Four women, three hours, one space: PLAY stages dance as a sculpture and imagines the stage as a museum. Our everyday flood of digital images is countered by the immediacy of the decelerated body. Between stillness and movement, object and subject, four dancers compose their bodies as living works of art. In close proximity to the audience, they question our ideas of intimacy, risk and community. Gravity meets weightlessness, density meets permeability, falling meets flying. falling / flying / holding (PLAY VI) combines dance and visual art in a durational performance that embraces stillness, reduction and slowdown.
The viewers are free to decide at what time to arrive, how long to stay and where they like to watch from. The seating position can be changed at any time during the performance.
With the return to the stage as a durational performance, we conclude my work-series PLAY, which has been staged internationally in theaters, outdoors and in galleries over the past five years.

Mirjam Gurtner (artistic director) studied dance at Theater Basel, Vienna State Opera, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Trinity Laban London. In 2021 she was awarded the June Johnson Newcomer Prize at the Swiss Performing Arts Awards. Her artistic practice is based on improvisation, real-time composition and the correlation of sensory perception and physicality. In interdisciplinary collaborations, she explores the relationship between audience and moving body within different contexts of space and stages her work in theaters, museums and in the public space.
mirjamgurtner.com

Melissa Kieffer (dance) is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. Since 2022/23 she has been working regularly with Sasha Waltz&Guests, Mirjam Gurtner and Victor Rottier. She has performed in works by Johannes Wieland, Sebastian Zuber, Scottish Dance Theatre/Fleur Darkin, Tamara Gvozdenovic, Michael Schumacher, Breeanne Saxton and others. Melissa works as a dance teacher in various institutions and teaches children, young people, amateurs and professionals.
melissakieffer.de

Laura Gaillard (dance) studied contemporary dance at La Manufacture (HEARTS) in Lausanne. She has worked among others for Jérôme Bel, Foofwa d’Imobilité, Massimo Furlan, Nicolas Turicchia, Yasmine Hugonnet and Nicole Seiler. In 2019, she founded the Cie SLOW, with which she developed the performances Acte en chanter, SÉRIE, Ballade Assise and Dulcis Mater. In 2022/2023 she was artistic assistant for research and teaching at La Manufacture.
cieslow.com

Asuka J. Riedl (dance)is a dancer with German-Japanese roots. Since 2011 she has worked with Constanza Macras, Mirjam Gurtner, Felix Ruckert and Thalia Theater Hamburg/Christopher Rüping among others. Her great interest lies in interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange. She has been part of residencies in Morocco, Uganda, Japan and Zimbabwe and collaborates with artists from contemporary circus, visual arts and martial arts. She currently performs at Hamburger Bahnhof in Alexandra Pirici’s exhibitionAttune. IG:asuka_julia

Erin O’Reilly (dance) Originally from California, Erin is a Geneva-Berlin based dance artist, collaborating with Yotam Peled (DE), Luca Truffarelli (IE), Marion Baeriswyl and La Ribot Ensemble (CH) among others. Her own work has been featured in Les Aubes Musicales, La Baignade Festival (CH) and more. Erin works regularly as artistic assistant, tutor (Haute Ecole de Musique) and facilitator (socio-cultural project Espo’Art), as well as leading dance workshops and classes for professionals and amateurs.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1897