A body tries to rebuild an existence in a new environment, to adapt to it and to define itself anew. While doing so, the body carries remnants from its previous journey – memories, images, impressions, relationships. It seems as though the moving body has been thrown into a new reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Düsseldorf choreographer Alexandra Waierstall. She attempts to explore specific factors in a new world, such as spatiality, temporality and relationships, in her new solo “VENUS un/seen” for dancer Karolina Szymura – accompanied by the musical composition of renowned Düsseldorf composer and pianist Volker Bertelmann, a.k.a. HAUSCHKA. This analysis occurs through the lens of memory, of absence, the lens of the blatant and of indecision. To find a language for this transformational process, Alexandra Waierstall decides to trust the body’s perceptive capabilities instead of the certainty granted by the eyes. The dancing body collects, remembers, connects and imagines – while its broken existence and vulnerability are neither hidden nor ignored; the fragmented self will instead be dignified and celebrated because it transforms into the new terrain, into the new reality.
With “VENUS un/seen”, Alexandra Waierstall explores and conceives the meaning of her art form, dance, in a changing world.
VENUS un/seen
Premier: 1 + 2 October 2020, tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf, Germany
Duration: 50 min.
People on tour: 4
Choreography, concept: Alexandra Waierstall; Dance, collaboration: Karolina Szymura; Artistic collaboration: Marianna Christofides, Maria Iole Karolidou; Composition: Volker Bertelmann / HAUSCHKA; Light design: Caty Olive, Alexandra Waierstall; Costumes, stage: Alexandra Waierstall, Horst Weierstall; Support: Harry Koushos; Real-time video editing: Cédric Hopf, Alexandra Waierstall; Management: Judith Jaeger
Production: Noema Dance Works e.V.; Coproduction: tanzhaus nrw; Supported by: the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Kunststiftung NRW; With support of: Dancegate Lefkosia Cyprus
On VENUS un/seen
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