Production Details / Press Releases
“I love turning into a four-legged creature. All the little places where you can squeeze the crutch into a crack or a corner. In Scotland we would say ‘nooks and crannies’. I like to lose myself playing like that […] when the floor really […] becomes my companion.”
Inspired by Gustav Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” as well as her life experience as a disabled person, the memory of her training as a singer, and the expertise of mountaineers and disabled friends, Claire Cunningham sets out to cross landscapes both known and unknown.
In this solo piece, she asks what it means to hike, to strive for great heights. What is it like to learn from those of us who reach for the ground through crutches like quadrupeds? What does it mean to keep going and, above all, to know when it’s the right moment to turn back? In “Songs of a Wayfarer”, the internationally renowned disabled artist turns her personal journey into a love song – to the ground, to her disabled companions, and to her own wisdom of crip* expertise and joy.
*Crip is a political and cultural identity used by some people with disabilities.
[Source: hebbel-am-ufer.de]
TFB Nr. 1947
Cast & Credits
Concept & Choreography: Claire Cunningham with Dan Watson & Luke Pell
Performance: Claire Cunningham
Associate Director and Dramaturgy: Dan Watson
Dramaturgy: Luke Pell
Set and costume design: Bethany Wells
Lighting design: Chris Copland
Sound design: Matthias Herrmann
Video design: Michelle Ettlin
Artistic collaboration: Julia Watts Belser
Captioner: Maria Wünsche (Panthea)
Executive Producer: Nadja Dias
Project and access producer: Vicky Wilson
Production Manager: Gregor Knüppel
Technician: Keir Martin
Company stage manager: Anastasia Booth
Artistic access consultancy: Nelly Kelly, Panthea, Angela Alves, Rita Mazza, Naomi Sanfo-Ansorge
Mountaineering consultants: Cormac Lynch, Simone Kenyon
Administrative support (for HZT): Susanne Adam, Jeanette Gogoll
Audio description script (English): Claire Cunningham, Julia Watts Belser, Vicky Wilson, Luke Pell, spoken by Julia Watts Belser
Audio description translation (German):: Leo Baur, Agnes Ehlich, spoken by Juli Reinartz
Production: Claire Cunningham
Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Next Festival Kortrijk, No Limits Festival Berlin, No Limits Festival Hong Kong, Kammerspiele Munich, Sadler’s Wells London, Dampfzentrale Bern
Developed as part of the Einstein Strategy Professorship “Choreography, Dance and Disability Art” at HZT Berlin.
HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2)
Hallesches Ufer 32
10963 Berlin
Tickets: +49 (0)30 259 004 27
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.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)