With Radical Minimal, the Berlin-based Company Christoph Winkler explores the radical potential of minimal music and contemporary dance. In three choreographies, the team reinterprets three well-known pieces of minimal music: Come Out by Steve Reich, Coming Together by Frederic Rzewski and Stay on it by Julius Eastman. For each piece of music, a unique choreographic language is developed, through which the reception history of the pieces in music and dance as well as their respective connection to the U.S. civil rights movement becomes visible. Together with the Zafraan Ensemble and other international guest musicians, Company Christoph Winkler will present the three new interpretations in a joint live performance.
The approach is particularly impressive in the example of Steve Reich's Come out. The piece alienates the testimony of a young, African-American man who was arrested in the course of the Harlem riots in 1964, becoming a victim of police violence. The composition further alienates his voice through progressive sound layering; thus also anticipating the media propagation of racial violence cases, which is known, from the context of Black Lives Matters, among others. In Radical Minimal, the original context now becomes visible through a choreographic exploration by Adebajo Oluwafemi Israel and Rasheed Ridwan (The Future of Dance Company).
CHRISTOPH WINKLER is one of Germany's most distinguished and versatile choreographers. His work covers a wide spectrum of formats and ranges from very personal to political themes. Under the umbrella of the "Company Christoph Winkler" he brings together dancers from all over the world to work together as temporary collectives on a broad spectrum of content. Since 1996, he has created more than 80 dance pieces as a freelance artist. In 2014 Das Wahre Gesicht won the FAUST Prize of the German Stage Association in the category "Best Choreography". In 2016, the FAUST Prize was awarded again to one of his productions when Aloalii Tapu was named "Best Dancer" for the solo Urban Soul Café. Winkler was also the initiator and curator of The Witch Dance Project and the FanFic Festival. In recent years, he has performed several musically inspired productions with great success, including Ernest Berk - The Complete Expressionist, Julius Eastman - Speak Boldly or We Are Going to Mars. In 2020 Christoph Winkler was awarded a George Tabori award, and in May 2022 he received the German Dance Award.
CONCEPT Christoph Winkler MUSIC Zafraan Ensemble FLUTE Liam Mallett SAXOPHONE Martin Posegga CLARINET Miguel Pérez Iñesta PERCUSSION Daniel Eichholz PIANO Clemens Hund-Göschel VIOLINE Emmanuelle Bernard VIOLA Josa Gerhard VIOLONCELLO Martin Smith BY + WITH Oluwafemi Israel Adebajo, Lisa Rykena, Aloalii Tapu, Ridwan Rasheed, Raha Nejad, Sophie Prins
A production by Company Christoph Winkler in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the Federal Cultural Foundation with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Media partner: taz, die Tageszeitung.