Production Details / Press Releases
“Today I wander with a fixed but flexible gaze, with my knees light, and my feet continuously submerged in the dust, in the mud, in the water, in the stone. Tirelessly I go on, carrying my earth in my stomach, carrying someone’s weight on my back. I cross landscapes of flesh, I vibrate with the cries of the deaf dust and I lose myself in the attempt to continue, to reinvent myself. I let the yellow dust mark my veins, I bear the vertical burden of my head and let the force of someone else’s breath renew me. I move and plunge, plunge and move, always forward, as Doña Esperanza used to say.”
A Passo di Mulo explores persistence as a main engine for movement. It opens the possibility to submerge into an inverted universe, where the past is ahead and the future behind. A Passo di Mulo is driven by the desire to break the monotony without giving up constancy.
Lina Gómez, Colombian choreographer & dancer based in Berlin. She received a MA degree in Choreography at the HZT Berlin and a BA degree in “Communication of the Arts of the Body” with an emphasis on Dance and Theater from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo – BR. Her recent choreographic research was supported by the Einstiegsförderung 2017 and Einzelprojektförderung 2018 of the Berlin Senate. Furthermore, she is co-founder of the Cia. Aberta de Dança of São Paulo-BR (2008) and has been developing works collectively there ever since as a choreographer and performer. Beneath that, Lina has worked as a dancer with Yoshiko Chuma, Tino Sehgal, Edson Fernandes and Jorge Garcia among others. linapgomez.com
Bella Hager is a contemporary (pole) dancer, dance teacher, choreographer & political scientist from Berlin-Steglitz, born in 1987. She received her educations in Berlin & Istanbul & was certified as a political scientist by FU Berlin (2012), as dance-loving by Tanzfabrik Berlin Dance Intensive Programm (2013), & as a choreographer by HZT Berlin (2017). She teaches Pole Dance with contemporary approaches & works since 2015 in Jo Parks’ project “Junction” with refugee children. As a dancer she performed for Dewey Dell, Lina Gómez, Nevin Aladağ, Wura Ogunji, Sungeun Kim & others. Her own pieces move between worlds, erotic dancing & somatic work, ideas of art & commerce. Through illuminating of overlappings, she tries to innervate in-between spaces which have the potential for a shift of borders and expansion of consciousness. Like this her video work strimpro (2014) & stage work plrs (2016) with Julek Kreutzer & Myriam Lucas came to life, each investigating rather in the proximity as the distance betw. disciplines of striptease & somatic movement schools. In Pearls of the Panke River (2017) & the collaborative work Starfishes, Pearls, and Sharks (2017, Mathilde Manon, Julek Kreutzer & Lara Wiesselmann,) (dance) taboos & fantasies are in the foreground which have the practice of annexation of the impossible as a theme.
Michelangelo Contini, born in Milano, based in Berlin since 2002. He studied Music and Arts (D.A.M.S.) in Bologna and during the studies he started to paint. Parallel to his work as a painter he starts different collaborations in music and performative projects. In 2004 he developed a 7 minutes work for the first edition of Lucky trimmer together with Nancy Banfi and Olga Tzikouli. In November 2007 he co-founded together with the danish painter Trine Bork Kristensen the Project Space II II // I in Berlin Wedding, an open plan attic that offers a diverse platform for visual art practice. In 2007 he realized the work Gegen die Identität in collaboration with Nancy Banfi, Olga Tzikouli, Marcello Busato and Margareth Kammerer. From 2008-10 he played trumpet with the experimental jazz band Spiegelklettern. In 2015 he formed the Salt Welcome, a music project in collaboration with Gearóid Ua Laohgaire and Pablo Juanes. Since 2015 he works with Lina Gómez as a composer, performer and artistic collaborator.
Aaron Snyder is a Berlin-based musician, producer and performer. Originally from Denver, Colorado, he started playing drums in bands when he was 12. After travels to Africa and Asia, he studied Ethnomusicology at Indiana University with a focus on fringe and outsider musical genres. In 2004, he launched VALIS Records, a label to promote his and others’ musical endeavors. Moving to Berlin in 2005, Snyder diversified his efforts, playing in Blindsnakes (with Ignaz Schick and Jason Forrest), Berlin Cobra (Echtzeitmusik Collective) as well as founding the Mugglestone Revue with Margareth Kammerer & The Sacred Travelers (Thai Molam big band). He has developed projects and taken part in residencies with Eck an Car (at Ausland), Written not Written (with Augustin Maurs and Michael Wilhelmi), Nein Band (with Tone Avenstroup), Spell On (with Bert Papenfuss & Worm Winter), Cash as you Cash Can (with Christian Humborg), & Apocryphal Productions (with Brian Kiel), generally focusing on multimedia and interdisciplinary performance. Aaron also leads workshops involving beat production and interfacing with the brain.
Bruno Pocheron (born 1968) studied visual arts in France, lives in Berlin. He works internationally mostly as light designer, but also as technical director, set designer & sound designer. He initiated, with Isabelle Schad & Ben Anderson, the collaborative framework Good Work. He’s currently involved in projects with Apparatus, Judith Depauke, Mette Edvardsen, Alix Eynaudi, Anne Juren, Nikolina Komljenovic, Aline Landreau, Martin Nachbar, Isabelle Schad & Doris Uhlich. He’s co-organizing Wiesenburghalle (Wiesen55 e.V.), a collective working space in Berlin Wedding, & Gangplank (an open network of artists and designers focusing on inter-media communication, relations between technology & art, & cross-overs between the fields at play in contemporary performance-making). He develops software interfaces in PureData & vvvv, allowing for a fluid communication between lights, sound & video and researches the dramaturgical impact of these elements.
Sandra Ernst, born 1972. She graduated from HAW Hamburg & holds a degree in fashion design. She collaborated at Susan Cianciolo`s “Run Collections” (New York) & established a fashion label in Berlin with publications in Nylon Magazine & others. Sandra is also a Qigong Teacher and loves to expand her creative vision into the field of costumes in film & performing arts. She worked with: Matthew Porterfield, Friederike Jehn, Julian Rosefeldt, Michael Müller & Lisa Bierwirth among others. The collaboration with Lina Gómez expands since 2015.
Michele Piazzi is a freelance technical director currently based in Berlin, Germany. He worked for international festivals, theaters, dance – performing arts, touring and exhibition’s contests like, 100º Berlin 2012, Tanz im August (Berlin – DE) 2013, Asian Art Theater opening festival in (Gwangju South Korea) 2015, Transgression and Syncretism in (Gwangju – Korea) 2016, Performatik festival (Brussels – BE) 2017, Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2017, La Biennale di Venezia 2017, Festival Latitudes Contemporaines (Kortrijk – BE) 2017, FAR festival (Nyon – CH) 2017, Kosmos – Lorenzo Passi exhibition (Beijing – China) 2017. Michele is currently collaborating for the new Royce Ng’s Performance “Queen Zomia” 2018 & Kate mcIntosh’s 2018 European tour. Michele is working with the artists: Royce Ng, Kate McIntosh, Lucie Tuma, Sung Hwan Kim, Kareth Schaffer, Lorenzo Passi, Lulu Obermayer & many others.
Thomas Schaupp, based in Berlin/Oslo, works as a freelancing dance dramaturg & is collaborating with several choreographers and directors, currently with Anne-Mareike Hess (LX/D), Stian Danielsen, Janne-Camilla Lyster & Camille Mutel. As a lecturer & critic he has been invited to festivals & conferences across Europe and Canada. Since 2015 he is a regular teacher and mentor at HZT Berlin & facilitates workshops on dance dramaturgy & the dramaturgical internationally in cultural centers. In 2017, Thomas co-founded the new international conference format LAB:DANCE, is the main curator of its program that is co-produced & hosted by Bora Bora – Dans & Visuelt Theater in Aarhus. Furthermore, he curates & facilitates an on-going cultural exchange program on Dance Dramaturgy in China initiated by Ibsen International (N) & in close collaboration with the Goethe Institut (China).
Julek Kreutzer is a performer based in Berlin. She studied at HZT Berlin (BA programme “Dance, Context, Choreography”). She is a founding member of the association Tänzer ohne Grenzen e.V., that shares artistic practices and movement with non- or semi-professionals in various social and educational contexts. As a performer she worked for Kareth Schaffer, Lina Gómez, Anna Till, Bella Hager, Ania Nowak & Lyllie Rouvière. Since 2012 she creates solo & collaboratively, with Diethild Meier, Fred Gehrig & Jofe D’mahl. She wants to understand the performing state & blurs movement, language and text. She is co-initiator of the “Artist’s Pledge” – an initiative that wants to highlight, discuss & liberate demands of the independent art scene in Berlin and abroad.
Camille Chapon also known as Jofe D’mahl, a 26 year old artist based in Berlin. In 2014 he graduated with a Master degree at the Art School of Grenoble (ESAD-GV). In 2017 he completed the BA ‚dance, context and choreography’ at HZT Berlin. Passionate collector of choreographic objects, gestures & events, he ends up with suitcases full of potential activations for performances, dances, exhibitions, classes, improvisations & choreographies. You can see him unfolding his suitcases with a performance trio called “Eternuer”, with Bruno Ducret & Tom Bouët, or when he is hosting the Cabaret “Carte Blanche”. Among other things, he collaborates with the dancers & choreographers Emma Tricard, Lina Gómez, or Julek Kreutzer. Involved in pedagogy, he is teaching dance & improvisation in workshops for children & adults.
Diethild Meier is a dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. She holds a diploma of photography of the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund and worked several years in the genre of artistic documentary filmmaking as a director, screenwriter, camera operator and cutter. She studied the BA dance, choreography and context at HZT Berlin (2011-2015) & has since been involved in various dance & performance productions in Berlin, Dresden, Braunschweig & Lisbon. Since 2015 she has been working as a dancer and co-creator with Lina Gómez (“Träumerei des Verschwindens”, 2015, “STAUB”, 2016, and “Chao Vazado”, 2017). She worked with Isabelle Schad, Anna Aristarkhova, Zufit Simon & Anna Till. She developed her own choreographic work & artistic research in collaboration with Julek Kreutzer (“Who’s That Girl”, 2013, “Nobody’s Dance”, 2014) and with Jasminka Stenz (“Schrittstück#1”, 2014). Since 2017 she has been working in close collaboration with Ana Trincao, their project “Unbearable Eloquence” was presented at Theatro Rua das Gaivotas, Lisbon, 2017 & at Uferstudios Berlin in the frame of SodaWorks! 2017. Her current project “OPEN END” is supported by the Early Career Funding program of the Berlin Senate & Stenkrossen (Lund, Sweden), & will be hosted by Tanzfabrik Berlin, 2018.
[Source: play bill]
TFB Nr. 1207
Cast & Credits
Idea, Concept, Choreography: Lina Gómez
Dance, co-creation: Julek Kreutzer, Diethild Meier, Camille Chapon, Bella Hager
Music: Michelangelo Contini, Aaron Snyder
Light design: Bruno Pocheron
Scenography: Michelangelo Contini
Voice: Maja Olenderek
Scenographic collaboration: Michele Piazzi
Costume: Sandra Ernst
Dramaturgical consultation: Thomas Schaupp
Production Manager: M.i.C.A – Movement in Contemporary Art / Cilgia Gadola
Cooperation production: Svetlana Gorich
Funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, in cooperation with Tanzfabrik Berlin and with the kind support of Residenz, schloss bröllin e.V. and Wiesen 55 e.V.
Muchas gracias a: Mi madre Doña Maria Esperanza, mi padre Don Oswaldo, Joaquim Lino, Michele Moura, Gabi Beier, Wanda Golonka, Francesca Contini, Verena Sepp, Alex Hennig, Emil Contini, Simone Donha, Isabelle Schad, Janne Gregor, Brian Kiel, Lazarushaus, Vincenz Kokot, Juan Harcha, Ludger Orlok, Annie Schwalm, Sylvia Gozdek, Clara Burns, Bartel, grazie to the inspiring Enzo Contini and to the amazing team of A Passo di Mulo for persisting together!
Open Spaces
Artistic director: Ludger Orlok
Production management: Juan Gabriel Harcha
Organization: Vincenz Kokot
Communication: Ann-Christin Schwalm
Press, editorial: Nora Gores
Technical management: Martin Pilz
The performance program of the Tanzfabrik Berlin is supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and apap – Performing Europe 2020, co-funded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Tanzfabrik Berlin / Wedding
Uferstr. 23
13357 Berlin
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)