Skip to content

External media
Our website uses plugins of the video portal Vimeo. When you click to play a video, you agree to the collection and sharing of your data with Vimeo and the connection to a Vimeo server is established. The external Vimeo player is loaded with Do-Not-Track parameter.

Analysis tools
In order to analyze access to our video content anonymously, we use the open source web analysis service Matomo.

For further information, please see our privacy policy.

Recording: 2017-01-14 , Tanztage Berlin 2017 | Sophiensæle (Video © Walter Bickmann)

Cécile Bally

THE SLEEP OF REASON

Tanztage Berlin 2017 | Sophiensæle

Production Details / Press Releases

In Francisco de Goya’s famous print The sleep of reason produces monsters (1797) we see Goya asleep on his desk surrounded by creatures of the night: owls, cats, and bats. The backside of the engraving reads: “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with reason, fantasy is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.” One century later, in 1897, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is published, and it took precisely one hundred more years for the human world to broadcast Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV, in 1997.

The Sleep of Reason proposes an appropriation of reason by the world of the undead. Vampires speak for themselves and look at our world from their perspective, playing with the superstitions and clichés surrounding them. If humans have stopped believing in vampires, do they still believe in the magic of theater? Can the stage maintain its magical potential when all the tricks are on display?

CÉCILE BALLY studied Economics in France and Dance in Berlin. Her work is creating methodologic connections in between these two backgrounds and interrogates with humor the place of magic in performance. In 2015, she received a scholarship by the Goethe-Institut. She worked with Martin Hansen, Clément Layes, Alex Martinis Roe and BlingBlingRecycling among others.

LOUISE TRUEHEART is a dancer, writer, and choreographer. She is an editor for queer feminist platform Coven Berlin and in the working group of International Notice. She received the danceWEB scholarship in 2016 and has worked with or for Hana Erdman, Nikima Jagudajev, Ruairi Donovan, Alice Chauchat and Tino Sehgal.

JULIA PLAWGO studies at HZT Berlin and works with dance and choreography as a survival strategy.

SANDRA BLATTERER, born in Vienna, lives and works in Berlin. She is interested in experimenting with different light qualities, its possible handling and its effect in space. She collaborated with Shannon Cooney, Siegmar Zacharias, Sergiu Matis, Jana Unmüßig, Begüm Ericyas, Hermann Heisig and Laurie Young.

Cast & Credits

CHOREOGRAPHY: Cécile Bally
PERFORMANCE: Cécile Bally, Julia Plawgo, Louise Trueheart
LIGHT DESIGN: Sandra Blatterer
STAGE: Cécile Bally, Sandra Blatterer, Alexandre Viard
OUTSIDE EYE: Asaf Aharonson
Sponsored by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
With the kind support of the HZT Berlin.
Special thanks to Liselotte Singer, Martin Hansen and Antonia Baehr.

TANZTAGE BERLIN 2017
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Anna Mülter
FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT: Franziska Schrage
PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: Johanna Withelm
DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT: Thomas Schaupp, Maja Zimmermann
The 26th Tanztage Berlin are a production of SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. With the support of Goethe-Institut, Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V. and mapping dance berlin.

Sophiensæle

Sophienstraße 18
10178 Berlin

sophiensaele.com
Map

Tickets: (030) 283 52 66

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)

Cécile Bally / Trailers and Video Documentations

To top