photo: Anna Agliardi.
One of the artistic genres that we as iHeartBerlin have been most excited about in recent years is that of dance and performance theater. We love theater in general, of course, but dance has a special place in our hearts. Maybe because it’s the one thing that creates a bridge between what was historically once our main focus, clubbing, and the world of theater: expression through movement. In fact, a lot of the dance pieces that we cover are heavily influenced by the music and style of the nightlife, which also includes traditional staples such as the ballet.
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by Frank | Theater
When I read that the new theater piece Do the Right Thing by Ariel Efraim Ashbel was heavily inspired by Bauhaus I was already sold! Already I imagined the second coming of Oskar Schlemmer’s iconic Triadic Ballet. And indeed you will find a lot of references in the piece: costumes that are more objects than garments, sharp geometric shapes, bold prime colors, the grid pattern on the floor. Just like Schlemmer Ashbel questions the norms of theater of the time. His piece is so abstract, blurring the lines between performers, objects, lights, and the stage – everything seems to have an equal weight in the whole picture. While watching the piece it is all up to you to either just enjoy the almost ritualistic successions of movements in a space filled with color gradients that keep shifting back and forth, or you try to decipher the embedded details of the abstracted message of the title that you will find scattered all over the piece. Either way, you will be drawn in by powerful visuals and an even more captivating live soundtrack by Hacklander \ Hatam.
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by Frank | Theater
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.
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by Claudio | Theater
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!
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by Amanda Artiaga | Theater
Coming from the queer black and latin underground culture of New York over 50 years ago the Ball Culture took a long time to finally arrive in good old Berlin. Thanks to the famous Paris Is Burning documentary and – yes, maybe also because of that one Madonna song – the Ballroom Community and more specifically one of its disciplines – Voguing – have surfaced from the subculture into the mainstream, also spreading the concept into many major cities in the world. Learn more about the history of voguing in this earlier iHeart feature.
In Berlin, one of the major independent theaters has embraced the local Ball Culture inviting it onto its stage. Together with the Berlin Ballroom Community, the Hebbel Am Ufer manages to successfully melt the intimate world of Ballrooms with the extroverted world of performance art. It’s a fantastic spectacle that let’s a wider audience get a peek into an otherwise quite private world, encouraging people who are curious about Voguing to join a House or even form a new one. Berlin already has a couple of “Houses” which is how a group of Voguers is called that form a fabulous little family.
This past Saturday we had the chance to join the Opulence Ball at HAU2 and of course, we wouldn’t miss the opportunity to take a couple of photos and animated GIFs. Enjoy the show!
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by Frank | Party, Photos, Theater
photo: Garrett Davis/capture imaging
When you go to the theater most of the time your role will be that of the audience. You sit there and watch a bunch of excentric crazy people running around naked and screaming on stage. Well, that’s my very simplistic description of going to theater in Berlin 😉 But what if you have a different role at your next theater visit? What if you become part of the performance? That’s an experience that will certainly change your view on theater.
The piece Western Society by the famous and beloved Berlin-based theater company Gob Squad is basically an ongoing re-enactment of one of the most boring and ordinary youtube videos of a family gathering in front of the TV set and watching something while going on about their business in the background. Of course the piece dives way deeper into the behavior, norms, traditions and conflicts of our modern society, but I would like to leave that up to you to discover it.
When I was watching this piece a few months ago I was pretty puzzled when right in the beginning of the play one of the actors threw a plush animal in my face and asked me to come down to the stage and participate in the performance. Oups, I was not exactly expecting that. I was than charmingly introduced into the clever system of headset-based prompting by none other than Tatiana Saphie, star of our online comedy The Fruit Salad, who was also one of the actors in Western Society. And than I found myself among the actors and other members of the audience right in the middle of the theater set re-enacting the living room scene while the main actors gave me instructions what to do and what to say through my ear piece. It was certainly an unexpected and exciting experience. After the jump there are some photos of the piece and a short extract from the recording of the show with me in it. It looks rather weird, but it was really fun and I had the honor of having the only speaking role of the guests so that was extra cool.
UPDATE: Western Society by Gob Squad is playing again this weekend on March 17-19, 2018 at HAU in Kreuzberg. Don’t miss it and reach for those flying plush animals!
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by Frank | Theater
The season opening of the HAU Theater never got as much attention as the current one thanks to the installation project Wanna Play from the Dutch artist Dries Verhoeven. The artist created a physical chat box right in the middle of Heinrichplatz in Kreuzberg. In his glass container he is planning to live until the 15th of October. During this period of time he will only communicate with the outside world through gay dating apps like Grindr trying to hook up with men, but not for sex but for other social activites inside the box. The idea was to criticize the explicit and care-free sexual behaviour of gays with the app. Turning the world of Grindr upside down he wanted to just make appointments for harmless dates: “I will play chess with them, have breakfast, make pancakes, we’ll shave one another or read to one another from our favourite books,” Dries Verhoeven writes in a statement about the project.
But in the end nothing was really harmless about this project. All digital conversations were projected live in public on his pavilion so that everyone stopping by could read them. The faces of the chat partners were made unrecognizable but some argue that it was not really anonymous enough (if you took a picture you could easily remove the uv-filter through photoshop) . But the problem that made most people furious and legitimately offended was the fact, that he did not inform his chat partners about the fact that they and their conversation were part of a public “art” installation. The rage got viral and the story of Parker Tilghmann who fell into the “trap” spread all over the internet. To respond to the massive protest from the public and the queer community the artist and the HAU Theater decided to interrupt the performance for an open discussion tonight 19h at Hau 2 (Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin). There will be the possibility to ask and criticize the artist directly in an open dialogue. Some questions I would like to ask the artist and more critical thoughts about the project after the jump.
UPDATE: Following the public discussion on October 5, HAU Hebbel am Ufer is hosting a further talk on October 15. Short statements will be given by sex researcher Martin Dannecker, internet activist Nathan Fain and journalist and blogger Kevin Junk. The discussion will then be opened up to questions from the audience, at which time Dries Verhoeven and Annemie Vanackere, artistic and managing director of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, will also participate. Moderation will be provided by journalist Martin Reichert. The event is free and begins at 8 pm at HAU1.
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by Claudio | Kreuzberg, Theater
Imagine the Berlin Zoo would not be famous for Knut, the little giraffe or the funny monkey but for a real Kenian family or little Indian babies displayed there. If we would still be in the 19th to 20th century this could actually be possible. Public exhibits of humans, usually in a so-called natural or primitive state, were common in zoological gardens all over Europe. The so-called savages were as interesting to the fine educated ladies and gents as exotic creatures from the forest and the sea. In the piece All White People Look The Same To Me – Notes On National Pornography which premiered at Hau 3 last night, the Human Zoo is recreated with stereotypes of white people. The 50s pin-up girl, the safari hunter, snow-white, a blond hairy monster who looks like coming straight from the Adams family are just a couple of extravagant characters you will meet by visiting this piece. An absolutely hilarious combination of fantastic actors directed and written Ariel Efraim Ashbel and Romm Lewkowicz to create an interesting collage of associative scenes to this anthropologic topic. If you miss to see the piece (because it is nearly sold out) you can still look at their funny tumblr here. Enjoy some pictures and the details after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
Did you know that the World Exposition in Osaka Japan was powered by the energy of the first nuclear plant built in Japan? Or did you know that there is a manual on how to shoot video material to document the demonstration in Syria without the danger of getting killed and your family tortured? The World ist not fair says the theater genius Matthias Lilienthal who is chief of HAU and responsible for the big theatrical event at Flughafen Tempelhof. We had the chance to visit this amazing installation of several perfomances and little exhibitions and were really blown away. This is the last week you can visit it and I recommend to do so. Take your bike and enjoy nature, urbanity and art getting together. Don’t miss the perfomance of Tatjana Saphir and Santiago Blaum at the andcompany&Co stage. Also the Instiut für Imaginäre Inseln has a lot to offer for intrepid explorers. Find the whole program over here and some pictures of our day after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Theater
Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black
Berlins subculture has an open position to the term Camp. Our party pictures prove to you that there is no city with more kitchy crazyness then Berlin. How nice that there is finally a festival bringing big parts of North American and Canadian Camp and Queer Life experts into town. The Hebbel am Ufer hosts a three day multidisciplinary festival called Camp/Anti-Camp: A Queer Guide to Everyday Life that you should not miss. The whole program, some really dirty videos and some images after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Theater
