“Inner Mining – experiment #1: voice” is a piece by Jule Flierl that celebrated its premiere at Dock 11 on 24 April 2025. It is performed by bottom up productions: Chihiro Araki, Felipe Fizkal, and Julek Kreutzer.
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR. And ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR. Using a four-beat rhythm, Jule Flierl describes the rhythm, or rather the rut, of life. ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR. A step to the right, forward, left, backward. The performers move in a square. Silent. Just one step after another, gazing rigidly ahead. Sometimes as a trio, sometimes as a duet, sometimes alone. Jule Flierl repeatedly pulls someone out of the formation. A formation which is military-like. When the performers break formation, it seems more like they are reporting to and leaving work than exiting and entering the stage. Their gait gives the impression of being summoned. They move with eyes downcast and arms hanging stiffly by their sides. They don’t want to move in this square and they also don’t want to continuously come running to be a part of this formation. What do they want?
This is what the grind of everyday life and work appears to be like. No escape, everything in step. Jule Flierl and crew ask themselves: where is our voice? Is it still there? Can we communicate what’s going on inside to the world outside or have we forgotten how to hear our inner voice? The beat is oppressive, especially when the three performers roll beads out of their mouths instead of words as they continue moving in a four-beat rhythm through the square of life. Beads that stick to their feet and which they inconspicuously attempt to shake off before setting the foot back down on the ground.
And when nothing else works, they try to find their inner voices. They’re still in formation. Breathing transforms into small, soft tones; small, timid tones transform into whining; whining transforms into barely tolerable howling and screaming. How do we manage to endure it nonetheless? Because the timing of the choreography, with its four-beat rhythm and team of four, develops a sense of humor. The search for a voice becomes a competition between the performers. Who can scream louder and more agonizingly? Whoever screams last, screams best. Even in despair, we want to be better than everyone else. And it is precisely this exaggeration that causes the performers to abandon the familiar four-beat rhythm.
There is a break in the performance. The performers Chihiro Araki, Felipe Fizkal, and Julek Kreutzer take a seat on chairs placed center stage and interview each other about the trials and tribulations of being a dancer. What lingers from this conversation? Only when we reach our limits or even surpass them do we suddenly stop, take a deep breath, and critically question the system around us and our movement within it. However, it would be ideal to have mechanisms that let us take a deep breath and listen to our inner voice earlier on. The way this performance does. And it is this very step that art in particular should facilitate – a way to get out of the system and out of step.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
Inner Mining – experiment #1: voice, by Jule Flierl premiered on 24 April 2025 at Dock 11.
