The White Spider draws inspiration from Henrich Harrer’s book of the same name, which chronicles the history of the many failed attempts to scale the North Face of the Eiger Mountain, as well as the first successful ascent by Harrer’s party in 1938.
In choreographer Jennifer Mascall’s The White Spider , an innovative blend of the movement used in dance and mountain climbing, five dancers climb, rappel and dance the walls and ceiling of a set that shifts and changes like the abstract wall of a mountain.
This production is a fusion of dance, sculptural installation, site-specific musical composition and mountaineering. Mascall employs a model of cooperative ensemble creation and improvisation inspired by and echoing Harrer and his team.