Production Details / Press Releases
Two poles, horizontal and vertical structure the space, and with it the movement. A band plays. Ten performers follow a radically simple score: using one another and the poles to create strict geometrical configurations; everyday movements coalesce into complex poses. For Tanz im August Deborah Hay revives “ten” with ten outstanding Berlin performers.
Deborah Hay (*1941) was a founding member of the experimental Judson Dance Theater and toured worldwide in 1964 with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. For the last 30 years, she wrote and published while developing her own language for dance practice and choreography, which she applied in her work with both untrained and professional dancers. Commissioned works were produced by The Forsythe Company, Toronto Dance Theater and Cullberg Ballet, among others. Last year, MoMA opened their major exhibition “Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done”, which features Hay’s work alongside that of her pioneering dance contemporaries Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton and others. Deborah Hay has been a guest at Tanz im August three times before, with “If I Sing to You” (2008), “No Time to Fly” (2012) and “Figure a Sea” (2016) with Cullberg.
Mariama Diagne is a dance scholar and staff member (Institute for Theatre Studies) at the Centre for Movement Studies (Prof. Brandstetter) at Freie Universität Berlin. Her schooling as a dancer (Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City) was followed by studies in media, theatre, music history (Bayreuth) and dance theory (Berlin). Her dissertation discussed European concepts of gravity (gravitas) and the artistic, philosophical and physical approaches from rhetorics, baroque dance until Pina Bausch (Transcript 2019). Her current research undertakes a re-reading of dance history through the lens of diversity and (black)feminism in order to re-write its aesthetic and ethic threads from the 18th century until today.
Christopher House is a Canadian choreographer, performer, director and teacher from St. John, Newfoundland. He has been Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theatre since 1994, creating over sixty choreographies for the company and collaborating with a diverse range of contemporary artists including Kimsooja, The Hidden Cameras and theatre maker Jordan Tannahill. His work has been presented across Canada and in such major centres as New York, Bogotá, London, New Delhi and Tokyo. As both choreographer and curator, he has initiated several cross-disciplinary collaborations that interrogate the definition of choreography. He continues his performance practice in his solo adaptations of the work of Deborah Hay, in a new project with choreographer Ame Henderson and, most recently, in his duet “Marienbad” with Jordan Tannahill. With Ame Henderson, he leads the Emerging Voices Project in Toronto and Choreography Across Disciplines at the Banff Centre. He is Member of the Order of Canada.
As a dancer, performer and choreographer, Arantxa Martinez’ work is concerned with identification, exchange, dependency and performative processes between body and its environment. Her last titles include: “Medusa Rise”, 2018; “Avant-Garten”, 2017 – in collaboration with Juan Dominguez- ; “Très bien éclairé”, 2015; “Emisiones Cacatúa” – a radio project in collaboration with Nilo Gallego -; “The Present”, 2010/2012 – in collaboration with Lola Rubio. As a performer she works with artists such as Paz Rojo, Kate McIntosch, Juan Domínguez, Alice Chauchat, Sabine Zahn, María Jerez, Antonia Baehr, Eszter Salamon, Cullberg, Isabelle Schad, Velma, Tino Sehgal, Martine Pisani, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Emmanuelle Antilles, … Since 2015 she has been teaching regularly at the Stockholm University of the Arts.
“Over the course of a lifetime, multiple languages, geographies, acquaintances, experiences have intertwined and brought me home in a history I happen to belong. ‘ten’ is one of them.” Ayşe Orhon, Yugoslav descent, born in Boston, grew-up in Istanbul, is a performer and choreographer recently based in Berlin. Through movement, sound and text, the common interest in her choreographic projects and teaching is working with collective presences co-existing throughout seemingly single subject. She is a graduate of Artez (HKA) in 2001 and the Master of Choreography program in Amsterdam (AHK) with her research “Permeable Manifestations” in 2013.
Peter Pleyer studied dance at the European Dance Development Centre in Arnhem. He worked as dancer and choreographic assistant with Yoshiko Chuma (New York) and Mark Tompkins (Paris). In 2000 Peter moved to Berlin, here he developed “choreographing books” (2005) a lecture-performance, with his view on the development of dance studies in the US and Europe. He taught his workshop “History in Practice” at some universitys for example ArtEZ, Arnhem and HZT, Berlin. In 2014 he resumed his choreographic work with the solo “Ponderosa Trilogy” and the quartet/international improvisation format “Visible Undercurrent” (a.o. with Meg Stuart and Sasha Waltz). He is a regular guest teacher for Anatomical Release and Contact Improvisation for Meg Stuart/ Damaged Goods.
Jone San Martin Astigarraga was born in Donostia/San Sebastian in the Basque Country. First she studied with Mentxu Medel in San Sebastian and then at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and at Mudra International, the school of Maurice Bejart, in Brussels. After working as freelance with in Spain and Belgium, she joined Ballett Frankfurt in 1992 under the direction of William Forsythe and was a dancer at The Forsythe Company from 2005 to 2015. She was part of the first edition of Dance On Ensemble in Berlin and will also collaborate with the second edition. She has created several works and with the solo/ conference, on Forsythe’s choreographic notation, “Legítimo/Rezo” she is touring all over the world.
Agnieszka Sjökvist Dlugoszewska danced in works by Jefta van Dinther, Deborah Hay, Eszter Salamon, Stina Nyberg, Cristina Caprioli, Daniel Sjökvist, Cristian Duarte, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Helena Franzen, Ina Christel Johannessen, Benoit Lachambre, William Forsythe, Dan Johansson, Birgit Cullberg, Mats Ek, Ewa Wycichowska, Örjan Andersson, Anna Pehrsson, Jens Östberg, Tilman O’Donnell, Jochen Heckmann, Alexander Ekman, Gregor Zöllig. She was educated in National Ballet School in Bytom and participated as a dancer at Swiss International Coaching Project for Choreographers under artistic direction of Rui Horta, Richard Wherlock, Jorma Outinen, Ismael Ivo, Jochen Heckmann, Nils Christe. She danced with Polish Dance Theatre Ballet Poznan, Tanztheater Osnabrück and Ballet Theatre Augsburg before joining Cullberg in 2007.
Jefta van Dinther is a choreographer and dancer working between Stockholm and Berlin. His work is characterized by a rigorous physical approach and always implies a staged research of movement itself. The moving body is the core of his practice but belongs to and interacts with a body of light, sound and materials. Central in his work is the question of what it means to be human, examined through its relation to society, community and environment.His performances reach out into metaphysical or otherworldly realms and deal with notions of illusion, the visible and the invisible, synaesthesia, darkness, labour, sex, the uncanny, affect, voice and image. In 2019 he premiered the performance “The Quiet” and he will be remounting “Plateau Effect” for Staatsballet Berlin. Jefta is Associated Artist with Cullberg between 2019-2022.
Frank Willens, California native, has lived and worked in Berlin since 2003. He has collaborated on numerous projects with numerous figures of contemporary dance and theatre including among others Tino Sehgal, Meg Stuart, Boris Charmatz, Susanne Kennedy, Falk Richter, Nico and the Navigators, Peter Stamer, Armin Petras, S.E. Struck, Wilhelm Groener, Bjørn Melhus, and Laurent Chétouane. His own most recent work “Radiant Optimism” addressed positivity and hope as an agent of empowerment and transformation and was presented at ImPulsTanz this year. He was a member of the Ensemble at the Volksbühne from 2017 until 2019 and continues to be busy with numerous projects including having two children and establishing a small community in Brandenburg.
Sigal Zouk is dancer, performer and facilitator in the area of contemporary dance. Sigal has danced with the Batsheva Dance Company (1994–96), Sasha Waltz (1999–2004), Meg Stuart (2005–07 and currently) and Laurent Chetouane (2007–15). In 2010 she won the first prize for performance at the FAVORITEN theatre festival in Dortmund. Parallel with her career as a dancer she has lent her support since 2007 to the creative processes of numerous choreographers, including Meg Stuart and Angela Schubot & Jared Gradinger. Sigal teaches at various European dance departments and institutions, and collaborates internationally with visual artists and musicians.
In January 2019 the doors Die Türen reopened! Staatsakt’s house band returns after an absence of some time with a new set and a tour. The latest work is called “EXOTERIK” – and it’s nothing less than sublime triple album on the pillars of post-punk, Krautrock and psychedelic. Exoterik (rhymes a bit with funkadelic) wanted ongoing transparency. And that’s what happened. On these three records we hear God (?), Madchester, cosmic disco, DUB DUB DUB! and much more presented by Gunther Osburg (guitar, keys), Ramin Bijan, Maurice Summen (voice, percussion, guitar), Andreas Spechtl (modular system, keys and voice) and Chris Imler (drums).
[Source: play bill]
TFB Nr. 1356
Cast & Credits
Choreography: Deborah Hay
Mit: Mariama Diagne, Christopher House, Jone San Martin, Arantxa Martinez, Ayşe Orhon, Peter Pleyer, Agnieszka Sjökvist Dlugoszewska, Jefta van Dinther, Frank Willens, Sigal Zouk
Stage Design: Deborah Hay
Music: Die Türen
Sound Engineering: Stefan Flad
In the context of RE-Perspective Deborah Hay
In cooperation with Radialsystem.
Tanz im August 2019
Artistic Director: Virve Sutinen
Executive Producer Festival: Isa Köhler
Producer: Anja Lindner, Marie Schmieder (on parental leave)
Project Management: Simone Graf
Assistant to Artistic Director & Production Assistant: Alina Sophie Scheyrer-Lauer
Production: Florian Greß, Ben Mohai, Sofie Marie Luckhardt, Katharina Rost, Lovisa Sohls Söderberg, Charlotte Werner
Technical Director: Ruprecht Lademann, Patrick Tucholski
Tanz im August is a festival by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, funded by the Capital Cultural Fund.
Radialsystem
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)