Performing Memory

How can an archive be performed? How can a research process be shown on stage without the result being dull and didactic? How can a dance be devised about a show that premiered more than 40 years ago? In “Try Leather”, Britta Wirthmüller, William Locke Wheeler, and Justine A. Chambers explore the political and performative aspects of an eponymous 1975 solo by Canadian artist and activist Margaret Dragu. Choosing a dozen different archive records and key words each night, Wirthmüller and Wheeler offer their personal take on Dragu’s work and life in a show that combines dance, spoken word, and audio fragments.

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How to Bee a Dance: On Love and Waggling

“Bee Dances” by Indonesian choreographer ninus and Berlin-based choreographer Kareth Schaffer, online from 10 to 23 June 2021 for Open Spaces – Making It Happen #2 by Tanzfabrik, offers choreographic thoughts on what it means to create a dance piece together from within a cross-cultural perspective. An ensemble of six international dancers (including both choreographers) performs an hour-long piece in which they become a hive with elegance, softness, and a sense of love for dance as an extensive communication system.

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Emotional Participation

At first glance, Emmilou Rößling’s “The Fraternity”, performed during OPEN SPACES – How to get in Touch with… from 22 to 24 October 2020 at Tanzfabrik Berlin, seems like research on the topic of female togetherness. Beyond that, there is an emphasis on something more subtle, something which merges that which is felt with felt cloth. 

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