replay investigates the formal relationships between movement and sound in pop, classical music, opera and drag. Drawing on her own biography, Olympia Bukkakis and her rebellious back up dancers raise questions about class and cultural hierarchies.
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Insel der Orgeln (Island of Organs) is a happening of dance, music, performance and installation and searches for experienced, repressed and dreamed concepts of life and survival. On the island, travelers bring together terrible and promising life stories to the polyphony of the organs in order to invoke the question of the healing power of the social family of choice.
Kontakthof by Pina Bausch is one of the most famous works of contemporary dance. In 2018, artist Dalibor Šandor wondered why Bausch never actually made a version with disabled artists. Dis Contact is a new work by artists belonging to communities and cultures that are systematically oppressed in the world where Kontakthof has a prominent status.
In OUT OF MIND Eva Meyer-Keller and her accomplices develop choreographic approaches to what we call consciousness and experience. She takes neuroscientific approaches as a starting point to undertake a dive into a slippery terrain of uncertainties and turns the theater space into an experimental laboratory in which more-thanhuman performers enter the scene as well.
Time out of Joint is a grotesque variety show of political speeches and a virtuously cacophonous concert of feminist struggles of the 20th century. Applying the tactic of tactlessness, utterances by historically influential female* speakers are dissected, distorted and recomposed. Dancing bodies explore rhetorical strategies as questions of rhythmic (re)arrangement and make voice audible as the battlefield of political representation.
What does the demand for a “decolonization of the University” mean for German-language theater studies? What could a post- or decolonial Theater Science look like in research and teaching? Together with contributors from the anthology Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/decolonial, the editors Azadeh Sharifi and Lisa Skwirblies want to explore these questions.
Vanessa Stern has lost her way. She cried out bravely: “Social media, you are my enemy!” and founded a knighthood (complete with cute ponies) to go into battle against the dark forces of Reach and Attention. Theater without clicks and shares and likes! Be there when no one is following us! Another world is possible.
à mort is a performative-musical exploration of processes of domination, dying and killing. Excessive scenes of destruction emerge in a memento mori inspired installation of natural and artificial materials. The female voice emerges as a powerful physical presence in a dying world, challenging the grotesque human desire for dominance.
For his project, Hendrik Quast learns the art of ventriloquism in order to approach the chronic inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis artistically. In conversation with the disease, new ways of speaking and images of chronic illness emerge, opening up unusual spaces of humor for the ill and healthy audience.
JANUAR 05 – 21
Hey, why do you look so tired? "Urgency culture" expects us to be connected and responsive constantly. There is little to no time left to imagine the world otherwise. Tanztage Berlin – a yearly festival highlighting the work of the city's emerging dance makers – is back to diagnose the present and predict the future. Its 32nd edition investigates our daily overstimulation and chronic fatigue by reflecting on how we move to the rhythm of today's high-speed, social media-driven reality and its challenges.
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The SOPHIENSÆLE are pleased to present their new management team starting with the season 2023/24. JENS HILLJE and ANDREA NIEDERBUCHNER have been recruited as artistic directors. KERSTIN MÜLLER will remain with the company as commercial director. Together, Jens Hillje, Andrea Niederbuchner and Kerstin Müller will manage the SOPHIENSÆLE as an executive team from July 1, 2023.
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On April 10 and 11 at 7 pm the performance will be streamed live from the Sophiensæle. Tickets are valid only on the booked date. Tickets for the replay of the recording from April 12-14 are available HERE.
April 13 | 8.15 PM | Artist Talk
On April 13 there will be an Artist Talk in English via Zoom with choreographer Kareth Schaffer and performers Mădălina Dan and Manon Parent. Moderation: Mateusz Szymanówka. Click HERE to register. Click here to download the Zoom manual. To participate, you must download the Zoom software and agree to its privacy policy.
In her new work, choreographer Kareth Schaffer addresses the demons of today’s world: Between actionism and laziness, distraction and apathy, the performers Mădălina Dan and Manon Parent fight their way through stage designer Dan Lancea's inflating stage landscape. Between potato chip-fueled fantasies of world and self-improvement, smartphone-induced contactless impro or a lethargic yawning contest, rage suddenly erupts from the dancers - until the next moment of distraction. To the subtle synthesizer rhythms of sound designer Jean P'ark, a demonology of the contemporary unfolds, exploring the multiple bodily constitutions into which we are placed in the name of different belief systems. At the same time, the piece creates a space of experience for the wonders that have always been possible even beyond spiritual asceticism and the Work-Hard-paradigm.
KARETH SCHAFFER is a choreographer and performer living and working in Berlin, Germany. She practices an expanded concept of choreography: so far, her dance pieces have examined prophecies, mud wrestling, thrillers, synchronized swimming, Foley, Angela Merkel, emojis, ancient monastic practices, and conversational formats. Her work has been shown in Berlin (Sophiensæle, Tanzfabrik, HAU, Uferstudios, Ballhaus Ost), Amsterdam (Het Veemtheater), Düsseldorf (tanzhaus NRW), Essen (PACT Zollverein), Malmö, Hamburg (Kampnagel), Denpasar (CushCush Gallery) and Mexico City. Kareth Schaffer was awarded "New Talent 2016" by Jahrbuch Tanz and nominated "Dancer of the Year 2018". She was also awarded the 2018 Pina Bausch Fellowship in cooperation with the Mekar Bhuana Center in Denpasar, Bali. Schaffer enjoys working with and for other artists* such as deufert&plischke, Tino Sehgal, Stefanie Wenner, Yvon Chabrowski, Christian Falsnaes, Tomomi Adachi, Dragana Bulut, and Barbara Berti.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT, CHOREOGRAPHY Kareth Schaffer PERFORMANCE Mădălina Dan, Manon Parent SOUNDDESIGN Jean P'ark STAGE Dan Lancea COSTume Lauren Steel LIGHTING Joseph Wegmann/Elliot Cennetoglu PRESS + PR Michael Ludwig Tsouloukidse Camera team, Streaming Magma Studio (Leonard Leesch + Francisco Hassmann) CAMERA ASSSISTENT Marius Mailänder SOUND Andrea Parolin Live-DIRECTOR Sebastian König PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT M.i.C.A. - Movement in Contemporary Art
A production by Kareth Schaffer in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds. With the kind support of Uferstudios Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin, and Dock 11/EDEN Studios Berlin. Media partner: taz. die tageszeitung
