A choreographic work about practicing – about the search for perfection and physical resilience.

PRACTICE by bücking&kröger is a choreographic work about practicing. Two dancers explore techniques of repetition and practice and address questions of virtuosity and body techniques as coping strategies. How did certain movement techniques become inscribed in our bodies? How did we become what we are, how do our movement techniques, trained over decades, influence us and how do they determine our artistic practice? Florian Bücking and Raisa Kröger use physical exercises to search for perfection and for personal bodily resilience – while being aware of the permanent failure and the physical vulnerability that cannot simply be erased.

bücking&kröger was founded in 2014 and is the union of the two dancer-choreographers Florian Bücking and Raisa Kröger and the production dramaturge Johanna Withelm after a ten-year career as dancers and dance professionals in and outside the Berlin dance scene. As a creative duo of choreographers, they have been working with dance, visual art and performance in the broadest sense ever since. Their work is characterised by a clear focus on the body and the physical states that accompany movement and is often created in collaboration with artists from the fields of visual art and music. So far, they have created numerous works of different formats – short pieces, full-length pieces, site-specific productions, video works (premiered at Dock 11, Ballhaus Ost and Uferstudios, Berlin). Their productions have received fundings from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds, the Bundeskulturstiftung, the Bezirksamt Pankow, the Fonds Darstellende Künste and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe and have been presented in inter/national festival contexts.
buecking-kroeger.com

Florian Bücking (concept, choreography, dance) was trained as a contemporary stage dancer after studying sports science in Berlin. After an engagement at the Staatstheater Oldenburg, he worked as a freelance dancer in and outside of Berlin. Amongst others he has worked with MS Schrittmacher / Martin Stiefermann, Zen in the Basement, wee dance company, Michael Langeneckert, Maaike van Dyke, Pick up dance Company, Tomi Paasoonen, TanzLange, Unterwegstheater Heidelberg, Clint Lutes / Death by Glitter, movingtheatre Köln, Heidi Weiss, Groupe F, Melanie Lane, Anna Melnikova and Maya Caroll, Marielle Weingarten. He has presented his own works at Tanztage Berlin, among others. In collaboration with Emmanuel Obeya, he choreographed Der Ring – next Generation (director: Robert Lehninger) at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin and Herr der Fliegen at the Deutsches Theater. Since 2011 he choreographs the final pieces of the stage dance training at Balance 1, Berlin. Since 2019 he has been a member of the board of LAFT (Landesverband freie darstellende Künste Berlin e.V.).

Raisa Kröger (concept, choreography, dance) is a contemporary dancer and choreographer living and working in Berlin. After her education as a contemporary dancer, she completed further choreographic training at the Tanzfabrik Berlin and a somatic training with Sarah Menger (Body Mind Centering). As a freelance dancer she has worked with Simone Mousset, Rafal Dziemidok, Saskia Oidtmann, Romeo Castellucci, Jasmin Ihrac, Viktoria Hauke/Chris Lechner, Jo Fabian, the wee dance company/Danzcompany des Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau, Martin Stiefermann/Staatsoper Berlin, Ilona Pászthy, Isabelle Schad and Özlem Alkis. She has presented her own work in Berlin, Dortmund, Zurich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. In addition to her work as a choreographer and dancer, she is part of the collaborative studio garage and was a mentor for dance within the mentoring program of the Performing Arts Programm in Berlin from 2016 till 2019. Together with Cilgia Gadola and Christophe Knoch she is a founding member of the production management team M.i.C.A. – Movement in Contemporary Art (www.mica-berlin.com).

Johanna Withelm (concept, dramaturgy, text+PR) studied theatre studies, journalism and communication studies (BA) as well as dance studies (MA) at the Free University of Berlin after completing her her education as a contemporary dancer. She worked in various productions as an author, dramaturge and press speaker. She curated the dance and performance series Tanzbad (Ballhaus Ost, Berlin), and together with Alex Hennig and Cilgia Gadola the festival S.o.S. – Students on Stage and Alumni.Tanz.Berlin at the ada studio & stage for contemporary dance. She was studio writer for the ada studio and wrote dance reviews for the portal Tanzschreiber /tanzraumberlin. She also worked in production management at Sophiensaele in Berlin, where she produced the festival TANZTAGE BERLIN from 2017-2022. From 2018-2021 she was a member for the dance section in the funding advisory board of the district office of Pankow/ Amt für Kunst und Kultur.

[Source: PR-Info]

TFB Nr. 1715