“Turning Solo” – the portrait for Naïma Ferré – is based on her fascination with spinning for long periods. This whirling practice is brought into dialogue with Schad’s research around axial and weight shift, around inner movement material and its extension into the world, around energetic fields that characterise oneself and others. Little by little an initially minimalist study in movement becomes a shimmering jewel, a rotating sculpture, the choreographic portrait of a dancer.

Even though we could analyse ‘Turning Solo’ as a study of a sculpture in its rotating vitality, the simplicity of the conceptual proposal and its minimalistic quality pervade us, evoking softness and contemplation. The very act of whirling is so precise, so precious, so intimate that watching feels voyeuristic, and it’s only after we have become comfortable with this intimacy that the imagination takes over. The whirling is, therefore, a reflection of an inner reality: We are struck by a sense that Naïma is whirling away from as much as whirling towards something particular.

“Turning Solo” defines the body of the dancer, from the phenomenological perspective, as an object (for the spectator) but also as a living reality (for the dancer alone). The body becomes a phenomenon that the dancer tempts through the form of rotation. The rotating body establishes the point of perspective and that very point of perspective places the dancer in the world and creates the relationships between her, other objects (in this case over-sized costume), space and the viewers. “Turning Solo” is an anecdote, which fends off noisy familiarity, and in which there is no significant joining that transcends its constitutive elements. Like a jewel. Without development, without pretence.
Saša Božic ́

The dancer and choreographer Isabelle Schad studied classical dance in Stuttgart and worked with a number of choreographers until starting her own projects in 1999. Her work focuses on the body and its materiality, the relationship between body, choreography and (re)presentation, community building and political involvement. Her pieces have been shown at international festivals including Internationale Tanzwoche Wien, Tanz im August, International Arts Festival Beijing, Impulstanzfestival. She had several collaborations with the Goethe Institute and is a regular guest at the International Dance Platform Germany. In 2003 she founded the international artists’ network and project “Good Work” with Bruno Pocheron and Ben Anderson, and is part of the project “Practicable”, with which she realised the group pieces “Glazba” and “Musik” in 2010 and 2011. In addition she has worked closely and continuously with Laurent Goldring. In 2015 they presented the retrospective “On Visibility and Amplifications” at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, including their works “An Un-Folding Process”, “Der Bau”, “Unturtled #1 & #4” and “Collective Jumps”, which was premiered in 2014 at HAU. In autumn 2015 she was reinvited with “Fugen” and in 2016 with “Pieces and Elements”.
isabelle-schad.net

Naïma Ferré has lived in Berlin since 2012 working as a contemporary dancer and performer. She examines the relationship between body and mind, exploring boundaries, mainly through solo dance improvisation that is largely influenced by Rosalind Crisp. She deals with the same topic in her work as a life model, as well as in the “Carte Blanche für das Modell” evenings that she organises. Accompanied by the musician Klaus Janek, she plays with the boundary between performance and life modelling. Since 2014 she has collaborated with Isabelle Schad in several productions, such as “Volkstanzen Heute”, “Collective Jumps” and “Pieces and Elements”. From 2013 to 2016 she performed “AKT” with Judith Hummel in Munich. In 2012 and 2014 she could be seen in “Luminosity” by Marina Abramovic and “Mirror Check” by Joan Jonas. In 2017, working with Robert Jan Liethoff, she developed her first solo, “Peau’rosität”, which deals with the representation of the self through her practice as a life model.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1139