All the Way Around

In All the Way Around – simultaneously a dance performance and a jazz concert – Meg Stuart, bassist Doug Weiss, and pianist Mariana Carvalho meet. Together, they embark on a journey through movement and sound – without a roadmap. Emese Csornai’s lighting design becomes a fourth player, adapting to the unpredictable elements of each location, again and again. The performance starts from the ballad (a song of longing and resistance), and breaks it open into small but meaningful gestures. All the Way Around unfolds in spirals of memory, opening a door that brings our collective experiences back toward something individual. This is how we navigate between what we almost remember and the unknown. “When Meg and I ‘play’ together, I start primarily from memories, even nostalgia, with the ultimate goal of reaching the point where the piece simply flows in, out, and around us. In a sense, we erase memories and nostalgia with new experiences. Or we transform bodily and musical memories into the present, creating a new dialogue between dance and music.” — Doug Weiss, in conversation with Kerstin Schroth • Meg Stuart is a choreographer, director, and dancer. She lives and works in Berlin and Brussels. She has created over thirty productions with her company Damaged Goods (founded in 1994), ranging from solos and duets to choreographies for multiple dancers, video works, site-specific projects, and improvisation projects. Recent creations include steal you for a moment (2024) and GLITCH WITCH (2024), both presented by Kaaitheater. Stuart’s work moves freely between dance, theatre, and visual arts, and is fuelled by ongoing dialogue with artists from different disciplines. Through fictions and narrative layers, she investigates how dance can lead to transformation and recovery. Improvisation forms an essential part of Stuart’s practice, serving as a strategy to activate and explore physical and emotional states – or the memory of them. • Doug Weiss (US/DE) is an acoustic bassist based in Berlin and New York. For thirty years, he has effortlessly maintained the groove and made it swing. From 1996 to 2020, he was the bassist and musical director of the Al Foster quartet. In addition, he is a member of Brian Blade’s Lifecycles, the Peter Bernstein Quartet, and Seamus Blake’s group. Weiss leads his band The Berlin Quartet as composer, arranger, and bandleader; the group recently released their debut album, Drawn From Life. Weiss is also active as a teacher and has taught at The New School, SUNY Purchase, and the Jazz Institut Berlin. He is currently affiliated with the Maastricht Conservatorium. • Mariana Carvalho (BR/DE) is a performer, sound artist, improviser, and musician. She works with the body, voices, listening, relationships, inner sounds, and prepared piano. She is part of Sonora – músicas e feminismos and GEXLAT. She is currently pursuing a Master in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin and is a tutor at the Soundscape Project at Technische Universität (TU) Berlin. She obtained a Bachelor in Piano from the Universidade de São Paulo, where she was part of NuSom – Núcleo de Pesquisas em Sonologia and Orquestra Errante.