Production Details / Press Releases
Breath is the simplest yet most complex means of expressing ourselves. But what happens to the air that we inhale into our bodies? And how can we use our breath to find freedom in our own bodies while connecting with others?
The dancers explore the different aspects of breathing; they hold their breath and exhale. They let the power and energy of breathing move them in an ever-changing way, while going through a roller coaster of emotions between restrictions and the search for freedom.
After two years of pandemic, it is even more urgent to rediscover anew and appreciate the vastness and power that breathing gives us.
In this choreography, Nir de Volff together with the dancers and the audience, embarks on a search for humanity and what it means to be human. At the end of each performance, children and adults are invited to breathe and dance together with the performers; loud and quiet, spirited and restrained, and always full of freedom.
After many successful works for theaters like the Schaubühne, Gorki Theater or Thalia Theater Hamburg, Nir de Volff now developed together with the Theater o.N. for the first time a piece for young audiences. The choreography is based on his movement method BBM – Breathing Bodies Movement, which focuses on the body and its breathing system as the motor for dance movements.
Nir de Volff grew up in Israel and completed his dance education at the Bat Dor College in Tel Aviv. After three years of military service, he then danced for various companies in Tel Aviv and performed in the Israeli tour of Pina Bausch Viktor. Nir de Volff moved to Europe and worked with Jan Pusch, Les Ballets C. de la B and with the production company danswerkplatz (DWA) in Amsterdam, among others, with whose support he created his own works. At the end of 2003 he moved to Berlin and joined the company of Constanza Macras. In 2004 developed the trilogy DOLLY, which was performed in Prague, Amsterdam and Berlin. In summer 2007 he founded TOTAL BRUTAL and showed 3SOME at Dock11. Since then he has worked with a variety of Berlin artists and venues, including She She Pop at HAU Berlin, Falk Richter at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz and Nurkan Erpulat at Maxim Gorki Theater.
In 2008 Nir de Volff / TOTAL BRUTAL showed “BELIEVE IT OR NOT” at Dock11 Berlin. In February 2009 he developed the choreography for the opera “Das kurze Leben” at the Oper Frankfurt. For de Volff’s production ACTION the Neue Synagoge Berlin became the setting for a dance theater performance for the first time in its history in July 2009. in December 2009 MATKOT premiered at Dock11 Berlin. In a Clash of Cultures of a special kind, he brought together Thai dancers, Traverstie artists, actors and Israeli dancers in June 2010 at the Patravadi theater Bangkok and Tape Club & Gallery Berlin for the dance performance ON AIR. After MATKOT, he performed the second part of the Thematic Landscape Trilogy MIDBAR in August. At the end of 2010 he showed the last part “Picnics Weddings & Funerals” with 8 dancers. In 2011 Nir de Volff / TOTAL BRUTAL showed “KOMOT” at Dock11. In 2012 Nir de Volff / TOTAL BRUTAL was invited by the renowned theater SESC Phineiros Sau Paulo to develop the show “KIKAR”, together with support from the Goethe Institute and the Jewish Culture Center Sao Paulo. This performance brought together dancers from TOTAL BRUTAL and from Brazil in the form of a cultural exchange project. In 2013, de Volff was invited by the Goethe Institute Bangkok and Bangkok National Sodsai University For Dramatic Art to develop the show “Dancing to the end”. Afterwards, De Volff was invited by the Goethe Institute Tel Aviv to open their festival “Berlin day’z” with the piece “Diary of a lost decade”, the premiere of which was earlier at the Sophiensaele. In 2014 De Volff created a choreography for the unique concert ” We will call our names” in the Berlin Cathedral and “TINOFET” for the Fontys Hogeschool voor de kunsten in Tilburg, followed by the collaboration “NEVER FOREVER” between the director Falk Richter and TOTAL BRUTAL at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. In 2015 Nir de Volff / TOTAL BRUTAL showed his work in progress “What a Mess” at De Bali Theater Amsterdam, followed by “The Topography of Memories”, a research project by Halle 14 – Center for Contemporary Art in cooperation with Lofft Theater and the Jewish Week Festival Leipzig. In October 2015, Nir De Volff choreographed for Nurkan Erpulat’s new production “The Legal Fuzziness of a Marriage” at Maxim Gorki Theater. In 2016 came the second collaboration between Nir de Volff and Falk Richter “Città del Vaticano” at Schauspielhaus Wien for the Wiener Festwochen. Then “MAYBE” for SEAD Tanz Akademie in Salzburg as well as the revival of the piece “Dancing to the end” as part of the ID Festival at Radialsystem Berlin. At the end of November 2016, de Volff successfully presented his very first solo “love and loneliness in the 21.century” at DOCK 11 Berlin. He was invited by Schauspielhaus Dresden to develop choreographies for students together with director Uta Plate. In summer 2017 Came the work in progress “Come as you are # Berlin ” with three Syrian refugees dancers. In January 2019 came the third collaboration between Nir de Volff and Falk Richter “I am Europe” at the Theater National du Strasbourg. In August, de Volff showed “The Epilog” in Macau, his first multicultural project in China. In October came the choreography for “NEVERLAND” at Thalia theater Hamburg for house director Antu nuno Romero’s new production. In February 2020, with the invitation of the Goethe Institute, came in the Naves Matadero Theater Madrid choreography-collaboration for “Europe los tutelandos” Mikolaj Bielski’s new production. In summer 2020 Nir de Volff is the new choreographer of the Mixable Forward Dance Company at the LOFFT theater in Leipzig. In February 2021 online de Volff showed his second production ” Come as you are # part 2″ with Syrian dancers in Berlin.
Nir de Volff is regularly invited by international theaters and dance venues to lead workshops and masterclasses on his developed movement method BBM-Breathing Bodies Movement; including at the Venice Biennale, Tanzhaus NRW, TQW-Tanzquartier Wien, Tanzhaus NRW, Marameo Berlin, HJS Amsterdam, La Raffinerie Brussels, Central Studio Tokyo, Sodass national University Bangkok, TSEKH Moscow, Sala de Madera Madrid, SESC National theater Sao Paulo, Danshallerne Copenhagen and others.
totalbrutal.net
[Source: dock11-berlin.de]
TFB Nr. 1741
Cast & Credits
Concept / Choreography: Nir de Volff
Performance: Medhat Aldaabl, Mouafak Aldoabl, Renan Manhães
Costume: Moran Sanderovich
Music: Daniel Benyamin
Lighting design: Asier Solana
Air Object: Frank Fierke
Artistic project management / Dramaturgy: Vera Strobel
Production management: Lena Scheitz
Press relations: Nora Gores
»LUFT« is a production of Theater o.N. in cooperation with DOCKART. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin and Bezirksamt Pankow, Amt für Weiterbildung und Kultur, Fachbereich Kunst und Kultur.
DOCK 11
Kastanienallee 79
10435 Berlin
Tickets: dock11-berlin.de/theater/service/tickets
DOCK 11 / DOCK ART GmbH
dockart@dockart.de
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)
Nir de Volff / Total Brutal / Trailers and Video Documentations
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Interview / Portrait Nir de Volff / TOTAL BRUTAL (2018)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Come as you are # teil 2 (2021)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Love & Loneliness in the 21 Century (2018)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Come as you are # Berlin (2018)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Dancing to the End (2016)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: KOMOT (2011)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: PICNICS, WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS (2010)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: MIDBAR (2010)
- Nir de Volff / Total Brutal: Matkot (2009)