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Recording: 2016-09-28 , DOCK 11 (Video © Walter Bickmann)

Ruben Reniers

SimulacrumX (Part II)

DOCK 11

Production Details / Press Releases

In this interdisciplinary project using dance, spoken word, video and live music, Jean Baudrillard simulation and synthesis theories act as a thematic base.

As the piece opens the recipient finds oneself absorbed into a rapid, mysterious scenery where the four performers can only be recognized by their silhouettes. Their bodies become projection surfaces while the individuals themselves appear engrossed in an inaudible dialogue with arcane particles projected on the floor. Later, a single figure rises from the darkness, unable to differentiate between herself and the character she acts out and identifies with as herself. What is real, what is not? Is everything real, that feels real or are we pre-programmed so perfectly, that even our own feelings lack authenticity?

In the initially stringent mode of the choreography, the performers appear to be remote-controlled. Their operations come across like reproductions of learned and internalised patterns of common stereotypes. But after a while they gradually seem to start realising the disconnection with their movements, doubting their own actions and increasingly try to break away from the rigid regime of fixed movement sequences until finally, they manage to free themselves of the imposed order. The piece closes with an intimate duet in which the two dancers, Rebecca Jefferson and Ruben Reniers, search for and find a way out of the apparent misery of the superficial world of make-believe. Their movements start delicate and tender – discovering each others skin, yielding the primacy of the visual sense and rediscovering the truth inside the intuitive sense of touch. In almost infinite contingencies, the limbs constantly interwoven, they are searching for the proof of the truth in each other. Bit by bit the imperceptibly fading light steals the image of their symbiotic body from the gaze of the viewer. Only their breath remains detectable as the recipient is left behind in the dark: with a glimmer of hope, that all is not lost.

[Source: PR-Info]

TFB Nr. 956

Cast & Credits

Choreography: Ruben Reniers
Dance: Rebecca Jefferson & Ruben Reniers
Performance: Paula Dombrowski
Live music & composition: Evelyn Saylor
Video & Photo: Philine Sollmann
Costume: Karin Rosemann
Dramaturgy: Nicole Kohlmann
A rubarb dance & art production

Funded by Bezirksamt Berlin Pankow.

DOCK 11

Kastanienallee 79
10435 Berlin

dock11-berlin.de
Map

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 Europe. 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)

Ruben Reniers / Trailers and Video Documentations

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