HAU Hebbel am Ufer (EN) – tanzschreiber

On the colonizer’s continent

21. May 2023, Cory Tamler

Languages:
DE
and
EN

In Pumpitopera Transatlantica created and performed by Mexa and showing at HAU2 on 19 and 20 May 2023 as the initial stop of the collective’s first international tour, absences and gaps in understanding are not mistakes. They are the lifeblood of a performance that rewrites the future without losing sight of the material reality of past and present.

The Ghost Has Not Left the Machine

3. March 2023, Cory Tamler

Language:
EN

Philippe Quesne’s “Fantasmagoria”, in its German premiere at HAU2 on 2 and 3 March 2023, looks at new materialism through the theatrical lens of eighteenth-century storytelling and scientific experimentation, searching for a vital spark.

Of Romantic Love, Longing for Community, and Other Human Algorithms

10. February 2023, Micha Tsouloukidse

Languages:
DE
and
EN

In “Beyond Love,” the final installment in her trilogy about the economic and technological interpenetration of emotions running from 8 to 11 February 2023 at HAU3, the choreographer Dragana Bulut focuses on hybrid forms of love and desire between humans and machines.

Shots Fired

18. November 2022, David Pallant

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Cia Vero Cendoya’s “Bogumer (or Children of Lunacharski)” was shown at HAU1 on 17 November 2022, as part of the NO LIMITS – Disability & Performing Arts Festival Berlin. It asks the question: once the boss has been fired (literally), who is left running the show?

How about One Last Game?

11. November 2022, Parvathi Ramanathan

Language:
EN

“No Gambling” a performance by Simone Aughterlony and Julia Häusermann, was shown at HAU2 as part of the NO LIMITS – Disability and Performing Arts Festival Berlin (9-19 November 2022). Through an assemblage of moving installations, the performance explores ideas around hope, desire, and addiction.

Revenge, Rest, Repair

23. October 2022, Inky Lee

Language:
EN

Ligia Lewis poses questions about destructing pre-existing plots and reconstructing new ones in “A Plot / A Scandal”, which premiered on 20 October 2022 at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Pausing for Breath in the Maze

16. October 2022, Maria Ladopoulos

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Looking for ways out of dense and individualized webs of discrimination, the dance performance “Labyrinth” with choreography by Ricardo de Paula and featuring dancers from the Grupo Oito celebrated its premiere at HAU2 on 14 October 2022.

To Dare to Create

22. August 2022, Parvathi Ramanathan

Language:
EN

“No. 60”, choreographed by Pichet Klunchun, sensually and systematically moves the edges of Thai Khon dance. By unpacking the traditional form and tapping into instincts from the head, heart, and gut, it democratises it and sets it free for new creative impulses. The work was shown at HAU2 as part of Tanz Im August 2022.

Singing Soil to the Sky

15. August 2022, Parvathi Ramanathan

Language:
EN

Shown at Tanz Im August 2022, “Vástádus eana – The answer is land” by Elle Sofe Sara powerfully embellishes on the primacy of community and coexistence with nature through the body, voice, and certainly, through a more sustainable way of being.

Don’t Blink

9. August 2022, Cory Tamler

Language:
EN

Marrugeku’s “Jurrungu Ngan-ga / Straight Talk” played at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele from 5 – 7 August 2022 as part of Tanz im August. Choreographed by Dalisa Pigram with direction and dramaturgy by Rachael Swain, it staged a ‘prison of the mind’ that was a call not to pity people suffering far away, but rather to wake up to the deadly incoherencies we live with here and now.

What a Table’s Dreams Are Made of

22. March 2022, Cory Tamler

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> In “Telling Stories – a version for three” by Fabrice Mazliah / Work of Act, playing 17 – 19 March at Radialsystem, as part of Tanzplattform 2022, three dancers play with invisible objects that their imaginations, joined with those of the audience, make real.

Ecstasy in Pose

22. March 2022, tanzschreiber-Werkstatt Texte in Bewegung

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> Choy Ka Fai entangles ballroom and Shamanism, bodies and technology in “Yishun is Burning“ (HAU2, 16./17. March 2022). This text was written as part of a two-day tanzschreiber writing workshop during Tanzplattform 2022 and under the direction of Mareike Theile, Johanna Withelm, and Alex Hennig. Inspired by a passion for writing and an exchange about dance and dance critique, the authors had an opportunity to challenge and expand their own writing practice.
Text: Alica Minar.

“I leave the theater and realize that the colors of the city appear much more vibrant. My sensitivity is heightened. I hear the beats of Berlin’s turbulent rhythm and feel connected to a different world metropolis. I’ve been transported to Yishun, Singapore. I am proud of what the contemporary scene has to offer and how dance builds bridges, opens the doors to freedom of expression.”

Choy Ka Fai embarked on a journey to Yishun with dancer Sun Phitthaya Phaefuang (Amazon Sun) to participate in multi-religious celebrations. They transport this experience and research for the piece in a contemporary context and interconnect movement material and transcendence with voguing, ballroom, queerness, and multi-media.

By examining the relationship between Shamanism and dance, Choy Ka Fai taps into a colorful world between here and there, between now and then. He offers us a whole series of realities. An elaborate dramaturgy, divided into smaller parts, creates a complex albeit comprehensible composition in which the various worlds may encounter each other.

The viewers can marvel at a whole range of technologies, including live-streaming and pre-recorded videos, combined with the analog dance performance by Amazon Sun and instructions by Choy Ka Fai. Technology does not play the role of fancy tool. Instead, it is a useful and indispensable cornerstone of the performance.

The stage becomes a setting when the scent of incense and the introduction of the members of the live band from Singapore reach the senses. The documentary film on the one-week Shamanism celebration ritual exudes smoke and steam from the screen into the theater.

Interviews with a Shaman and a dancer question the relationship to body, sexuality, and transcendence. Sun sees the connection between Shamanism and ballroom as a gender performance that makes surmounting the body’s own limits and attributes, and even the human condition, a possibility. We are offered the opportunity to experience the role of gods and kings and queens in Shamanism and in the ballroom, without prejudice or interpretation.

As if simultaneously both here and there, we see the main dancer, Amazon Sun, traveling back and forth between documentary film material from a past time and the analog performance of today. Imagination fully unfolds as Sun, dressed in blinking, neon, sensory jewels, engages in a playful, circular dialog with his six-armed god-like avatar on the screen. How far can our being expand? Is there even a limit on possible modulations?

A ritual electric party beat accompanied by shrill text reveals the polyphonic call of Yishun. The show reaches its final climax as three voguers enter the stage and present a ballroom event while dancing to 80s disco songs. The analogy to the film “Paris Is Burning” is now fully appreciated.

“Yishun is Burning” is an ode to the freedom of expression and a prayer for an expanded awareness of ourselves. A diverse, energetic, well cut, and nevertheless respectful journey to the celebratory rituals of our times, where tradition and hyper-reality meet.

English translation by Melissa Maldonado

Photos: “Yishun is Burning” by Choy Ka Fai © Singapore Arts Museum

“Yishun is Burning” by Choy Ka Fai was shown on 16 & 17 March at HAU2, in frame of the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022.

Concept, Documentation and Direction: Choy Ka Fai / Dramaturgy: Tang Fu-Kuen / Spiritual Presence: Kali and Kuan Yin / Choreography and Dance Performance: Sun Phitthaya Phaefuang / Sound Design and Musical Performance: NADA (Rizman Putra & Safuan Johari) and Cheryl Ong / 3D Visual Design and Technology: Brandon Tay / Visual Artist: Sven Gareis / telematique / Light Design, Installation, Technical Direction: Ray Tseng / Technical Direction Singapore Studio: ARTFACTORY / Stage Management: Sanja Gergorić / Touring Administration: Tammo Walter / Production Manager: Mara Nedelcu / Guest Dancers: Magia Prodigy, Loki, Pavka, Jade Mugisha

Sit-Stay. Re-envisioned.

21. March 2022, tanzschreiber-Werkstatt Texte in Bewegung

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> At Radialsystem, Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft performed the solo “Sitzen ist eine gute Idee (“Sitting is a good idea”) on 16 and 17 March. These two texts were written as part of a two-day tanzschreiber writing workshop during Tanzplattform 2022 and under the direction of Mareike Theile, Johanna Withelm, and Alex Hennig. Inspired by a passion for writing and an exchange about dance and dance critique, the authors had an opportunity to challenge and expand their own writing practice.

Texts: Heike Brunner, Doreen Markert.

Herd Behaviour

20. March 2022, David Pallant

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> “PACK” by Miller / de’Nobili, presented as part of Tanzplattform on 19 March 2022 at HAU2, showcases the virtuosity of its performers, and plays with group dynamics on multiple levels.

Battle of the Superhero(in)es

17. March 2022, Janine Muckermann

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> In “SHE LEGEND”, Carolin Jüngst and Lisa Rykena appropriate the archetypical narrative of the masculine superhero cosmos and reinterpret it from a queer-feminist perspective. The restaging of the 2019 premiere performance takes place on 16, 17, and 18 March as part of Tanzplattform (Dance Platform) 2022 at HAU3.

Towards a Broader Openness

17. March 2022, Parvathi Ramanathan

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> Moritz Ostruschnajak’s “TANZANWEISUNGEN (It won’t be like this forever)” was the opening performance of Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022, hosted in Berlin for the first time since its launch 28 years ago. The Deutsches Theater served as the venue for this occasion, showing the work on 16 and 17 March 2022.

tanzschreiber articles about Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022 in Berlin

16. March 2022, TANZPLATTFORM 2022

Languages:
DE
and
EN

All reviews can be read here >>> From 16 to 20 March, the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022 in Berlin, hosted by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, brings together 13 current and remarkable positions of dance and choreographic creation. Authors and guest authors from the Tanzbuero Berlin’s online review portal tanzschreiber are reviewing the 13 pieces selected for the Tanzplattform 2022 on tanzschreiber.de. Individual texts are written by the participants of the tanzschreiber writing workshop “Texte in Bewegung” under the direction of Mareike Theile, Johanna Withelm and Alex Hennig.

Dream With Me

1. March 2022, Cory Tamler

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> In “CASCADE” by Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods, running 24-26 February at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, a collective dream of time becomes reality — or was real all along? The show is one of the selected performances of Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022 and will appear again 19 & 20 March at the Volksbühne.

Dancing to Someone Else’s Beat

26. January 2022, Cory Tamler

Language:
EN

She She Pop’s “Dance Me!”, which premiered at Hebbel am Ufer 18-24 January 2022, stages the gap between two generations as a showdown — a dance-off between Team Young and Team Old. How important is it to consider who issued the challenge and to understand its terms?

Congregating in Sensory Landscapes

21. October 2021, Jenny Mahla

Languages:
DE
and
EN

On 19 October 2021, Eszter Salamon’s new work “MONUMENT 0.9: Replay” premiered in HAU1. The nearly two-hour evening built on the 2004 group performance “Reproduction” and, under the gaze of the viewers, lays out a straightforward treatise on pleasure.

Tanz im August 2021 Talkabout #2

21. August 2021, Evgeny Borisenko

Languages:
DE
and
EN

For the second part of their Tanz im August talkabout, Eli Frasson and Evgeny Borisenko attended the world premiere of Thiago Granato’s “The Sound They Make When No One Listens” at the Sophiensæle on 19 August 2021. After the show they sat together in the Sophiensæle’s brick-walled courtyard to discuss a show that explores the different facets and political connotations of the act of listening. The next day, on 20 August, Eli and Evgeny went to the Lilli-Hennoch-Sportplatz to attend the world premiere of “Breathe” by Milla Koistinen, in which she interacted with two huge brightly-coloured inflatable fabrics and the audience on the football pitch. After the show Eli and Evgeny found a spot near the ruins of Anhalter Bahnhof to sit and discuss the show.

Tanz im August 2021 Talkabout #1

11. August 2021, Elisa Frasson

Language:
EN

Tanzschreiber writers Eli Frasson and Evgeny Borisenko decided to go to three Tanz im August 2021 performances together, and then to meet up after each show to talk about what they saw. In this first part of their conversation, Evgeny and Eli discuss “WEG” by Ayelen Parolin / RUDA, the show that opened the festival at HAU1 on 6 August 2021. In the second part of their Tanz im August talkabout, they will discuss Thiago Granato’s world premiere of “The Sound They Make When No One Listens” and Milla Koistinen’s “Breathe”.

Bodies that have fallen out of history

18. June 2021, Andrej Mirčev

Languages:
DE
and
EN

TANZPLATTFORM 2022 >>> The dance piece “Still Not Still” by Ligia Lewis, which was planned for April 2021 in HAU1, was presented for the time being in film format (in collaboration with film director Moritz Freudenberg) on 11 June and released on Vimeo. The work’s focus is an emotional corporeal mise-en-scène, which relies heavily on humor to express the exclusionary mechanisms of colonial and neo-liberal structures.

Perpetual Motion Machine

29. May 2021, Evgeny Borisenko

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Jasmin İhraç’s most recent show “liú” premiered on 15 March 2021 and was shown on HAU4 digital platform from 26 to 29 May during the Performing Arts Festival Berlin 2021. In her delicate exploration of the cycles and rhythms of nature and human life, İhraç avoids far-fetched claims and declarations and leaves the audience face to face with the miracle of the infinite time-loop. This laid-back and quiet show made me want to log these images and my thoughts, minute by minute.

Thoughts on Lockdown No. 2

30. November 2020, David Pallant

Language:
EN

Gob Squad first presented their 12 hour livestream performance “Show Me A Good Time” during the lockdown in June. For the second lockdown, they remade the piece into three parts, and HAU broadcast the first episode on 26 November 2020. I decided to use it as an opportunity to reflect on this latest closure of live performance venues.

Sajan Mani – Tyger von otherspur

6. November 2020, Right Now

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Review written by Nine Yamamoto-Masson.*

This performance was part of the festival Radical Mutation: On the Ruins of Rising Suns, curated by Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall, Tmnit Zere, in collaboration with Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio, 23.9.–4.10.2020, HAU1+2+4.

Waves Swarm

24. August 2020, Jette Büchsenschütz

Languages:
DE
and
EN

This year, in lieu of its scheduled stage program, Tanz im August is offering an online selection of talks, films, and sound works, a digital conference, and two works in public spaces. Media and performance art collective LIGNA gives the participants in “Zerstreuung überall! Ein internationales Radioballett (Dissemination Everywhere! An international radio ballet)” an opportunity to practice a dispersed collective with the help of acoustic prompts, while still keeping to themselves.

On Bodies Communing: An Interview with Isabelle Schad

16. June 2020, Jette Büchsenschütz

Languages:
DE
and
EN

The plan was for Isabelle Schad’s trilogy “Collective Jumps“, “Pieces and Elements” and “Reflection” to be shown for the first time in one stretch at HAU Hebbel am Ufer in June. She talks with Jette Büchsenschütz about contemplation, the collective, and the power emanating from interlocking bodies – and it becomes evident how relevant her pieces are today.

Berlin isn’t a German city / Berlin ist keine deutsche Stadt

7. June 2020, Astrid Kaminski

Languages:
DE
and
EN

No shows, no training, no touch, no perspectives: Covid-19-measures hit the dance scene heavily. Artists and institutions are longing for solidarity – beyond their own needs.

Hello Death

7. February 2020, Inky Lee

Language:
EN

Enis Turan glamorously stages his own death in “Club27”, a co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Ashes to Ashes

17. November 2019, Nicola van Straaten

Language:
EN

As a part of the NO LIMITS Disability & Performing Arts Festival, “Ashed”, performed by Unmute Dance Company at HAU2, takes its inspiration from the petrified figures discovered in the volcanic ash of Pompeii.

The Golden Creature

18. October 2019, Inky Lee

Languages:
DE
and
EN

In “Melancholía,” a co-production by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Josep Caballero García / Queerpraxis create a sensual world of play where gender and ethnic identities are obscured.

Tanz im August Review: Happy Island

30. August 2019, Beatrix Joyce

Language:
EN

In this review Beatrix Joyce is talking to David Pallant about the piece “Happy Island” by La Ribot.

Tanz im August Review: Liebestod

28. August 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

The tanzschreiber authors Beatrix Joyce and David Pallant analyze the emotional piece “Liebestod” by deufert&plischke in this chat review.

Tanz im August Interview Series: Claire Vivianne Sobottke

26. August 2019, Beatrix Joyce

Language:
EN

In her new solo “Velvet”, with music by Tian Rotteveel, Claire Vivianne Sobottke shape shifts from woman into animal. Immersed in a set composed of soil, plants and self-playing drums, she uncovers the primal forces of female sexuality.

Tanz im August Review: WO CO

26. August 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

Alex Hennig and David Pallant talk about the unique relationship to time in Kaori Seki’s piece “WO CO” at HAU2.

Tanz im August Review: White Dog

19. August 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

In their newest chat review the tanzschreiber authors write about the symbolic and political aspects in “White Dog” by Latifa Laâbissi.

Tanz im August Review: Hard To Be Soft – A Belfast Prayer

19. August 2019, Beatrix Joyce

Language:
EN

In this chat review the tanzschreiber authors David and Beatrix talk about the intense performance “Hard to be Soft” by Oona Doherty.

Tanz im August Interview Series: Gunilla Heilborn

16. August 2019, Beatrix Joyce

Language:
EN

The wonderful moves the memory more than the ordinary. This sentence, originally the title of the piece “The Wonderful and the Ordinary”, moved choreographer Gunilla Heilborn to create a trilogy on the wonders, and burdens, of memory.

Tanz im August Review: Piece for Person and Ghettoblaster

12. August 2019, Alex Hennig

Language:
EN

In their first review the tanzschreiber authors Beatrix Joyce and Alexandra Hennig chat about Nicola Gunn´s performance. A report about humour, ducks and throwing stones.

Tanz im August Interview Series: Nicola Gunn

12. August 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

A confrontation with a man cruelly throwing stones at a duck was the catalyst for Nicola Gunn’s solo work “Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster”. That encounter — and the misunderstandings inherent in it — inspired a piece in which communication, and miscommunication, take centre stage.

Tanz im August Interview Series: deufert&plischke

5. August 2019, Alex Hennig

Language:
EN

I meet deufert&plischke in their shared apartment. Not by chance is there a framed tarantula on the wall: Arachne, mythological figure of weaving and heroine of story-telling. In “Liebestod” love stories are woven into music and dance.

Tanz im August Interview Series: Nora Chipaumire

29. July 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

Nora Chipaumire returns to Tanz im August with her latest work, “#PUNK 100% POP *N!GGA”. Provocative, joyful, and challenging, this three-part live performance album is demanding for performers and audience alike.

Meat Market

21. March 2019, David Pallant

Language:
EN

Alexandra Bachzetsis’s “Escape Act” examines the role the body plays within the artifice of modern day visual media, recreating the most toxic of late-night YouTube binges.

Water finds its way!

14. December 2018, Christine Matschke

Languages:
DE
and
EN

With “Water Will (in Melody)”, Ligia Lewis presents a different kind of pre-Christmas fairytale in HAU2. Her grim, grotesque movement theater takes the audience on a ride to a dystopian future world where women reside as freaky artifacts of a bygone era. We don’t really want that.

The Strangeness of Species

25. November 2018, Sasha Amaya

Language:
EN

Kat Válastur’s new work brings together sculpture, performance, and video to give perspective on our human experience.

So So Happy. Or: Everything is a Question of Practice

14. October 2018, Alex Hennig

Languages:
DE
and
EN

In “Happyology – Tears of Joy” Dragana Bulut provides the audience with (unsolicited) training in self-optimization poses

Moving Thoughts

31. August 2018, Johanna Withelm

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Within the framework of Tanz im August, French choreographer Noé Soulier attempts to explore the relationship between movement and thought with “The Waves” while Spanish choreographer duo Mal Pelo creates simultaneously delicate and powerful body poetry with “The Fifth Winter”.

Love as Practice

20. August 2018, Sasha Amaya

Language:
EN

Maija Hirvanen’s ”Art & Love”, a German premiere at HAU3 for Tanz im August, is full of challenge but even more charm.

The Body as a Place of Longing

16. August 2018, Alex Hennig

Languages:
DE
and
EN

Thiago Granato presents the final piece of his trilogy “CHOREOVERSATIONS” with “Trrr” at Tanz im August. In “Trrr”, Brazilian dance choreographer Thiago Granato asserts his body as a transcendental archive repository.

Otherworldly Introductions: the Transformative Experience of Ola Maciejewska’s Bombyx Mori

16. August 2018, Sasha Amaya

Language:
EN

In the frame of Tanz im August Ola Maciejewska recreates Loïe Fuller’s form in sound, light, and sociality.