Dance in Berlin in a nutshell; A Third of the Stars

Limelight Collective, with a strong and flowing technical and physical movement capability amazed me tonight. Defining themselves as a collective that keeps Christian tradition, it was like being in a fable with costumes, narrative and singing. Apart from what belief it is, religion is a form of spirituality and effects the movement in a more fluid way. The choreograph with the dancers and production team, they made the best out of space with a huge column right in the center of the space. Moving around the column adds liquidity to whole of the performance while including audience around the movement. Having a center, dancers around it and audience around dancers. All set up is based on circles of movement. Classical ballet and modern dance figures so visible and for me this gives strong taste of aesthetics to keep audience awake with the pleasure. Consequently, without having a any religious bonds or even not believing the story of a dragon as a monster; seeing the spiritual effect on physical forms is the interestingly pleasurable outcome of this evening.

A Third of the Stars (The Limelight Collective) is presented as a part of Performing Arts Festival Berlin, June, 2018

Choreographer/Director: Shaw Coleman

Choreographic Assistant: Melody Stowe

Musik: Daniel Matzeit, Max Richter, Raidan, Twisted Jukebox, Anon

Technical Director: Aaron Knettle

Dancers: Melody Stowe, Brittany Young, Carlos Ruiz, Kieran Mitchell, Sho Nakasatomi

Singers: Holly Risinger, Markus Weber

Photos: Limelight Collective

 

“This dance writing series has been produced during my research fellowship in HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and published on Gaia Dergi. This particular writing has been published on June 2018”

Dance in Berlin in a nutshell; (Un)domesticated Bodies: Live Feed

Full crowd of dancers all around the stage and among audience. 5 horizontal parts of seats. Rosalind Crisp explains each of the groups of audience one by one what this is all about. Everyone gets different views about the story throughout the performance. The common thing about the individual movements, groups, lighting, even the event team is the flowing attitude, without any pauses; balancing each other, keeping the audience present. Dancers move with full presence, a strong and soft control of each small parts of their bodies in connection with whole. And the killer (ironically) element of the process is ‘breaths’; hearing the breaths of the dancers on solos. 4 solo are showed. (Celine Debyser, Sunniva Vikor Egenes, Max Fossati, Anna Nowicka. Smooth transitions are visible both in dancers own and in connection with following and watching dancers. Solos are presented with the light focus. When solos are over and general light comes, it feels relief! A great example of playfulness in dance. Yeah, why not?

Open Spaces #1-18, Tanzfabrik, 2018, Berlin, Germany

Choreografic method, Direction: Rosalinda Crisp

Dance: Sunniva Egenes, Anna Nowicka, Céline Debyser, Max Fossati, Maya Dalinsky, Elise Brewer, Naïma Ferra, Daniella Eriksson, Katharina Greimel, Naama Ityel, Ana Jelušić, Adriana Josipovic, Rhiannon Newton, Nikolina Komljenovic, Martyna Lorenc, Susanne Martin, Diethild Meier, Andreas Müller, Lisa Nilsson, Benni Pohlig, Rain Saukas, Alexis Steeves, Ute Vetter, Kasia Wolinska

Technical management, Light: Marco Wehrspann

Artistic cooperation: Andrew Morrish

A production by Tanzfabrik Berlin

*This writing series is a collection of Müge Olacak during her research in Berlin, 2018.

Cover photo resource: Tanzforum Berlin

Body photos resource: Tanzfabrik Berlin

 

“This dance writing series has been produced during my research fellowship in HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and published on Gaia Dergi. This particular writing has been published on March 2018”

Dance in Berlin in a nutshell; The show must go on

If you are looking for the new art movement of today, look at colors. 25 people on stage, of different colors, with different colors, ages, heights, sizes, voices, interests, dresses… Dj plays 19 famous songs from various times of pop history. Performers are staff members and friends of Volksbühne Berlin, reinterpreted the piece ‘The show must go on’ by enactments according to songs. Audience enjoys so much, laughs all around. So, why not colorful, playful, sincere and from us pieces the 21^st century art movement in contemporary dance? This show has been going on for 17 years already. Dj plays La Macarena. 25 performers play it in different ways on one stage, in harmony at the same time by their own intentions to move, stand, look, jump, turn and move on.

‘The show must go on’, by Jerome Bel, Volksbühne, Berlin, February 2018

Concept, director: Jérôme Bel

Performers: Joannis Bacharis, Benedict Breen, Daria Cheremisinova, Vanessa Cocaric, Philip Decker, Celia Garcia Arenas, Marie Goyette, Nuria Höyng, Leane Israfilova, Howard Katz, Julita Le Roux-Cocheril, Andreas Lossau, Stephanie Maher, Reza Mirabi, Ewa Mostowiec, Cathrin Schierenbeck, Marie Schleef, Antje Schulz, Anne Tismer, Koffi Mawuena Tschao, Martin Vella, Ahmed Ziyad

Music by Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, J. Horner, W.Jennings, Mark Knopfler, John Lennon and Paul Mac Cartney, Louiguy, Galt Mac Dermott, George Michael, Erick “More” Morillo and M. Quashie, Edith Piaf, The Police et Hugh Padgham, Queen, Lionel Richie, A.Romero Monge and R. Ruiz, Paul Simon

*This writing series is a collection of Müge Olacak during her research in Berlin, 2018.

Photo credit: Volksbühne Berlin

 

“This dance writing series has been produced during my research fellowship in HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and published on Gaia Dergi. This particular writing has been published on February 2018”

Dance in Berlin in a nutshell; Corpus Nil: Eingeweide

Black light, a covered something down on the ground hanging from a crane arm. This something is moving under cover. Until it comes out, 1/3 of whole period. 2/3 part, dim light image; a robot looking at audience, looking, moving up and down with its arm. 3/3, a robot arm on the back of the performer. He is bend-over on the ground. Robot is continuously touching him, like a whipping move. He is coming closer to audience. So slow. We even did not get when he came all close. Mainly, moving arms and down and a generous move show head, neck and shoulders.

Or…

Is this a kind of butoh or improvisation performance? Who is moving under the cover? If this is a performance with AI, is it a robot? Are the moves connected with blue light? Who is controlling? Is it independent? Is this a whole robot performance or is there a human body out there? Is an arm robot or no? Do we need robots for performances? Is it an object or a partner? Is it controlling him or does he have any effect on its moves? What is the relationship between them? Is it a he or she? Does this matter?

Valuable contribution to development of integration AI into performance world. Keep digging. Keep searching. Keep moving.

Corpus Nil: Eingeweide by Marco Donnarumma, CTM 2018 Turmoil Festival, February 2018, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany

 

Concept, music, programming, robotics, light, performance: Marco Donnarumma
Stage and choreography: Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere
Robotics visual design and costume: Ana Rajcevic
Robotics 3D modelling and engineering: Christian Schmidt
Artistic consultancy: Margherita Pevere
Live audio mastering: Dadub Studio
Additional programming: Alberto de Campo
Scientific partner: Neurorobotics Research Laboratory, Beuth Hochschule
Light technology: Protopixel

*This writing series is a collection of Müge Olacak during her research in Berlin, 2018.

Cover photo from Marco Donnarumma web site.

 

“This dance writing series has been produced during my research fellowship in HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and published on Gaia Dergi. This particular writing has been published on February 2018”

Dance in Berlin in a nutshell; Sinestesia

Iron Sculls Co (SPA), in Sinestesia, with camouflage costumes and gas masks, show identical image without any gender differentiated or personal roles. They carry a strong physical quality and technic by being both strong and soft at the same time; with full body strength, flexibility, mindful presence and contentment. We could catch some differentiated moves of dancers which are visible without masks at the end of the performance as a Hip-Hop battle in a harmonic, respectful atmosphere. Indifferent costume, choreography and dramaturgy make the piece like a smooth flowing wave on the stage throughout the performance. Light design supports main focus and the story behind the piece, “a post-apocalyptic world where, through experimental dance, a group of survivors is formed and begins a journey toward safety”, in their words.

Purple Dance Festival, Berlin, Germany, January 2018

Photo by David Brock

Copyright: Iron Skulls

 

Direction & Choreography: Iron Skulls Co.

Premiere: June 7th, 2014 at “FACYL Festival”, Salamanca, Spain

Performers: Adrián Vega, Facu Martín, Héctor Plaza ‘Buba”, Diego Garrido, Moisés’ Moe”, Luis Muñoz, Agnés Sales

Lights: Petar Tanev

 

“This dance writing series has been produced during my research fellowship in HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and published on Gaia Dergi. This particular writing has been published on February 2018”

Dance Writing, A Corner In The World, Festival Edition, 2016

“Editörlüğünü yaptığım bu yayın, Dans Yazım ile Dünyada Bir Köşe Festivali iş birliği ile yayınlanmıştır. 2016”

“This publication, with my editorial contribution, has been published in cooperation with Dans Yazım and A Corner In The World Festival in 2016”

 

heyecanlı keşifler / exciting discoveries

nasıl bir hareket olursa olsun yaptığımız;

fiziksel – dans, koşu, yoga vb;
duygusal – üzüntü, sevinç, şaşkınlık vb;
zihinsel – hayal etmek, analiz etmek, düşünmek…

hepsinde yere köklenirken gökyüzüne uzuyoruz. yer çekimi aslında bizi çeken değil bizi taşıyan bir kuvvet ve inanılmaz bir şekilde gerçekten yere basınca gökyüzüne de eforsuz ve daha geniş uzayabiliyoruz.

heyecanlanıyorum…

—————————————–

In which way we move;

– physical: dancing, running, yoga etc

– emotional: sadness, happiness, surprising etc

– mental: dreaming, analyzing, thinking etc

we root to the ground and reach to the sky. gravity is not the force taking us down, though surprisingly it is the force that makes us taller without any effort and pain.

getting excited…