Paraorchestra: Dance Like Nobody's Watching

In Dance like Nobody’s Watching, conductor Charles Hazlewood and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Bethan Langford, along with a Paraorchestra ensemble, conjure composer Arnold Schoenberg’s radical underworld.

Tired of the ignorance and conservative mindset of establishment types, critics and celebrity musicians of the time, Schoenberg dreamed of a new counter-culture.

In revolt, he founded the ‘Society for Private Musical Performance’, a space where – free from judgement – Schoenberg and his fellow adventurers, misfits and radicals could indulge their love of popular music.

The Society rehearsed and performed at a ferocious pace, reverberating the leftfield utopia they’d created with the sound of stripped-back Viennese waltzes. These elaborate classics were normally performed exclusively for the wealthy and the entitled, but in Schönberg’s alternate reality, they were reclaimed to be enjoyed in their purest form – by and for lovers of music.

In Dance Like Nobody’s Watching, we invite you into Schoenberg’s inner circle, creating an intimate atmosphere – daring, vivid and powerful.

Bespoke projections by visual artist and film-maker John Minton, who has worked with artists such as Portishead, Sleaford Mods and on Paraorchestra’s Minimalism Changed My Life, combine with these era-defining orchestral reductions to transport you to Schoenberg’s escapist utopia.