandemic, when physical distancing became both a social necessity and a new challenge for the stage. At that time, newly appointed as director of the dance ensemble at Schauspielhaus Zürich, Harrell crafted a choreography in which the distance between dancers did not preclude emotional closeness. Tenderness, humour, sadness, solitude, and the joy of being together despite everything pulsed through the movements of seven performers, including Harrell himself.

The performance opened with four songs by Joni Mitchell before immersing itself in the world of Jarrett’s improvisation, translated into the language of dance. Harrell — also known for the project Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at The Judson Church — once again proved that his choreographies are not only formal experiments but also subtle explorations of human presence, community, and sensitivity. His Köln Concert was not a reconstruction of sound, but an emotional reflection of its intent.