SEQUEL FOR THE FUTURE // a dance in 2043 / a dance in 2044 is a dance performance in two acts, which explore what contemporary dance will look like in 30 years and how its authors will be dancing then.

We have asked other dance artists how and why – 30 years ago, today and in 30 years – they select dance as means of communication and expression. Within the performance their stories become paradigms of reality, visions for potential aesthetic and geopolitical systems and documents the physicality of aging.

Choreographer (34):
“Funny to give interview, it makes me feel old.
What is dance? (LAUGH) I go dancing Saturday night.
What is contemporary dance? It is not existing.
What is contemporary dance? I don’t know.
Everything is movement as we know from the Big bang….Small and protected environment…I learnt all these patterns…The economy of the space…Cultural operators are ordering what they want to see like kings before.
I’m not going to the stage to do something…I went through many stages;
French phase – when you learn from some French some movements.
Everything is energy and information…To give time to things. This is choreography.
When electricity appeared they didn’t believe it will be everywhere. And then some professional artist come and do art, because they know how to do art. Conceptual dance will deconstruct the chip. Things will be able to change color, to communicate.
Big stars can not appear anymore…My parents said I was taking a big doll and dancing with it in 1983. I hope people will dance, not watch dance in 2043”

Choreographer (65):
“Why is it absolutely necessary to change something?
What is contemporary dance? A method to search in your corporate being. Contemporary is a chronological way to see. Consciously or subconsciously we’re looking back.
He was a wonderful choreographer and I really regret he is dead.
We must do every day and every time something new.
If you are not talented than it is necessary to see and see and see.
My life in communist times…
Body on stage, even if it is minimized or theatrical will suffer a lot of transformation
The dance will be much more fluid between sense and signification, more fluid between form and inside.
Now we are more in the same story. In this Europe. It might be possible in 30 years dance not to be everywhere, but only in few places. I am afraid.
Don’t you think there is an obligation in the air?”

Make the future. Fail the future. Fail better. With fears and hopes. Let’s celebrate the future!

Sonja Pregrad is a dance artist and performer. She received an MA in Solo/Dance/Authorhsip at HZT/UdK Berlin and has studied at SNDO Amsterdam and ArtEZ in Arnhem. Her works ‘Oh my body, if only you were here with me’ and ‘Carnival tent rusts in the evening breeze’ and collaborations ‘Value is a dynamic surplus’ with Marjana Krajac, ‘Already made theater’ with Nina Kurtela and Igor Koruga, ‘Dishevelled’ with Johanna Chemnitz, etc. were performed internationally (Tanztage Berlin, Explore Festival Bucharest, San Francisco International Festival, Inteatro Festival Italy, Stamsund International Festival, Platforma HR…). She has been performing for Boris Charmatz, Sanja Ivekovic, Isabelle Schad, Willy Dorner, Keren Levi, Frederic Gies and many others. Since 2007 she is a co-founder and organizer of “Improspections”, a festival for improvisation und performing art in Zagreb. She teaches at the university for fine art in Zagreb and in the context of SMASH Berlin.

Willy Prager is an independent artist. He received his education at the University of Plovdiv in Bulgaria and graduated in 2013 with his MA studies SODA at HZT/UdK Berlin. He was a member of Theater-Studio “4XC” in Sofia and a scholarship holder of Theatertreffen Berlin and DanceWEB. Own and collaborative works are “The victory day” (Tanztage, Uferstudios; audience award Jardin d’Europe in Vienna at ImpulsTanzFestival 2013), “Transformability” (Tanztage, Tanznacht, Nationaltheater Weimar, OFF Europa Festival Leipzig and Dresden), “Prager Strasse”, “Game-a-porter” with Neli Mitewa, “Egyptian spring”, “Hygiene museum” and “Our last pas de deux” with Iva Sveshtarova etc. He participated and collaborated on many projects with Deufert+Plischke. He is a co-founder of Бbrain Сstore Пproject (Sofia), “Nomad Dance Academy” and the international festival for contemporary art and performance “Antistatic”.

Igor Koruga is a performing artist and anthropologist from Belgrade, interested in researching and revising socio-cultural values, norms and ideologies through hybrid forms of contemporary theater and choreography. As a member of the organization STATION – service for contemporary dance (Belgrade), he collaborated with dance and visual artists and presented work in different contexts (Sweden, Norway, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Austria and within the Balkans). He was a recipient of dance scholarships DanceWeb, Nomad Dance Academy in 2009 and of Tanzstipendium Berlin Senate in 2013. He received a Master´s degree from the University of Belgrade, Philosophy Faculty, department for anthropology, and at Solo/Dance/Authorship studies at Universität der Künste/HZT in Berlin. www.igorkoruga.com

Ebba Fransén Waldhör, born in Sweden, studied textile and surface design at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee until 2013. Since that she works as an independent designer in the fields of art, film, fashion and dance. Furthermore she is part of a reserach project about e-textiles at the UdK Berlin. Despite his education in philosophy, Emilian Gatsov (Bugaria) has composed music for more than 50 performances since 2002, starting with national award-winning drama theatre soundtracks and gradually moving into the field of contemporary dance, as well as cinema and sound installations, versatility being the key to his work. His latest collaborations include ‘Fest’ by Ivo Dimchev, ‘That’s It” by Sabine Molenaar (BE), ‘Secret Radio” by the Ligna Company (DE) and ‘Victory Day’ by Willy Prager.

Sandra Blatterer was born in Vienna and lives and works as an independent lightdesigner in Berlin since 2005. Within her work she her focus lies on the interfaces between performing art and visual art. This main focus can be found in her own installation works.

[Quelle: Abendzettel]