After a successful premiere in April 2024, Bird Dances returns to Sophiensæle!

The three-part choreographic work Bird Dances is a bird’s eye reflection on borders, feelings of home, reflections on the climate crisis, and our kaleidoscopic relationship with the natural world: Kareth Schaffer // Construction Company explore migration – that of birds and that of humans – juxtaposing human and animal movement to re-adjust common narratives with delicately feathered speculations.

Bird Dances started with an intensive community-based process of bird observation and the development of new social dances held in the largely rural area of Uecker-Randow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and unfolds as a series of workshops, a video installation, and the dance performance at Sophiensæle.

The dance performance Bird Dances features short solos by four dancers whose own biographies intertwine with the stories of four kinds of birds, all of whom spend their lives at least partially in Europe: the marsh warbler, the nightingale, the red kite and so-called “vagrant birds” i.e. bird species that appear in areas far removed from their actual habitat. The inter-related danced monologues are punctuated with movement material drawn from the workshops and costume. The stage design by Dan Lancea maps different spaces, routes and trails within the theater environment.