In March 2026 Manners Faber composer Roger Goula’s Awe appeared in Forte by Leigh Anne Albrechta at the Louisville Ballet’s annual Choreographer’s Showcase, in rep for 9 performances.
Forte, for six female dancers, explores, in the words of the choreographer, “what happens in the quiet spaces of a job?” The work is a portrait of the micro-dynamics of six women existing in a shared professional landscape. A non-narrative work, it depicts what Albrecht calls “the persistent, rhythmic pulse of mentorship, competition, and survival…a study of how we lead, how we follow, and how we change each other in the pursuit of more.”
Awe is an 9-minute track from Goula’s 2016 Overview Effect, whose title describes the psychological shift experienced by astronauts observing the Earth from orbit. Awe is built from gentle synth arpeggios, opening with a primordial rumble, before layers of instrumental and polyrhythmic complexity accrue, with strings unfolding slow melodic lines; its electronics provide a backdrop of endless dark and wonder, with a prevailing atmosphere of stillness and vastness.
As well as dance, Goula’s work spans film, TV, theatre art installations and solo releases. His music draws inspiration from Renaissance and Baroque music as well as minimalism, blending electronics with classical chamber and orchestral music, to create emotionally rich, immersive soundscapes.
His previous dance collaborations include DUENDE for the Akram Khan Company for Sadler’s Wells in 2018, created in cooperation with China’s Peacock Contemporary Dance Company, as well as 2023’s Outcast for Scottish Ballet, both choreographed by Dickson Mbi. In 2022 he worked with Mbi on Enowate at Sadler’s Wells, whose creative team included designer Daniel Lismore and dramaturg Simon McBurney.