Witness
The festival opens with a clash of cultures generated from a loving perspective on the local tradition of “Garde” dancing. In between the opening speeches choreographer Reut Shemesh presents specially adapted extracts from her work WITNESS, which she devised together with the Garde dancers of the State Capital Düsseldorf.
Entry is free of charge.
Registration is no more possible. Vacant seats, if available, in the evening on site.
tanzhaus nrw
Language: not language-based
In recent years Reut Shemesh has immersed herself in the world of Garde dancing, studying its repertoire of movement and historical background. Out of her attempt to find a common language of movement with the dancers and their trainer Ulla Gerling a choreography has emerged in which the strict form of Garde dancing is opened up to individuality and breaks with perfection.
This will be followed by the SHOWCASE production ZWEITER VERSUCH ÜBER DAS TURNEN (SECOND ESSAY ON GYMNASTICS). Here Impulse’s opening night shows two works that examine popular physical practices in which individual bodies are subsumed within a group formation.
Credits
Research, concept: Reut Shemesh
Choreography: Reut Shemesh in collaboration with Ulla Gerling
Dancers: Lisa Aydin, Eva Bergmann, Laura Bremicke, Katharina Brink, Melanie Dahmen, Constanze Fischer, Isabell Flecken, Violetta Jantz, Ele Rose Krosch, Hannah Lingnau, Carmen Meier, Lisa Rogalla, Janina Schentek, Lisa Schouven, Franziska Simandi, Sophia Wirth plus additional dancers from Karnevalsfreunde der katholischen Jugend Düsseldorf
Music: Simon Bauer
Dramaturgy: Daniel Rademacher
Management: Sabina Stücker
Contact for touring enquiries: Sabina Stücker, mail[a]sabina-stuecker.de
Production
WITNESS is a project by tanzhaus nrw as part of the programming series Ceremony Now!, funded by Kunststiftung NRW and as part of Take-off: Junger Tanz, funded by Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes NRW.
Biographies
Simon Bauer studied double bass at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin, taught himself composition and took part in courses at the School for Improvisational Music in New York and Oslo. After a lengthy career as an instrumentalist, he now works primarily with staging concepts in direct exchange with music. He works with the choreographers Reut Shemesh, Vincent Bozek and Overhead Project to compose music for their pieces and with Hans Unstern to build instruments and devise directing concepts. With SCHUBERTY KRAHL BAUER he works on formal languages that deliberately cannot be ascribed to a single unambiguous stage genre.
KaKaJu/Dance Troupe of the State Capital Düsseldorf. The Dance Troupe was founded by Ulla Gerling in 1982. Gerling had previously spent fifteen years as a dancer with the ballroom dancing company td rot weiß düsseldorf. The troupe currently consists of thirty dancers with many more in both the youth and junior troupes. Each year the Dance Troupe creates a “Garde” and show dance in particular for the Düsseldorf carnival. Up to seventy performances per year are supported by a large number of dancers, trainers, stage designers, prop makers, dressmakers and drivers. In 2009 the Lord Mayor named the Dance Troupe Düsseldorf’s Official City Dance Troupe.
Reut Shemesh studied dance and choreography at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnheim and then completed a Master’s at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne. Her artistic spectrum extends from performance and choreography to experimental film and poetry. Her work has been presented internationally. Shemesh was awarded the Cologne Dance and Theatre Prize 2016 for ‘LEVIAH’ and the film that accompanied it was also screened at the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. Her research for WITNESS will lead to a full-length production at tanzhaus nrw in 2019.