20 Dancers for the XX Century – Boris Charmatz at Treptower Park
On a cloudy Saturday afternoon I took my new bike to the Sowjet Monument of Honor at Treptower Park. This time not for a normal bike trip though. The Foreign Affairs Festival is in town and celebrates the arts of music dance and theater bringing rare pearls of contemporary culture from all over the world to Berlin.
One chapter of the festival is contributed by Boris Charmatz and his Dancing Museum. This artistic association tries to document, preserve and work with art history in an unusual way. Questioning the potential of remembering the historic background, the dancers and the essentials of the choreography itself, Charmatz created a diverse parcours across 20th century dance history. The dances ranging from Meyerhold’s biomechanics, folk dance and Vogueing to contemporary dance where shown and explained by the dancers themselves. This way they became art pieces, curators and museum guides in one person. Impression from the dancers and some short thoughts after the jump.