A native of black Africa, Elsa Wolliaston became acquainted with dance through animistic ceremonies and rituals; in Nigeria she studied with Badatunji Olantuji, and later Franck Wagner in New York, where she also studied at the "Joe Price School of Acrobatics" and the school of Merce Cunningham and Jerome Andrews. A great connoisseur of the repertoire of traditional African dances. She has never disowned her culture: she is both contemporary and African.
"...Africa is imbued with the rhythm and knowledge of life. Like a second skin. One day the contexts change, the references also, and then you have to try to communicate." Elsa Wolliaston communicates her roots and cultural references with the warmth of her nimble 80 pounds. She states, "Experience marks the body. I'm not talking about the official history, but the one that begins with nurturing as an infant to adulthood, marked by the pains, sufferings, aches, pleasures, successes, and the way forward, all of which is different for each of us and translates into the body."
Rediscovering the body means "becoming aware of music and inner and outer space..." and that "dance is the art of being free."
Composer and saxophonist, Steve Lacy was born in New York City in 1934. A masterful performer, he is one of the few saxophonists who play only soprano. He began his career with traditional jazz only to move abruptly to the music of Cecil Taylor, a pioneer of jazz from the ’50.
He played with Gilles Evans and worked extensively on the music of Thelonius Monk. The quartet he led in the early 1960s together with Rooswelt Rudd included about fifty Monk pieces in its repertoire.
In '65 he came to Europe for the first time and met Irene Aebi. In '67 he moved there permanently and began his work as a composer while simultaneously gaining experience in language, sound, and improvisation. In Paris, where he has resided since '69, he meets artists such as Antony Braxton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Frank Wright.
Currently working with him are Steve Potts, Iréene Aebi, Bobby Few, Oliver Johnson, Jean Jacques Avenel. From 1981 he began participating as a composer, but also playing live, in dance performances. With Elsa Wolliaston he previously worked in "Futurities," a show inspired by a text by Robert Creeley about love. Five Colors is the most mature fruit of this unique and fruitful collaboration. This is how critic Lise Brunel talks about Five Colors: a kind of inner journey played on emotion and ritual through five stages of life. Beautiful arm work for Elsa, a sense of constant balance, and a beautiful soprano sax sound for Lacy.
