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Dancing to the End deals with the phenomena of death and its byproduct agony, inspired by the art of iconography. The project started first in Bangkok 2013 and traveled to different cities around the world. In each city, a version of the performance gets locally adapted in relation to the performers’ personal, national, cultural heritages and system of believes.

The choreography is based on the micro and macro memories of agony as a collective and a personal experience of the performers familiar with the phenomena. In the process, the performance reveals various biographical, emotional, social and national backgrounds of the performers. It exposes their inner world through different significant iconography.

The performance asks a question: »what is the nature of a death-related experience«? It seems to be the case that the survivors who have no direct experience with death still have an idea of what it is. These impressions not only come from witnessing somebody dying, whether it be family, friends, or culture idols, but also are picked up from the images in art, film or the news feed with their endless fragments and images of death and agony.

The choreography follows various impressions and collective images of death with a goal of unfolding the fears and longings/yearnings associated with it. The performance raises other questions: »What is the significance of the social and cultural context in the way death and agony are visualized? How do certain personal visions and pictures of the self affect people as a collective? And finally, if Death himself would end up in the psychotherapy in the year 2016, what kind of self- awareness imagery would he uncover?«

TOTAL BRUTAL was officially founded in Berlin 2007 with the premiere of the performance 3SOME which toured worldwide. The company has been working at Dock11 theater as a base and expanded the productions to Sophiensaele in 2013. In September 2014 TOTAL BRUTAL premiered at the prestige theater Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin in a collaboration project with the theater director Falk Richter. TOTAL BRUTAL works with a wide range of professional performers and with different theaters, ranging from local to international. De Volff’s work has been shown in theaters such as Oper Frankfurt, Grand Theater Groningen, Rotterdam Schouwburg, ZIL Art Center Moscow, SESC Phineiros Sao Paulo, Esplanade Theater Singapore, Bangkok National Center for Dramatic Art, St. Pölten City Theater Austria, Warehouse 2 at Jaffa Port Tel Aviv, Ponec Prague, Teatro Alle Tese Venezia, Old Court building Macao and Amphithèatre de Gesù Montreal, among others cities in Germany and around the world. Starting from September 2014 TOTAL BRUTAL is guest at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. Since 2015 their work is also shown at Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin in the frame of Nurkan Erpulat shows.

Nir de Volff was born in Israel, where he studied dance and started his first steps into the local professional companies. In Tel Aviv he was a guest performer for Pina Bausch’s ‘Viktor’ at the Israeli Opera House. In 2000 he moved to Amsterdam and started doing his own work. In 2004 he moved to Berlin and created his first piece for Sophiensaele Tanztage festival. Nir de Volff collaborates with artists such as the group She She Pop at HAU Berlin, Theatre director Falk Richter at Schaubühne Berlin, Katarina Niminnen at 3. Stock Volksbühne and with Fouad Muhamed (Cairo). De Volff creates international cultural exchange projects, mixing social-political subjects with entertainment values. De Volff’s new production can be seen at the prestige Austrian festival Wiener Festwochen 2016.