STRANGE SONGS is a concert in which a series of strange songs emerge. Each of these songs invent a specific situation, a way to dance, or sometimes a character. By using and invoking different voices it addresses specific content. A reference are the songs of different genres that exist in our culture: the distinctive techniques of singing applied in these songs, the various forms of staging them and their specific functions. Arias and opera as a classical embodiment of the human affect, punk songs as a form of resistance, the lament as a musical way of crying, rap songs as a political voice, heavy metal as an affirmation of noise and screaming. These songs are forms of speaking. Next to communicating content and sense, they also have the capacity to address the “thing itself”, – that what cannot be put in words. strange songs embraces the mystery. strange songs is a part of an ongoing collaboration of Claire and Tian on the possibilities of sound, speech and dance.

CLAIRE VIVIANNE SOBOTTKE (D/F) defines her work as a place of resistance and undoing, where norms of thinking and seeing can be challenged or changed. She is intrigued with the becoming of body and mind in sensual choreographic processes. 2013 she received a DanceWEb scholarship at Impulstanz, Vienna. 2015 she created together with Tian Rotteveel golden game. In 2017 she initiates Amazonas, an interdisciplinary platform to support and connect female artists in Berlin, taking place every third month in the Kantine of Sophiensæle. Claire has been collaborating with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, Tian Rotteveel, Tino Sehgal, Christoph Winkler, Karol Tyminski, Sheena Mc Grandles and Gaetan Rusquet.

TIAN ROTTEVEEL studied music composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL) and Utrecht Conservatory, dance and choreography at SEAD and UdK-HZT Berlin. Sound and movement in his work are processes what can materialize into meaning but as well into mere sensation, embracing the sensible body. His performance work Soulsqueezing (2011) was touring extensively in the last four years. Till date he has created three choreographic hybrid-works treating dance, music and language interchangeable to each other, working often in close collaboration with Claire Vivianne Sobottke. His musical compositions have been being performed by music ensembles, such as MAE chamber orchestra, Rosas Ensemble and R.I.O Ochestra. Tian has been collaborating both as composer and performer with Jeremy Wade, Tino Sehgal, Martin Nachbar, Christoph Winkler, Lea Martini and others. He teaches a listening and voice practice, previously taught at SEAD dance academy, Meg Stuarts/Damaged Goods, Dampfzentrale Bern and others.

Special thanks to Female Trouble and City Lights berlin, for giving the space to try the material of strange songs together with an audience long before the premiere. Dear thanks also to the artists and friends who have supported the process with their presence, hearts, and advice, Sheena Mc Grandles, Elpida Orfanidou, Anna Mülter, Lea Kieffer and Jared Gradinger.