After two years of a compromised festival due to pandemic restrictions, this Tanz im August 2022 festival edition finally brings all the international dance artists back to Berlin to celebrate the art of contemporary dance. We made a list of the pieces we really look forward to watching.
photos: Julieta Segura.
The body of a dancer must be perfect, right? This common prejudice and also restrictive view on dance performers and their bodies was critically questioned by the latest performance piece called Æffective Choreography by Andre Uerba. . The premiere took place last weekend at Radialsystem and it was sold out many weeks before. But for everybody who missed it, we have a couple of impressions from the general rehearsal of the performance.
photo: Sasha Waltz & Guests.
It’s been just two weeks since we showed you the cute video of the Staatsballett Berlin dancing from their home. You guys really loved this video, so we thought we could give you a bit of an encore today. In the past couple of weeks, the ballet dancers were not the only once who kept dancing while all shows are canceled and theaters closed. In fact, a lot of contemporary dancers also used the offtime to record some small performances and improvisations.
It’s been quite the adjustment for all of us to suddenly experience things only through our computer stream. It feels like a restriction at first, but as with any new circumstance, people will get used to it and adapt and find new ways to express themselves. Especially for those of us who are used to working in teams, such as dancers who perform with an ensemble, suddenly finding themselves without their teammates might be a challenge. But again, a new experience doesn’t have to be a bad one.
photos: Anna Agliardi.
In the last decades, Berlin’s international scene has grown widely and multiple talents from different backgrounds enriched the cultural landscape of the city. One of those fresh talents had her Berlin stage debut last weekend and we are more than impressed.
Choreographer Kiani del Valle showed her first performance piece “Las Casas Invisibles” (Spanish for the invisible houses) with her newly formed KDV Dance Ensemble at the spectacular Funkhaus concert stage.
The place which usually hosts concerts and festivals for avant-garde and contemporary electronic music was the perfect setting for the interdisciplinary performance. With a collective of 10 incredibly strong dancers, she created an immersive story that floated seamlessly from childhood memories into the experience of migration, police brutality and longing for connection.
photo: Mathieu Doyon.
August is the month of dance in Berlin. We would love to show you our selection of highlights for the upcoming festival Tanz im August celebrating contemporary dance from all over the world.
Heat becomes movement and movement becomes a dance. While spoken word theaters are traditionally closed during summer for almost 6 to 8 weeks, the dance scene celebrates this period with all kinds of intense programs. While most dance schools, like Tanzfabrik or Marameo, offer intense workshops, for the people who rather watch than dance themselves there is a big festival celebrating the variety of contemporary dance: Tanz im August.
This year’s program has several highlights to offer. Most of the pieces will have their German or even worldwide premiere. This means that the following highlights are more of an intuitive choice than an exclusive selection since we had no chance to see any of these in person. Feel free to check out the whole program yourself and see if something else might spark your interest.
If you want to experience a truly innovative presentation of cutting-edge fashion in Berlin you need to keep an eye out for the events at TRAUMABARUNDKINO. The hidden place in Moabit has put out a series of fashion events since the last November that combines contemporary dance with fashion. Of course, there have been attempts at blending dance with fashion elsewhere before, but trust me, never have they been as cool as at TRAUMA.
Following the success of Now You May Tell That I Have Been Seen By You the fashion department of TRAUMA lead by Tanja Bombach has now put out a second event titled Catalogue of Disguise showcasing designs by Olga Khristolyubova, Aleksndru Plesco, and Tanja herself. With an impressive choreography by Franka Marlene Foth that I could easily see at the theatres in Berlin and a stellar cast of dancers the piece was a big advancement of the already pretty amazing first event. Every little detail was perfect from the designs to the performance, the hair and make-up, music and light. It’s so rare you see something as complex as this brought to perfection in each of its aspects. Congratulations to the entire team. I draw my hat.
There are no further words that will do this level of excellence any justice, so I decide to let my photo and GIF impressions speak instead.
The contemporary dance piece “Half Life” by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar that is performed by the Staatsballett Berlin takes the viewer to an abstract world where intensity is marking every gesture and every decision.
A driving electronic beat makes the half-naked bodies of the dancers pulsate almost trance-like. The whole ensemble moves in unison as if it was one organism totally in synch with the music. The sweat on their skin makes every muscle glisten in the minimal light in front of the black background. Even though the choreography heavily relies on repetition there is a lot of suspense building up and the relief that the viewers experience when one movement breaks out of the formation feels a lot like that delicious “beat drop” moment during an excessive techno club night.
What is remarkable about this piece is the ecstatic reaction of the audience at the end of the performance which is often greeted with standing ovations and screams and shouts. This is not exactly a typical reaction of the Berlin opera and ballet audience.
Can you imagine a neighborhood in Berlin with only one ethnic background? This is the case of Chatsworth, a part of Durban in South Africa. During Apartheid all the inhabitants with Indian roots had to move to one common neighborhood. There they got only small houses to live in. Through this measures, the government hoped that the community of Indians would not grow larger.
Enfant terrible of the dance theater scene – Constanza Macras – choose Chatsworth as the title and frame of her newest piece. Her particular style of documentary dance theater takes the audience through fragments of unique stories, local music, romantic songs and her signature group dance scenes.
Company Wayne McGregor
The Tanz im August Festival is back showcasing the immensely diverse world of contemporary dance on the stages of Berlin! From the August 10 to September 2 you’ll be able to enjoy and experience a wide range of dances throughout the city. From international productions by established creators to newcomers and world premieres. On top of that, the program also includes talks and workshops so the public can engage by participating and learn through action. And now, without further ado, we present you our selection of the 10 most exciting pieces from this edition of Tanz im August. Enjoy!
What is the difference between the meat on our body and the meat on our plates? Is there really one? Why does our brain rather consider a bunch of oversized fake sausages “meat” while the real meat sits naked on top of it?
For the research to his award-winning piece Requiem for a Piece of Meat theater maker Daniel Hellmann went deep into the cruel realities of the meat production industry. What he found there was both shocking and eye-opening, and turned him and part of his team to veganism. The ways how we humans disassociate a piece of meat from what it really is – a sliced-off piece from a living creature that was killed against its will after enduring a life of torture and mistreatment – is one of the topics he dissects in his piece. But it goes far beyond the treatment of animals and blurred lines of what is the meat on our bones, the meat of an animal and the meat product that goes over the butcher’s counter. It also questions how we treat black bodies and female bodies, and how lust and desire play into our associations with meat.
Nothing that you will see in this piece is done for shock value – in fact, the realities of the things depicted in the play are by far more shocking. Yet, for some theaters, the production was too extreme so it got censored and even canceled. Luckily, Berlin theater people are not so thin-skinned so we can enjoy the German premiere tonight at Ballhaus Ost with encore screenings on the following days. Some impressions and details below.