Production Details / Press Releases
EACH DAY JUST LIKE THE NEXT? IS LIFE JUST AN ETERNAL RETURN? Routines determine our everyday life and arouse the illusion of monotony. In The Eternal Return, Clément Layes suspends time for just a bit, sabotaging its linearity and allowing a multitude of actions to occur simultaneously. In a confined space, the Berlin choreographer brings together up to 15 performers in short series of actions, observed and appropriated from the everyday, which repeat on loop as the number of performers onstage increases. One singular movement sequence grows into complex web of mechanics. Gradually, relationships between the human and its actions begin to emerge, only then to slither away again and make space for new configurations of space and time. A playful and yet earnest kaleidoscope develops, exposing something new with each and every repetition and setting free the magic in what just appears to be commonplace.
Inspired by Zbigniew Rybczynski’s short film Tango from 1981, Layes transfers the interplay between repetition and accumulation of characters onto dance. In his collage, the Polish filmmaker reflects on everyday life in his hometown in Poland during socialist times. Layes instead looks to the future of the Western world with The Eternal Return, stacking parallel realms into a multi-faceted image of our society; a society in which we all too frequently lose sight of our surroundings and where routines cloud our view of the world. As a result, he reveals nuances that make us look at the familiar in a new light and lets us glance into the lives of others.
THE ETERNAL RETURN is the first choreographic work of a new series, in which Layes deals with the manifestation and mechanics of rhythm. When do we perceive something and what is the catalyst for us to do so?
[Source: play bill]
TFB Nr. 1102
Cast & Credits
CHOREOGRAPHY: Clément Layes
PERFORMANCE: Asaf Aharonson, Daniel Almgren Recén, Cécile Bally, Rafal Dziemidok, Philipp Enders, Ulrike Gabe, Steven Koglin, Calissa Layes, Lee Méir, Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, Larisa Navojec, Liselotte Singer, Bahar Temiz, André Uerba, Nir Vidan, Albrecht Walter
DRAMATURGY: Jonas Rutgeerts
ARTISTIC COLLABORATION: Jasna L. Vinovrski
SOUND: Steve Heather
STAGE: Jonas Maria Droste, Chris Gylee, Clément Layes
LIGHT: Ruth Waldeyer
COSTUME DESIGN: Malena Modeer
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION: Inge Koks
PRESS, PRODUCTION: björn & björn
A production by Public in Private/Clément Layes in coproduction with platform 0090 and Manège – Scène Nationale de Reims.
Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund, the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, and the Fonds Transfabrik – German-French fonds for the performing arts.
Supported by STUK Leuven, Fabrik Potsdam and SOPHIENSÆLE.
THANKS TO: Flutgraben e.V., Nina Berclaz, Felix Marchand, alle Performer_innen in den Workshops an der Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University/Modern Dance Department (Istanbul), am Kunstencentrum STUK in Leuven und an der fabrik Potsdam.
Sophiensæle
Video Documentation
The video documentation is produced on behalf of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The purpose of this contract is to document productions in the field of contemporary dance in Berlin. The master recordings are archived by the University Library of the Berlin University of Arts. Copies of the recordings on DVD are available for viewing exclusively in the reference collections of the following archives (at media desks in these institutions):
University Library of the Berlin University of Arts
Mediathek für Tanz und Theater des Internationalen Theaterinstituts / Mime Centrum Berlin
Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT)
Clément Layes / Trailers and Video Documentations
- Clément Layes: Ich bin Tscheud (2021)
- Clément Layes: ONON (2019)
- Clément Layes: The Emergency Artist (2018)
- Clément Layes: TITLE (2015)
- Clément Layes: Dreamed Apparatus (2014)
- Clément Layes: Things that surround us (2012)
- Clément Layes: Der grüne Stuhl (2012)
- Clément Layes: To Allege (2011)
- Clément Layes: Allege (2010)
Public in Private / Trailers and Video Documentations
- Public in Private: Interview / Portrait Public in Private (2017)
- Public in Private: The River II (2023)
- Public in Private: Living Room (2021)
- Public in Private: Ich bin Tscheud (2021)
- Public in Private: Healers (2020)
- Public in Private: ONON (2019)
- Public in Private: The Emergency Artist (2018)
- Public in Private: TITLE (2015)
- Public in Private: Modal Verbs – I must, I should, I may, I can, I will and I want (2015)
- Public in Private: Dreamed Apparatus (2014)
- Public in Private: Things that surround us (2012)
- Public in Private: Der grüne Stuhl (2012)
- Public in Private: To Allege (2011)
- Public in Private: Allege (2010)