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Company

The Swiss repertory company drift is an ensemble that examines the absurdities of everyday life.

The artistic directors, Béatrice Jaccard and Peter Schelling have worked together since 1987. In 1992 they formed company drift. They have received the Swiss Award for Dance and Choreography 2007 for their complete works.

Their dance, which oscillates between violence and tenderness, places company drift among the best groups that the Swiss dance scene has presently to offer. They are equally successful on the international scene, having presented their work in 31 countries.

company drift sets out to exhibit profound surrealism with a seemingly effortless ease. The resultant effect can be as unexpected as it is at the same time absurd and disturbing. Every simple pose, every simple gesture, no less than the work as a whole, provides a basis for constant movement and have become the instrument for the specific and very personal signature of company drift.

company drift communicates in a series of densely packed atmospheric tableaux which blend tragedy and comedy. In this manner the magic of the dance is revealed in a multitude of unforgettable images. It is very seldom that a dance company like company drift can, at one and the same time, make its audience laugh and yet provoke deep reflection.

Simplification of the means, paucity of expenditure remain since the beginning important elements of the artistic direction, often as counterpoint to entangled, frightening and decomposing eruptions. Lightness, playfulness mingles with bewilderment. Figures appear not in coherent roles but rather represent symbols of different possibilities of life with which artists experiment in order to identify with them or to transform them.

The impact is enchanting. Their dance is an amalgam of everyday, realistic and abstract, dreamlike pictures. Tragic and comic moments occur side by side. Stories are told as a nonlinear sequence of intense atmospheric pictures. There are fantastic colours shining through sharply structured surfaces. And tender, touching encounters develop into a furiously danced descent into Hell.

Material is taken from: Tages Anzeiger, Zürich; Luzerner Neuste Nachrichten; Zürichsee-Zeitung; SDT Bulletin;

company drift is a repertory group.
The following six productions are in 2011 available:

compagnie drift is being supported by cooperative subsidy agreement from 2006-2008 and 2009-2011 by Kulturförderung der Stadt Zurich, Pro Helvetia – Arts Council of Switzerland, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zurich and Service de la Culture du canton de Fribourg 

and has received production support by: Service de la Culture du canton de Fribourg, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Migros Kulturprozent, SSA – Schweizerische Autorengesellschaft, Binding Stiftung, Zuger Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, Kulturstiftung Winterthur, Jubiläumsstiftung der Zürich Versicherungsgruppe, Migros Genossenschaft, Familien-Vontobel-Stiftung, Schweizerische Interpreten-Stiftung, Stiftung der Schweizerischen Landesausstellung 1939, Dr. Adolf Streuli-Stiftung, Oertli Stiftung, Paul Schiller Stiftung, Loterie Romande

and has coproduced with: Schwere Reiter MUSIK - Munich, Dampfzentrale Berne, Intern. Tanzwoche Dresden, Festival Stromereien Zurich, Nuithonie Fribourg, Tanzhaus Zurich, Steps #9 – International Dance Festival Switzerland, luzerntanz am luzernertheater, Festival Blickfelder, Espace Moncor Fribourg, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zurich, Rote Fabrik Zurich, Halle 2C Fribourg


The repertoire of the company has been shown extensively in 31 countries. It has been performed in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Tunisia and USA

Out of the past