Jonny Greenwood’s Proven Lands (2005/2007/arr. 2012), a 2-minute excerpt for strings from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning movie There Will Be Blood, receives two choreographic treatments this autumn.
It appeared as part of Tim Harbour’s The Delivery – an Aussie-noir graphic-fiction mystery ballet – for the The Australian Ballet, in rep at Arts Centre Melbourne from 15-18 October, as part of the DanceX Festival. It tells the story of a young woman seduced by adventure, a briefcase full of promise and her dashing partner-in-crime. Read a review of the show in Fjord here.
For Tanz Linz Proven Lands was choreographed by Andrey Kaydanovskiy for Tanz Linz as part of Shakespeare’s Dream – a dramatic, ironic, and witty reflection whose starting points are the murders in the playwright’s work. Proven Lands showcases percussive string writing: players use plectrums for pizzicato and raw, pitchless strumming; double bass players slap their instruments and pluck swooping glissandi intended to sound like a loose-skinned bass drum.
In 2024 Greenwood’s music for strings appeared at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as part of Am I doing it right?, choreographed by Carling Talcott-Steenstra for the triple-bill Koreorama no.2, the company’s new choreographic laboratory. The ballet used music from Popcorn Superhet Receiver and 48 Responses to Polymorphia, as well as selections from There Will Be Blood.
…as a kid, the family car only ever had the same four cassettes in it…On long journeys, when the family refused to hear them yet again, I used to listen to the engine noise, and found that if I concentrated hard enough I could hear the music from the cassettes still playing in the background. I’d do this for hours, until I could nearly hear every detail fighting to be heard through the drone of the car.
All three works have made numerous appearances on the dance stage. The Australian Ballet danced extracts from 48 Responses in 2013, choreographed by Benjamin Stuart-Carberry, as part of Polymorphia. Popcorn Superhet Receiver was choreographed by Goyo Montero for El Sueño de la Razón, inspired by Goya, for Staatstheater Nuremberg Ballet in 2010; it was also the basis of the Stephen Petronio Company’s 25th-anniversary show Ghost Town, which premiered at New York City’s Joyce Theatre in 2010.