Production Details / Press Releases
The need to imagine better worlds – not to escape reality, but to reimagine the present – courses through human history. Driven by the force of utopian thought, Berlin-based choreographer Sergiu Matis experiments in his new performance “Blazing Worlds” with imagining a possible future of which dance will continue to be a part. “Blazing Worlds” is presented as part of the collaboration :LOVE: between Tanzfabrik and Radialsystem presented in Radialsystem’s spaces. The initiative “Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik” fosters cooperation between the two institutions specifically to improve the conditions of presentation by dancemakers.
Inspired by the 1666 (proto-)feminist science fiction novel “The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World” by Margaret Cavendish, the performance unfolds to reveal an exploration of past and present utopian desires. Sergiu Matis combines visionary feminist science fiction and climate fiction literature as well as literary works of queer utopias into a latticework of condensing, intersecting and overlapping references. Hybrid bodies composed of fictions navigate and dance through interwoven relations and ideas in search of the visionary force that animated these literary utopias.
Sergiu Matis is a Romanian choreographer born in 1981 in Cluj-Napoca. He received his dance education at the Liceul de Coregrafie in Cluj and the Mannheim Academy of Dance, and began his career at Tanztheater Nuremberg. He has been living and working in Berlin since 2008, creating his own works such as Keep It Real (2013), Explicit Content (2015), Neverendings (2017), Hopeless. (2019), UNREST (2021), and DRANG (2022). He has led workshops and educational activities at a range of institutions worldwide. In 2014 he completed his masters in Solo/Dance/Authorship at the Inter-University Centre for Dance (HZT) / Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
sergiumatis.com
Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik
Tanzfabrik ♥ Radialsystem
Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem have presented two artists to a broad audience on the stages of Radialsystem every spring since 2019. The collaboration aims to improve the labor and presentation conditions of dance professionals in Berlin beyond their individual institutional contexts. In addition to the visibility of this joint platform, an important moment of nexus between local and international artists and scenes is achieved. Both institutions provide equal support to the artists in the forms of co-production resources, rehearsal spaces and public relations work.
[Source: radialsystem.de]
TFB Nr. 1750
Cast & Credits
Concept and Choreography: Sergiu Matis
Performance and choreographic collaboration: Emilie Gregersen, Kelvin Kilonzo, Nicola Micallef, Guilherme Morais, Aya Toraiwa, Kasia Wolinska
Dramaturgy: Mila Pavićević
Set design & video: Adrian Ganea
Composition: Ana María Fonseca Núñez, Manon Parent, Andrea Parolin
Choir master and vocal coach: Ana María Fonseca Núñez
Costume: Philip Ingman
Technical direction and sound design: Andrea Parolin
Light: Adrian Ganea, Fabian Bleisch
Choreographic assistence: Manon Parent
Subtitles and translation into German: Calvin Lanz
Production management and dramaturgical assistance: Anna Chwialkowska
Distributing Producer: Danila – Freitag, Agency for the Performing Arts
Thanks to: Juan Pablo Cámara, Evgenia Chetvertkova, Katrina Bastian, Emma Juliard, Orlando Rodriguez
Ausdiodecription: Irene Baumann, Gerald Pirner (Gravity Access Berlin)
Music:
– “Glacier Rave” – Music by Andrea Parolin and song by Manon Parent
– “Into that that part of the world” – Based on “Zephyrus brings the Time” – Music by Michael Cavendish and text by Margaret Cavendish. Arrangement: Ana María Fonseca Núñez
– Recitativo “There was but one way” – Music by Ana María Fonseca Núñez and text by Margaret Cavendish, keybord: Aya Toraiwa
– “Zefiro Torna” – Music by Claudio Monteverdi, text by Ottavio Rinuccini. Arrangement and basso continuo: Ana María Fonseca Núñez
– “Jelly Fruits” – Music by Andrea Parolin, arrangement by Manon Parent, text by Emilie Gregersen
– “97 mini organs“ – Collective composition by Andrea Parolin and Ana María Fonseca Núñez. Musical translation of the dance and organetto: Ana María Fonseca Núñez
– Theme from Symphony Op. 95 No. 9, “From the New World” – II. Largo. Music by Antonín Dvořák, text by: Kasia Wolinska
Text:
Excerpts from Margaret Cavendish: “Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World”, 1666, and Thomas Halliday: “Otherlands: A World in the Making”, 2022.
Storytelling and song lyrics by: Emilie Gregersen, Kelvin Kilonzo, Sergiu Matis, Nicola Micallef, Guilherme Morais, Aya Toraiwa and Kasia Wolinska
A Sergiu Matis production, funded by the Berlin Capital Cultural Fund (Haupstadtkulturfonds, HKF).
Co-produced by Tanzfabrik Berlin, Radial Foundation, PACT Zollverein and ICI-CCN Montpellier Occitanie in the frame of Life Long Burning, a project co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Supported by Bureau Ritter/TANZPAKT RECONNECT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the framework of the NEUSTART KULTUR aid programme for dance.
Sergiu Matis is supported for 4 years by apap – FEMINIST FUTURES 2020-2024 – a project co-founded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Radialsystem
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)
Sergiu Matis / Trailers and Video Documentations
- Sergiu Matis: Interview / Portrait Sergiu Matis (2019)
- Sergiu Matis: DRANG (2022)
- Sergiu Matis: Hopeless. (2019)
- Instant Feedback / Sergiu Matis: Hopeless (2019)
- Sergiu Matis: NEVERENDINGS – Season 2: Daydreams for a Better World (2017)
- Sergiu Matis: NEVERENDINGS – Season 1: 100 Years Revolution (2017)
- Sergiu Matis: Deleted Scenes (2016)
- Sergiu Matis: Explicit Content (2015)
- Sergiu Matis: Duet (2012)
- Sergiu Matis: all of a sudden (Ausschnitt) (2011)
- Sergiu Matis: Doom Room (2010)