complete Brochure Nov 2011

Dances for
Non / Fictional
Bodies
Herzlich Willkommen!
Wir hoffen, dass Sie die vielfältigen Veranstaltungen unseres Projektes
genießen und sich dazu herausfordern lassen, für eine Weile Zeit und
Raum mit unseren Körpern zu teilen.
Diese Arbeit besteht aus einer Reihe von Projekten. Wir haben uns
gefragt, wie unsere Vorstellungen und unsere Körper aufeinander
einwirken­. Kann die Art, wie wir uns unsere Körper vorstellen, ihre
kulturelle­Bedeutung oder materielle Wirklichkeit beeinflussen? Wie prägen unsere Körper unsere Vorstellung? Kann das Neu-Vorstellen unserer
Körper und das Verkörpern unserer Vorstellungen dazu genutzt werden,
unsere Gesellschaft offener, gerechter und zufriedenstellender für uns
alle zu machen?
In unserem Labor treffen diverse Körper und Performancepraktiken
aufeinander. Die Spannweite an Größen, Formen und Trainingsstilen,
die unsere Körper ausmachen, ist breiter als in vielen „Tanz“-Gruppen­.
Unsere Unterschiedlichkeit zwingt uns zu hinterfragen, wie wir uns
selbst und einander sehen. Sie zwingt uns dazu, neue Arten des
Tanzens­und Spielens miteinander zu finden – nicht nur trotz, sondern
vielmehr zu Ehren dieser Unterschiede.
Gleichzeitig ist dieses Projekt ein Experiment des kollaborativen Prozesses. Wie können wir mit nicht-hierarchischen und dezentralisierten
Strukturen eine Performance entwickeln, die den gesamten Ideenreichtum eines vielfältigen kreativen Teams einsetzt? Ist dieser dezentralisierte Kollaborationsprozess erfüllend für alle Künstler und gleichzeitig
auch eine überzeugende Erfahrung für das Publikum? Wie können wir
Sie, die Zuschauer (und Ihre ganz realen Körper), einladen in dieses
Zusammenwirken von Spüren und Sinnbildung, welches die Arbeit und
das Spiel von Performance ausmacht?
Wir hoffen, dass einige dieser Fragen heute Abend thematisiert werden.
Jess Curtis
Künstlerischer Leiter, Gravity
Welcome.
We hope that you will enjoy and be challenged by whichever event of
our project has brought your body to this space to share time and space
with our bodies.
This work is undertaking a number of projects. We have been asking ourselves
questions about how our imaginations and
our bodies interact? How does the way we
imagine our bodies shape and change both
their cultural relevance and their material
actuality? How do our bodies shape our
imaginations? Can re-imagining our bodies
and re-embodying our imaginations be useful
tools for making society more open, just and
satisfying for us all?
Our laboratory is a meeting of diverse bodies
and performance practices. The range of
sizes, shapes and styles of training that
make up our bodies is broader than in many
“dance” based companies. Our differences force us to question the ways
we imagine ourselves and each other and to imagine and negotiate new
ways of dancing and playing together, not just in spite of, but actually in
celebration of those differences.
At the same time this project is an experiment in collaborative process.
What kind of non-hierarchical and decentralized structures can we use
to create a performance work that mobilizes the full imaginative capacities of a diverse creative team? Can this type of decentralized collaborative process be satisfying to all the members of the artistic team and
create a satisfying experience for an audience? How can we meaningfully
invite you, the audience and your very real bodies into the collaboration
of sensing and making sense that is the work and play of performance?
We hope to address some of these questions tonight.
Jess Curtis
Artistic Director, Gravity
Chirurgisch geformte Cyborg-Sexpuppen, chemisch verbesserte übermen­
schliche Straßenkrieger und genetisch veränderte, ausgewählte Wunder­
kinder – unsere Körper sind mehr denn je von der Vorstellung immer
höherer Leistungsstufen (und engerer Definitionen derselben) geprägt und
geformt. Ist der Körper obsolet? Wer entscheidet, welche Körper maßgeblich, schön, begehrlich sind? Wer denkt sich den Körper der Zukunft aus
und wie beeinflusst uns seine (Massen-) Produktion schon jetzt?
From surgically sculpted cyborg sex kittens and chemically enhanced
superhuman road warriors to genetically engineered/selected wonder children – our bodies more than ever are shaped and marked by the imagination of higher and higher levels (and narrower definitions) of performance.
Is the body obsolete? Who decides which bodies are relevant, beautiful,
and desirable? Who is imagining the body of the future and how is its
(mass) production already affecting us all?
A Note from
Dramaturge/Provocateur
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
“Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies” exists in a border zone in which dance,
performance/installation, process art and Ensemble Theater overlap. It
embraces (unapologetically) the acute crisis of genre, representation and
authorship currently afflicting all forms of live art including postmodern
dance.
The piece is comprised of five individual journeys in search of a shared
system, a structure and an order that Curtis does not wish to construct
by himself. At times these performance journeys converge in surprising
duets, trios or group ‘moments,’ which can change in every performance.
The enigmatic ritual actions and powerful live images developed in this
process raise all kinds of questions: How to develop a more horizontal
and de-centered collaborative model that embraces difference in a noncondescending way? How to contest the problematic notions of physical
perfection and virtuosity which are at the core of dance culture? How
to challenge the audience’s expectations for spectacle and invite them
to be ‘active spectators,’ and behave in a more embodied and responsible way? ‰
Dances for
Non/Fictional
Bodies
ein Performanceprojekt von Jess Curtis/Gravity
Konzept: Jess Curtis
Von und mit: Claire Cunningham, Jess Curtis, Matthias
Herrmann, Jörg Müller, Maria Francesca Scaroni und
Bridge Markland.
Dank an David Toole für seinen Beitrag in der Entwicklungsphase des Stückes.
Dramaturg/Provokateur: Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Musik: Matthias Herrmann, Claire Cunningham und Gravity
mit zusätzlicher Musik von Roy Orbison (In Dreams), The Doors
(Light my Fire), Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 4 Cantata: Christ lag
in Todesbanden III. Versus II – Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt)
Lichtdesign (Bühnenfassung): David K H Elliott Bühne und Kostüme:
Daniela Petrozzi­Video: Yoann Trellu Technischer Direktor: Tony Shayne
Technik Uferstudios: Max Stelzl Produktion Berlin: Mira Moschallski
Produktion San Francisco­: Hope Mirlis Administration San Francisco:
Randy Symank­Administration­La Pocha Nostra: Emma Tramposch
Kommunikation: k3 Berlin­Graphik­: Björn Andresen Fotografen: Sven
Hagolani, Kristin Slipson­Video­dokumentation: Andrea Keiz/Mimecentrum Praktikantin: Irene Cortina Gonzalez
“Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies” ist eine Ko-Produktion des Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts (San Francisco), DaDaFest International (Liverpool, UK), fabrik Potsdam, Tigertail Productions/Florida Dance Association (Miami) und des National
Performance Network.
Gefördert durch den Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, New England Foundation
for the Arts’ National Dance Project, The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, The William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation­, The Creative Work Fund, San Francisco Arts Commission, Lighting Artists in Dance
Award, The San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund – Grants for the Arts.
Mit Dank an das UC Davis Department of Theater and Dance.
Wir bedanken uns besonders bei:
Uferstudios Berlin: Barbara Friedrich, Ana Rocha, Conny Breitkreutz, Heinz Herlitz, The Ponderosa TanzLand Festival­,
Stephanie Maher, Gabi Beier, Yvonne Hardt, Andreas Koch, H. J. Nieman, Dr. Susanne Foellmer, Peter Pleyer, Nanako
Nakajima, Rosamund Grimshaw, E. Kaino Hopper, Josh Steadman, Paige Greco, The UC Davis Department of Theater
and Dance,
Veranstaltungsübersicht
18.–20. November, 19–22h, Uferstudios Studio 1
DNFB Performance Installation
20. November, 14h, Uferstudios Studio 1
NoBody’s Perfect – ein Film von Niko von Glasow
20. November, 16h, Uferstudios Studio 1
Panel Discussion
26.+27. November, 20h, 28. November, 16h, fabrik Potsdam
DNFB Bühnenfassung
2. Dezember, 20h, DaDaFest Liverpool
DNFB Bühnenfassung
16.–19. Dezember, 20h, Uferstudios Studio 14
DNFB Bühnenfassung
Bodily Fiction, Fetish and Fact
by Keith Hennessy
The stage is filled with the remnants of past performances, stuff that
seems to have lost either its meaning or function. Objects from theater
prop rooms: mannequin parts, black cubes, an old fridge, a child’s desk,
a vintage gurney, a bike, a mirror, and even the kitchen sink, ba da ba.
This is the trash of representation, stuff that looks like or evokes or
locates … The appearance of the sink suggests a hint of vaudeville, that
US American entertainment fusion of dance, comedy, circus, sideshow,
and cultural performance. “Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies” includes all
of these elements, but under the influence of contemporary dance and
performance these elements are either reduced to abstract essence or
maximized into camp excess. The mashup of these tendencies – towards
essence or excess – defines the field of play for this team of improvisers.
By referring to the bodies as Non/Fictional, Curtis emphasizes the
impossibility of denying the fiction within nonfiction, the imaginary
within the real. The slash that interrupts the more commonly used ‘non-
fiction’ intervenes on a simple reading of nonfictional as non-imaginary,
not-pretend. The bodies in this carefully constructed mess recycle and
repurpose objects as easily as personae, changing costumes and attitudes, wigs and positions. In DN/FB the body is real, is a theatrical
construction, is a performance, and is an unstable and generative site
of production of identities, knowledge and art. Dancers sing, juggle, ride
bikes, imitate circus animals, manipulate objects, and dance. Sometimes
they do almost nothing, daring us to stare or to question what is real.
In their playful experimentation bodies and bodily talents are revealed
as well as hidden. Two of the five performers have bodies that might be
described as disabled, differently abled, non-normative, crippled or different. Everyone has a crutch, that is, a way of extending themselves with
objects, tools, or other people to achieve things they wouldn’t be able to
do otherwise. These humans seem broken yet undefeated. Together they
build a queer world beyond the obvious, the norm, the rule.
The choreography or dramaturgy of this splendid provocation in the
guise of a theatrical performance is not obvious. It’s more like a gestalt
of performative actions, images and interventions. For most of the work
there are multiple simultaneous events. A crisis of representation, of
identity, is provoked by this crisis of choreography. The dancers demonstrate both virtuosity and banality. The five performers work alone, in
duets and trios. Neither my notes nor memory of this densely layered
performance recall any moment when all five were in the same game or
image. Structured (and de-structured) by multiplicity, simultaneity, and
confusion, DN/FB is chaos-like but not chaotic.
Curtis, Gómez-Peña, and the collaborative performers have crowded
this work with obsessions, desires, fears, taboos, fetishes, and archetypes. They’re playing with objects, playing with themselves and each
other, playing with us, playing with ideas and representations, playing
with identity, playing with bodies, playing with the con/fusion of real
and imaginary. This serious and disciplined play informs a wisely crafted
choreography of improvisations, situations, and sensations. The work
is intended as provocation but does not shy away from entertainment.
In the friction between contradictions Curtis and gang have generated
significant warmth, raising the social temperature, daring us to playfully
disrupt our own bodily fictions.
(Excerpted from a review of a preview of Jess Curtis/Gravity’s “Dances for
Non/Fictional Bodies,” February 2010, San Francisco.)
Keith Hennessy is a performance artist, choreographer, teacher and
critic. He was born in Canada, lives in San Francisco & improvises
internationally.
On the Body
by Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Traditionally, the human body, our body, not the stage, is our true site
for creation and materia prima. It‘s our empty canvas, musical instrument, and open book; our navigation chart and biographical map; the
vessel for our ever-changing identities; the centerpiece of the altar, so
to speak. Even when we depend too much on objects, locations, and
situations, our body remains the matrix of the piece.
Our body is also the very center of our symbolic universe – a tiny model
for humankind (humankind and humanity are the same word in Spanish:
humanidad) – and at the same time, a metaphor for the larger sociopolitical body. If we are capable of establishing all these connections in front
of an audience, hopefully others will recognize them in their own bodies.
Our scars are (mostly) involuntary words in the open
book of our body, whereas our tattoos, piercings, body
paint, adornments, performance prosthetics, and/or
robotic accessories, are deliberate phrases.
Our body/corpo/arte-facto/identity must be marked,
decorated, intervened culturally, mapped out, chronicled,
re-politicized, and re-captured by the camera. When our
body is ill or wounded, our work inevitably changes. Ron
Athey, Franco B and others have made us beautifully
aware of this.
Our bodies are also occupied territories. Perhaps the
ultimate goal of performance, especially if you are a
woman, gay or a person ‘of color,’ is to decolonize
our bodies and make these decolonizing mechanisms
apparent to our audience in the hope that they will get
in­spired to do the same with their own.
Though we treasure our bodies, we don‘t mind constantly putting them at risk. It is precisely in the tensions
of risk that we find our corporeal possibilities and raison d’être. Though our bodies are imperfect, awkwardlooking and frail, we don‘t mind sharing them, bare
naked, with the audience, or offering them in sacrifice to
the video camera. But I must clarify here: it’s not that
we are exhibitionists (at least not all of us). In fact, it’s
always painful to exhibit and document our imperfect
bodies, riddled with racial, cultural and political implications. We just have no other option. It‘s like a ‘mandate,’
for lack of a better word. ‰
Non/Fictional Bodies –
A Geneaology­
by Jess Curtis
A few years ago, I was speaking to my friend and colleague Keith
Hennessy­after he had attended a dance concert at the University
where we were both teaching. I asked him how the work had been and
he replied, “It was like they were all choreographing for a fictional body
that none of them had.” This phrase struck me as a thoughtful analysis
of a problem that runs throughout many aspects of society, and one
that can be particularly strong in the practice of dance. Many of us are
making choices about our bodies on the basis of an imagination of a
body that we want to have or think we should have and not in relation
to the bodies that we actually do have. At the same time many of us
feel alienated from the bodies that we do have (the bodies that we are)
because they do not meet certain societal ideals of what a body should
be or do.
When I was a younger dancer I quickly learned that I shouldn’t get my
heart set on any kind of career in ballet. For the standards of traditional
classical dance, only certain body types need apply. I was pleased to find
a world in modern dance where the boundaries were less narrow, where
my bodily proportions and qualities did not preclude my participation.
I joined the ranks of a post-Judson Church, post punk rock interdisciplinary dance company named Contraband where we all identified as
misfits or refugees from straight white American normativity. The aesthetics of this world were more open. We didn’t need to point our toes
and we could have dyed hair and tattoos. Somehow though the dancers
in this milieu would still stop performing at 35.
In 1998 I was invited to France to help create a small nouveau cirque
company, Cie Cahin-Caha, Cirque Batard. The French circus world
opened a whole new set of possibilities. The levels of virtuosic physical
talent were astounding. I met people that could do things I had never
even thought of doing; beautiful young boys and girls in the prime of
their physical prowess with the full support of the French government,
literally flying through the air with the greatest of ease. In the midst of
these perfect toned and talented bodies though, I noticed many not-sonormal bodies; bodies that could do spectacular things precisely because
they were too bendy, or had a big belly, or an extra thick neck or very
short legs. These performers often reveled in their physical differences
because the range of sizes and shapes that they embodied created the
variety (varieté) in the shows that they made. This diversity of physica-
lities in the circus also creates a space for performers to remain active
longer and later in their lives, evolving new performance possibilities
as they age and their bodies change. The danger of not meeting expectations was still there though. More than one tiny voltigeuse acrobat
I know has been abusively terrorized by her porteur partner for gaining
two kilos over Christmas.
Toward the end of my French circus adventure I was invited to give
a workshop in aerial dance for a physically inclusive dance company.
Rachel Freeman, the director, had seen some of the aerial work that
I had been part of in Cie Cahin-Caha’s production, “raWdoG,” and wondered if our work with ropes and harnesses could be taught to people
with mobility impairments. This led to my facilitating a number of events
in Europe and America involving the use of Contact Improvisation,
Perfor­mance and Aerial Dance as teaching tools for persons with physical disabilities and mobility impairments.
I found that working with bodies
that are visibly other than ‘normal’ started to reframe my entire
sense of what is beautiful. Peeling
back my expectations of normalcy
I was able to appreciate a broader
diversity of possible expression of
the human body. These teaching
experiences created extremely interesting elements for the making
of theatrical work. For my next
project I invited Claire Cunningham
and Kaz Langley, two amazing performers with disabilities, to work
with other artists who had more
traditionally recognized abilities and
examined the relation between virtuosity, ability and dis-ability. Out
of these questions came Gravity’s
award-winning work, “Under the
Radar,” and an ensemble of talented performer-collaborators who
make up the core of the work you
are here to see tonight, “Dances
for Non/Fictional Bodies.”
At a certain point in this process
I had to ask myself what I had at
stake in all this. My own issues
around physical diversity may not be so apparent. I still fall pretty
squarely within the ranks of what some disability activists call the
‘Temporarily-Able-Bodied,’ or TABs, but as this slightly discomforting
label points out, time eventually takes its toll on all of us. Our abilities,
inabilities, and dis-abilities are constantly changing. My body does not
do what it once did. When the youthful vigor of the body is waning, is
it possible that my body has something else to offer in this performative
exchange we are in?
Theories of the body and the body as the site of our consciousness
abound. Our embodiment, our in-the-world-ness is the very stuff from
which we make meaning on a daily basis. The importance of our bodies
as experience and how bodies are used to give or deny us access to the
world cannot be over stated, whether it is a matter of what color my
skin is, what kind of genitalia I have, or whether I move through space
with the assistance of wheels or by my feet alone. How we imagine
our own, or other’s bodies to be, and how we experience the potential
of what they could be, shapes nearly all of our relations. I hope that
whichever part of this project you are seeing, the installation, the show,
or the panel discussion, there is something transmitted from the diversity of our bodies (both the fictional and non-fictional ones) that moves,
speaks to, or inspires your body to imagine itself more richly. ‰
Biographies
Jess Curtis
Jess Curtis hat bereits ein umfangreiches Werk an Produktionen
geschaffen, das sich zwischen den Extremen der Undergroundszene
in den Lagerhallen des Mission District, San Francisco mit den
Gruppen „Contraband“ und „Core“ (1985–1998) und der kultivierten
Überschwänglichkeit europäischer Stadttheater und Zirkuszelte mit
der Compagnie „Cahin-Caha“ und „Jess Curtis/Gravity“ (seit 1998)
bewegt. Er kreierte „fallen“ in Zusammenarbeit mit der fabrik Company
Potsdam­sowie Auftragsarbeiten für Artblau Braunschweig, ContactArt
Mailand und Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company. 2008 erhielt er drei
Isadora Duncan Dance Awards für „Under the Radar“. Beim Edinburgh
Fringe Festival 2002 erhielt Curtis einen Fringe First Award für „fallen“­,
das auf Tournee in über 35 Städte und neun Länder ging. Curtis
unterrichtet Tanz, Contact Improvisation und Interdisziplinäre Performance in Europa und war Gastprofessor der Universität der Künste
Berlin und der UC Berkeley. Im Frühjahr schloss er einen MFA Studiengang in Choreographie an der UC Davis ab.
www.jesscurtisgravity.org.
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Der Performancekünstler und -theoretiker Guillermo GómezPeña lebt als künstlerischer Leiter von „La Pocha Nostra“ in
San Francisco. In seiner Arbeit werden kulturelle Grenzen in
den Mittelpunkt gerückt und der vermeintliche Mainstream
an den Rand geschoben, wo er als exotisch und ungewöhnlich behandelt wird. Das Publikum wird so in die Position
von „Fremden“ und „Minderheiten“ gewiesen. Gómez-Peña
vermischt Versuchsästhetik und soziale Wirklichkeit, Englisch und Spanisch, mexikanisch-amerikanischen Humor und
aktivistische Politik, um eine „Gesamterfahrung“ für den
Zuschauer/Leser zu schaffen. Unter zahlreichen Stipendien
und Auszeichnungen gewann Gómez-Peña den Prix de la
Parole beim International Theatre Festival of the Americas
1989 in Montreal, den New York Bessie Award 1989 und den
Viva Los Artistas Award des Los Angeles Music Center 1993.
Als erster mexikanisch-amerikanischer Künstler erhielt er 1991
einen MacArthur Fellowship und wurde 1995 in die „Liste der
100 Visionäre“ der Zeitschrift UTNE Reader aufgenommen.
1997 wurde er mit dem American Book Award für „New World
Border“ geehrt.
www.pochanostra.com
Bridge Markland
I am the difference the inbetween
I change my clothes and change my identity
I confuse
people
who do not know what they perceive
I am woman
I am man
I am androgynous
I am creature
I love to transform
Non/Fictional Body AM I???
Bridge Markland / Berlin ist Virtuosin des Rollen­spiels und der Verwandlung. Ihre Spannbreite umfasst: Tanz, Theater, Performance, Cabaret­,
Clownerie, Puppenspiel, Literatur und Erotik. Sie ist Pionierin der
Drag und Gender Performance in Deutschland und organisierte von
1994 – 2002 Drag King Events, Tourneen, Festivals.
Heutige Schwerpunkte sind: klassische deutsche Theatertexte in Kollage mit Popmusik als Solostücke mit Rollenwechseln und Puppen, wie
u.a. „faust in the box“; ortspezifische Tanzimprovisation und Interaktion
mit Publikum; Kollaborationen mit anderen Künstlern wie „let’s talk
about sex“ mit der Saxofonistin Nikola Lutz. Bridge Markland zeigt ihre
Produk­tionen in Deutschland, Europa, USA und Australien.
www.bridge-markland.de
Claire Cunningham
Im sorry...I won’t remember your names. Don’t take it personally … I’m
like this with most people. Its just that … well … you all kind of look the
same to me. Slight variations on a theme I suppose but … It‘s nothing
personal. If you all had crutches I’d remember your names. Or actually,
I’d remember the kind of crutches you have, then your names … But
I’d definitely remember you all then. It would be much easier. Or even …
if you all had a wheelchairs, or white canes, or talked to me with your
hands … something to make you distinct. Distinguish you.
It’s not that I think any of you are boring. I’m sure you’re all really nice
people, but you know … its all much of a
muchness to my eyes … I mean it must be hard. Being like that.
Of course I don’t pretend to understand
your situation but … I suppose maybe you
all have other things that make up for it …
Like bats? Some ‘extra’ sense … But don’t
you just sometimes get fed up banging
your head against the wall? Trying­to get
noticed? God loves a trier they say …
Claire Cunningham ist eine
multi­disziplinäre Performerin und Choreographin aus
Glasgow. Ursprünglich als
klassische Sängerin ausgebildet, begann sie 2005 in der
Tanzszene zu arbeiten, nachdem Jess Curtis ihr Interesse
an Bewegung geweckt hatte.
Sie lernte u.a. bei Bill Shannon (aka The Crutch­master),
Wendy Houston, Candoco
und Mary Prestidge. Ihre eigene Arbeit basiert oft auf (Fehl-)Gebrauch,
Erkundung und Verzerrung von Krücken. Ihr von der Kritik gefeiertes
Stück ME (Mobile/Evolution) erhielt einen Herald Angel Award beim Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009 und tourte diesen Sommer durch ganz Europa.
Cunningham ist derzeit ArtsAdmin Bursary Künstlerin und choreographiert
2012 ein Großprojekt für die Candoco Dance Company im Rahmen von
„Unlimited­Commissions“, einem Projekt der britischen Kulturolympiade.
www.clairecunningham.co.uk/
Maria Francesca Scaroni
My non/fictional Body
“What can a body do? Of what affects is it capable?”
She said.
“You like Spinoza?” He asked.
“Yeah. I necessarily love Spinoza.”
“OMG! Me too.”
They dream a shady lane and waste time on online chats to fix the distance, filling emptiness and manufacturing voids. They are hoarders,
making piles of interesting quotes and un-linear thinking.
He hides in exposure; the other one loves me from the corner of his eye,
and fears his own touch. The lady over there has two artificial valves in
her heart and doesn’t hit her children anymore but craves for tenderness.
She could be welcoming you to the dollhouse, feeding you guillotined
Barbie dolls, or you can find her peeing standing at the blackboard, kneeling on quartz points, waiting for the coyote or she can give you yellow
thoughts, like the wallpaper who swallowed her for too much staring.
I am a body, there is nothing like “my” body. It is carved because female
and can host multitudes.
We are the privileged ones. We are busy with feeling good, with the spirits, with inner power. We are busy with relationships and understanding
the world and decent distractions. We are relicts of visionaries and hope
for the best. We make “culture”. We pay strict attention to dreams. We
are the privileged ones because can/must re-play games seriously and can
afford the spectacular as well as its failure, and create permeable borders
between fiction and reality. We are bodies.
Von italienischen Fernsehtanzproduktionen zu release-basierten und
postmodernen Tanztechniken, von Kontaktimprovisation zu Literatur­
wissenschaft und theoretischem Engagement, Installationen und
Bühnen­stücken, Maria F. Scaroni bewegt sich seit 1996 in einem
komplexen­Netzwerk des Lernens und Tanzschaffens.
Aktuelle Zusammenarbeit: Jess Curtis/Gravity, AADK/Vania Rovisco,
Wilhelm Groener, Hanna
Hegenscheidt­, Friederike Plafki und
Improvisationskollektive (mit Meg
Stuart, P.O.R.C.H./Ponderosa, mit
Choreographen der Queer-Szene in
San Francisco und Künstlern wie der
Master­pionierin und Heilerin Sara
Shelton Mann).
Jörg Müller
nacht. Strasse. Wasser fällt auf glas. Grünes licht im fenster. Es ist dieses gefühl der nacht, wie die „grande congloué“, falls du verstehst was
ich meine. Ein sehr grosses grün, feucht und eine congloueske art des
spührens. Aber nicht „desagreable“. wellen aus haar, schaudernd, und
versteckt.
sehen, siehst mich in den schwingenden ästen der bäume.
Der hütende zwerg abgenagt vom knotenstock.
„wie schnalzt die nacht auf grünem gras besenlauf“ sagte er, aber da war
das helorose echo des knotenstocks.
„Schau über gekettelte schnöselige wasser“ – „könntest
einers hand, fuss oder sogar einers hintern finden.“
der hütende zwerg hiess madow. Er arbeitete als frisör in
edmington.
„was ist, ist“ sagte er und begann ravels ‚gaspard de la nuit‘
zu spielen, „‚war‘ ist nicht“ und „‚war nicht‘ könnte sein“.
ondine, ondine, ondine … armlinien.
In der brise, sehe, blicke und viel viel nebel.
Jörg Müller/Jongleur, schloss 1994 seine Ausbildung am Centre National
des Arts du Cirque in Frankreich ab. Dort schuf er „mobile“, eine Arbeit
mit hängenden, resonierenden Klangröhren. 2001 kreiert er „c/o“, eine
Performance in einer mit Wasser gefüllten, knapp drei Meter hohen
Glassröhre. 2009 entsteht das Gruppenwasserglasröhrencarteblanchesoloprojekt „noustube“. Mit Jess Curtis entwickelt er „Performance
Research Experiment #1“ und 2006 „Under the Radar“. Als Zirkusartist
arbeitet er u.a. mit Cirque Plume („toileII“), Cahin-Caha („chiencrU­“),
Martin Schwietzke („Passage Désemboité“) und Anomalie („Mister
Monster­“) und als Tänzer u.a. mit Pierre Doussaint, François Verret,
Haim Adri, Julie Nioche
und Mark Tompkins.
Seit 2006 ist er Feldenkrais Praktiker.
www.mullerj.org
Matthias Herrmann
Matthias Herrmann lernte Cello in der Klasse Prof. Rudolf Mandalka­
an der Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf. Seit 1997 lebt
er in Berlin, 1999 erhielt er sein Diplom als Toningenieur. Seit
1998 zeichnet sich Herrmann für die Musik von über 30 Tanz und
Theaterproduktionen verantwortlich. Er komponiert auch Soundtracks für Video-Installationen, Kurz- und Dokumentarfilme. 2008
erhielt er den Isadora-Duncan-Award für den Soundtrack der
Tanz­produktion „Under the Radar“. Seit 2008 ist er Mitglied bei
Lunatiks­ Produktion. Zuletzt hat er für Produktionen am Staatstheater Hannover­ und Schauspiel Kiel musikalische Leitung und
Komposition übernommen.
Zwischen Fiktion und Nichtfiktion
Die Ukulele vermittelt den Eindruck einer Spielzeuggitarre für
Kinder­, ist aber nur ein kleines Instrument mit 4 Saiten. Das
polynesische Wort Ukulele bedeutet soviel wie hüpfender Floh.
Das war der erste Eindruck, den die Insulaner beim Anblick der
über das Griffbrett huschenden Finger hatten, als ein portugiesischer Einwanderer am Nachmittag des 23. August 1879 nach
viermonatiger Seereise vor Freude zu jener Mini­gitarre griff.
Man muss sich überwinden, die Ukulele ernst zu nehmen. Wenn
ich heute Ukulele spiele, spiele ich eigentlich nicht Ukulele sondern ich spiele Klavier, oder Bass, oder Trompete und bis vor
einem Jahr wusste ich auch nicht, wie man sie richtig stimmt.
Daniela Petrozzi
(Berlin) studierte bis 2009 Bühnen- und Kostümbild an der Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. Seit 2006 arbeitet sie zusammen mit Johannes Schmit („Schlageter“ am BAT in Berlin und mehrere Produktionen
an der Skala in Leipzig). Ausserdem war sie Szenenbildnerin bei diversen
Filmproduktionen, (z B. „The Boy Who Wouldn’t Kill”, 2008, „Dr. Ketel“,
2010), arbeitete nebenher aber auch immer wieder an eigenen Projekten
– Comics, Animationsfilme, tote Hunde.
Yoann Trellu
wurde als Röntgenexperte ausgebildet, bevor er seine Karriere als
Medien­künstler begann. Er arbeitete als Videokünstler für zahlreiche
Choreographen und Kompanien in Frankreich, Deutschland, Japan und
den USA, u. a. für Howard Katz, Post-Theater, Ten Pen Chi, Yui Kawaguchi, Stephanie Maher, Wire Monkey Dance. Zusammenarbeiten mit
Musikern waren u. a. mit Felix Zoepf, Matthias Herrmann, Mangrove
Kipling. Seine Videoarbeiten waren bei „Rencontres Internationales, FIPA“
(Biarritz, 2007), „Lost Shadows“ (Berlin, 2006) und „Ou suis-je?“ in
Nantes­(2005) ausgestellt.
Tony Shayne
arbeitete an der Lichttechnik bei Tanzproduktionen von John Jasperse: „Beyond Belief“, „Reparté“, „ShadowLight“, „Once Upon a Plíe“
und „125 Years of Dance“ verantwortlich und bei den Theaterstücken:
„Oklahoma­!“, „#5 The Angry Red Drum“, „Noises Off“, „The Swan“,
„Trojan­Women“. Die technische Leitung übernahm er bei: „Ah, Wilderness“, „The Country Club“, „Absolute Turkey“, MFA Workshops 2005–6.
Tony erhielt seinen akademischen Abschluss in Licht & Szenendesign
an der UC Davis. Danach arbeitete er für Paheliyan: „The Story of Alice“,
eine Bollywood-Tanzadaptation von Alice im Wunderland und für die
Spendengeldveranstaltung „Cirquewood“ mit Luftakrobaten und Schlangenmenschen des Cirque Du Soleil. Für Film und Fernsehen arbeitete
er an Animationsbeleuchtung, „Family Guy“ (Fox) und „Holidaze“ (ABC).
Er war Lichtpraktikant an der San Francisco Opera, SF Ballet, Houston
Ballet, und der LA Opera.
David K H Elliott
designte für das American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, ODC
San Francisco, Joe Goode Performance Group, Robert Moses’ Kin, Jess
Curtis/Gravity und tourte mit dem Bolshoi, dem Kirov, dem Pariser
Opernballet und dem White Oak Dance Project. Seine Arbeit umfasst
unter anderem Lichtdesign für das Pennsylvania Ballet, Boston Ballet­,
Keith Terry, Della Davidson, Joe Goode, Robert Moses, John Fisher,
Linda Ronstadt, Playwright’s Horizons, California Shakespeare Festival,
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Teatro Zinzanni, Marin Theater Company.
Er ist Mitarbeiter bei Lightswitch und Dozent an der UC Berkeley im
Fachbereich Theater, Tanz und Performance Studies.
Mira Moschallski
studierte zeitgenössischen Bühnentanz bei EPSEdanse, Montpellier
und an der Kunsthochschule in Amsterdam (Theaterschool). Seit 2007
studiert sie im Masterstudiengang Tanzwissenschaft an der Freien
Universität Berlin. Sie arbeitet als Dramaturgin/Assistentin mit Raffaella
Galdi („MODES of Locomotion“, „Pensiero Minimo“) und Thérèse Nylen
(„Piece“) und ist seit 2009 Administratorin/Produktionsleiterin für Jess
Curtis/Gravity.
“Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies” is being co-commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San
Francisco), Fabrik Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany), Tigertail Productions/Florida Dance Association
(Miami) and the National Performance Network co-commissioning program. The commissioning and
production of the world premiere is made possible by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Choreographer Collaboration 2008 initiative. The project
was made possible in part by a grant from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and
Elise Haas Fund supported by generous grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and
The James Irvine Foundation and the Fonds Darstellende Künste (Germany) “Dances for Non/Fictional
Bodies” was also funded by a San Francisco Arts Commission Organization Project Grant; the Phyllis
C. Wattis Foundation; the Lighting Artists in Dance Award, a program of Dancers’ Group; The San
Francisco Hotel Tax Fund – Grants for the Arts and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National
Dance project (NDP) with generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the MetLife
Foundation. Additional technical and production support has been generously provided by the UC Davis
Department of Theater and Dance.
www.jesscurtisgravity.org www.uferstudios.com
www.fabrikpotsdam.de