Schlagwort-Archive: Performance

Residential Workshop Italy 15 – 20 Sept 2023 Susanne & Francesco

MOVING INSIDE OUTSIDE
Contact Improvisation – Push Hands (Tai Chi) – Qi Gong – Partnering – Outdoor Explorations – Performance Scores 
Intensive dance workshop with Susanne Martin and Francesco Zita at Casina Settarte, Puglia Italy, 15 – 20 September 2023

Susanne’s teaching is based in contact improvisation, instant composition and 30 years of creating performances in the field of contemporary dance and theatre. During her studio classes we will focus on the principals and techniques of contact improvisation and how they lead to playful physical co-creativity in duet, trio and group situations. We will create a respectful environment to deepen our understanding of skilful touch, proximity and degrees of weight exchange to (further) clarify and deepen our joy and interest in improvised dance.

Francesco‘s teaching is based on principles from Aikido, Tai Chi – Push Hands, Chi Kung, contact improvisation, partnering, instant composition and body work. During his studio classes we will focus on the practise of partnering starting with basic Push Hands Tai Chi. We’ll practice grounding, spirals and flow into movement, intention, connection centre-extremity, moving without effort, exploring different kinds of touch and weight, tuning with partners and environment, energetic massage, enjoying the unknown.

During outdoor sessions we will focus on our relationship to the natural landscape of Itria Valley / Trullo’s  valley: ancient olive trees, rocks, Apulian red earth, the sea, wind, light and shadow. We open ourselves to a different sense of space, time and relationship and explore how that can be a resource for our dancing.

Some evenings we will perform for each other to share our practices and findings of the workshop.

It will be a week of intense artistic study in the studio and the surrounding land & a sunrise trip to the sea. To fully appreciate the beauty of this part of Italy at the end of summer we recommend to add a few days of holiday somewhere around Itria Valley or at Casina Settarte itself. If you want to stay on at Casina contact Francesco at info@casinasettarte.org

The workshop starts on the 15th in the evening and ends on the 20st in the evening.
Arrival 15th September at 5 pm, meeting at Ostuni train station. Departure 21st September at 10am
The price include Seminar, food and accomodation
EARLY BIRD 1st of August 50€  OF DISCOUNT
FROM the 2nd of August  FULL PRICE
Camping ( with matrass)                    515 €
Grotta Ginestra (cave)  2 beds           545 €
Fishouse 2 beds                                 545 €
Tai chi studio 4 beds                           545 €
Roulotte 1/2 beds                               545 €
Tanzaku Tree house 1 bed                 575 €
Trullo 3 beds                                       575 €
Lamia 3 beds                                      575 €
NB For the registration it’s necessary to send a bank transfer of 150€

IBAN    IT 96 D 05018 04000 000012405247            BANCA POPOLARE ETICA

BIC/SWIFT:  ETICIT22XXX  (mandatory from march 20th 2023)
causal: iscrizione annuale APS KRONOPIOS CASINA SETTARTE per… your name (pay in only 150€ , the rest you will give in cash when you come in CasinaSettarte before that the seminar start). PLEASE DON’T DO THE REGISTRATION PAYING MORE THAN 150€.
MANY THANKS

English practical information:

At Casina Settarte we believe that by paying attention to simple, everyday things we can develop our awareness and understanding of sustainable living. Small ways we can start to make a difference are by recycling, reducing our consumption of plastic, re-using glass containers, using natural and biodegradeable soaps.
We ask you to please read the essential / practical information here on the website of Casina before you arrive, if you have any questions about these things please don’t hesitate to ask us.

Arriving at Casina Settarte at 5pm at the train station of Ostuni, at the bar. If you cannot make this pick-up time then you can get here by taxi, please contact us for phone numbers for local taxi firms. In all cases please email info@casinasettarte.org in advance to let us know what date and time you will arrive and what modes of transport you will use.

Taxi for different arrivals time:
ANGELO (+39) 330 964927
GIANNOTTA 347 7023843

Was ist Tanz? (April 2022)

Centre Francais Berlin S.K.A.T.#1 Was ist Tanz Flyer 27.04.22
Mit Susanne Martin und Jan Burkhardt

Durch eine Mischung von Vortrag, Workshop und Performance widmen wir uns einigen zentralen Tanzthemen wie zum Beispiel:

Wonach gucken wir, wenn wir Tanz sehen?
Woran denken wir, wenn wir selbst tanzen?
Wie verhält sich Tanz zu Ton und zu Musik?
Was könnte man wissen und was will ich wissen über Tanz?
Wie passen Tanz und Alter(n) zusammen?

Anders gesagt: Mit Hilfe von Wahrnehmungsaufgaben, Bewegungsaufgaben (kein Zwang) und gemeinsamem Nachdenken lade ich ein, sich dem Phänomen Tanz anzunähern. Außerdem konnte ich meinen wunderbaren Kollegen Jan Burkhardt (Tänzer/Choreograph/Tanzvermittler) gewinnen in einem Gastbeitrag etwas zu unserem Tanzverstehen beizutragen. Also es wird spannend. Vorwissen oder spezielle körperliche Fähigkeiten sind nicht erforderlich. Alle Altersgruppen sind willkommen, Expert*innen und Genies jeglicher Art dürfen auch mitmachen.

Alle Fotos: Félicie Bleesz

 

Fotos: Félicie Bleesz

Understanding Dance for Beginners and Intermediates, May 2020

This video tutorial (4 episodes) is a response to the statement “I don’t understand dance” – a sentence we encounter ever so often when moving away from the inner circles of dance lovers and dance experts. So, we attend to questions like: What do I look for when watching dance? What’s the relationship between dance, sound and music? What is there to know, and what would I like to know about dance? Understanding Dance for Beginners and Intermediates is an invitation to wonder, ponder, study, meet, and simply be in the room with dance. Let’s see how far we get. Advanced fans, advanced skeptics, professionals, and children are also welcome.

Susanne Martin – concept, performance
Gabriele Reuter – co-creation, performance
Hui-Chun Lin – co-creation, cello
Andrea Keiz – camera, video

Created for Soundance Festival Berlin 2020 (www.soundance-festival.de)

# Episode 1

Kinesthetic Empathy

Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching

Foster, Susan (2011) Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. London: Routledge.

Pavis, Patrice (2016) The Routledge dictionary of performance and contemporary theatre. London: Routledge.

Reason, Matthew and Reynolds, Dee (2010) Kinesthesia, Empathy, and Related Pleasures: An Inquiry into Audience Experiences of Watching Dance. Dance Research Journal. Cambridge University Press, 42(2), pp. 49–75.

Reynolds, Dee and Reason, Matthew (2012) Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices. Bristol: Intellect.

30 min. lecture performance by Susan Foster (2011) Kinesthetic Empathies & The Politics of Compassion. http://danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-foster/kinesthetic-empathies.html

 

# Episode 2

Monte Verità Part 1

Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching

Early European Modern Dance

Müller, Hedwig and Stöckermann, Patricia (1993) “…jeder Mensch ist ein Tänzer.” Ausdruckstanz in Deutschland zwischen 1900 und 1945. Gießen: Anabas.

Oberzaucher-Schüller, Gunhild (1992) Ausdruckstanz: Eine mitteleuropäische Bewegung der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Wilhelmshaven: Florian Noetzel.

45 min. documentary by Allegra Fuller Snyder (1991) When the fire dances between the two poles – Mary Wigman 1886-1973. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFCVWVaeevA

18 min. Jill Beck (1988) intensive course in elementary Labanotation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhCI7WIBJg

60 min. Mark Jarecke (2012) introduction to Laban’s Space Harmony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-B_E3loAto

Dance and Recognition

Foellmer, Susanne (2006) Valeska Gert: Fragmente einer Avantgardistin in Tanz und Schauspiel der 1920er Jahre. Bielefeld: transcript.

Gert, Valeska (1968, reprint 2019) Ich bin eine Hexe: Kaleidoskop meines Lebens. Berlin: Alexander.

30 min. talk show excerpt (1975) with Valeska Gert as guest (in German language). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xgpvta0UMA

 

# Episode 3

Monte Verità Part 2

Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching

Dada / Cabaret Voltaire

5 min. excerpt of documentary by Greta Deses (1969). Reconstruction of a performance at the Cabaret Voltaire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkl92oV1kMc

55 min. documentary by Helmut Herbst (1968) Germany – Dada: An Alphabet of German Dadaism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jMqxSPWWQ

Hermeneutics

12 min. video tutorial by Victor Gijsbers (2017) The Hermeneutic Circle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEzc__BBxs

12 min. collage of Hans-Georg Gadamer speaking about hermeneutics (German with English subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm-hZY5W4Ss

Dance and Music

2 min. trailer by Walter Bickmann (2018) Gabriele Reuter and Mattef Kuhlmey in The Amplitude. https://www.tanzforumberlin.de/produktion/the-amplitude/

8 min. documentary (2017) on a sensory atelier based on The Amplitude by Gabriele Reuter and Mattef Kuhlmey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=339&v=__4boy3T3uQ&feature=emb_logo

10 min. performance excerpts (2017) of duets by Jenny Haack and Lin Hui-Chun. https://vimeo.com/294438082

6 min. performance excerpt (2016) Dr. D. meets Dr. V. by Susanne Martin and Alex Nowitz. https://vimeo.com/239994378

Hauert, Thomas (2016) Inaudible. Project description and video excerpt. https://zoo-thomashauert.be/en/projects/139/inaudible

 # Episode 4

Dance in Context

No recommendations for this episode.

The workaholics should take a break.

The others still have work to do for Episode 1-3.

ENJOY

Dancing Age(ing) lecture performances

– 24 May 2023 Jung bleiben und Sterben üben – eine Lecture Performance zu Alter(n) und Tanz, Ringvorlesung, ZENTRUM FÜR INTERDISZIPLINÄRE ALTERNS- UND CARE-FORSCHUNG, Universität Graz

– 4 December 2023 Üben, Üben, Üben, NachWieVor – Fachtag Tanzperformance und Alter(n), Ehrenfeld Studios Köln, Germany

-30 January 2020 Dancing Age(ing): an Ongoing Practice and a Danced Lecture conference on intersectionality, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, dance department, Belgium

Screenshots: Sumalin Gijsbrechts, Antwerp symposium intersectionality 2020

-26 September 2019 Dancing Age(ing) Interdisziplinäres Dialogforum Mensch und Endlichkeit, Goldegg, Austria

Photo: Kristin Attems, Symposium Goldegg 2019

Photo Johann Platzer, Symposium Goldegg 2019

Photo: Johann Platzer, Symposium Goldegg 2019

-9 May 2019 Dancing Age(ing): Strategien der Aneignung oder des Sich-Befremden-Lassens? Ein getanzter Vortrag, University Leipzig, Institut for theatre studies, Germany

-29 November 2018 Dancing Age(ing) – Performing Ambiguity, conference Cultural Perspectives on Ageing, Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany

Photo: Peter Derkx, Cultural Perspectives on Ageing, Schloss Herrenhausen 2018

Photo: Peter Derkx, Cultural Perspectives on Ageing, Schloss Herrenhausen 2018

– 27 June 2018 Performing Ambiguity a danced lecture, Chichester University, UK

-5 May 2018 Improvising Age(ing): a danced lecture, Kiev, Ukraine

– 14-16 February 2018 Die Vieldeutigkeit von Alter(n) performen: a danced lecture
6. Werkstattgespräch des interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises Ambivalenz: Altern und biographische Übergänge, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany

teaching lately

– SS 2022 Erst- und Zweitbegegnungen mit Tanzimprovisation Evangelische Hochschule Berlin

– SS 2022 Tanzimprovisation & Methoden künstlerischer Forschung Evangelische Hochschule Berlin-

– 3.5.2022 Body and Voice in Teaching, Workshop EPFL Lausanne

– 27.4.2022 Was ist Tanz? Workshop / Lecture Performance zusammen mit Jan Burkhardt, Centre Francais Berlin, https://centre-francais.de/events/skat-1-was-ist-tanz-mit-susanne-martin-und-jan-burkhardt/

–  Somatic Research and Documentation Workshop 26/27 March 2022
Information and registration via Somatische Akademie Berlin: https://www.somatische-akademie.de/en/your-account/booking-en

Movement Improvisation for University Teachers (together with S. Henein) Feb & Sept 2022, in Lausanne. More infos: www.epfl.ch/labs/instantlab/ascopet

 

– WS 2021/22 Tanzimprovisation & Methoden künstlerischer Forschung Evangelische Hochschule Berlin

– SS 2021 Erst- und Zweitbegegnungen mit Tanzimprovisation Evangelische Hochschule Berlin

–  20/21 March 2021 Online Workshop Somatic Research and Documentation
Information and registration via Somatische Akademie Berlin

-August 2020 CI Workshop, international contact improvisation festival, Freiburg (cancelled)

– July 2020 CI Workshop, The Netherlands Contact Improvisation Festival (cancelled)

– 14/15 March 2020 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin

– 27 February 2019 Dancing with Real Bodies, improvisation class for MA students of EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland as part of the EPFL research project Improvisation & Engineering

– 16-17 February 2019 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin

–15 – 21 October 2018 dancer training and performances for VARIA Festival Göteborg, Sweden

– 23/24 July 2018 Workshop Bad Performance For Shy Artists, transart institute, summer intensive Berlin

– 29 May – 6 June 2018 CI Workshop Watch Us Dance, Ukraine CI Festival, see website ci-ukraine.com/wpWatch Us Dance,

– 24/25 March 2018 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin

–18/19 November 2017 Workshop Body & Milieu Body IQ Festival, Somatische Akademie Berlin

– 16 – 22 June 2017 CI Workshop Dancing with Others – Dancing for Others, Bucharest CI Festival

 

About Susi & Gabi’s Salon

Graphic Sophie Jahnke

Graphic Sophie Jahnke

Susi & Gabi’s Salon
Susanne Martin & Gabriele Reuter (Berlin) revive a European tradition that dates back to the 17th century; a salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host (Susi & Gabi as Salonnières do their best to inspire!), held partly for amusement and partly to refine taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. In dialogue with invited guests and the audience, these evenings revolve around the phenomenon of Improvisation as performance, choreography and research.

 

The Salon as Dance Mediation Format, a documentation of Salon #13 by Maren Witte

first published in Mapping Dance Berlin 2018
 http://www.tanzraumberlin.de/files/map_broschure_web_fin_1.pdf

Description of the setting and the idea of the format
The latest edition of Susi & Gabi’s Salon marks the beginning of the Tanzfabrik showcase series “Open Spaces” from November 1-6, 2017. Two of the performance groups invited to the showcase can already present their work here and put it up for discussion. The salon, as designed by Susanne Martin and Gabriele Reuter, is based on a long tradition and – in addition to its humorous and artistic dynamic and quality – is socio-politically, feministically and educationally motivated.

The format follows a clear and transparent process comprising ten stations:
1. Welcome; 2. Warm-Up; 3. Transition; 4. Performance; 5. Talk over drinks; 6. Body work of the day; 7. Performance; 8. Improvisation ‚positioning of my art‘; 9. 100 questions and 3 answers; 10. Audience award.

(How) does the format work? The evening starts at 6 pm and ends at 8 pm in an informal conversation. Among the approximately 50 guests, there are five without a dance background and just as many who rarely or never dance. (This information resulted from questions that the audience was initially asked to provide and to write down on distributed sheets of paper. The audience immediately began a lively conversation and also asked each other questions, among other things about their individual backgrounds.)

Graphik: Kerstin Hille

Welcome: Directly at the entrance we soon see from the stage, costumes, lighting and music that we are in a salon: the warm light, the waltz music, the sequin jackets and the pleated skirts of the two salonnières as well as their distinctive pearl necklaces create an atmosphere in which the group will partake for the next two hours. By contrast, the bare feet of the hostesses contrast with the historicizing salon attributes and clearly distinguish our situation as being embedded in contemporary art and society. In the welcoming part, the language question is quickly clarified: the language of the evening will be English, due to the international guests that are present. Guests will be informed of the evening’s progress (a flipchart with the schedule will be visible throughout the evening) and given a task: to record questions during the evening that may arise from the presented verbal or choreographic content (between a clear distinction is made between “real” and “rhetorical” questions). These questions will be collected in Phase 9 of the evening, but only a few will actually be answered. Afterwards Reuter and Martin select a representative from the audience, who at the end of the evening may present the Audience Award (two lemons) for two particularly successful “aspects” of the evening.

Warm-Up: Reuter and Martin increasingly integrate language into their warm-up, which initially begins as a purely physical contact duo, until they each present a striking anecdote from their studies: Reuter recalls a lesson from her lecturer, who had explained the significance of the audience for the essence and effect of art: “The artwork becomes animated because you look at it.” Martin talks about the notion of the “aspect” in Wittgenstein: An “aspect” always occurs when there is a change in thinking or in perception – an “aha moment”. In this phase of the salon evening, therefore, a kin-aesthetic-intellectual warm-up occurs, which both conveys information and invites active thinking and participation.

Resonance: The following stations are dedicated to theworking methods of the two invited artist groups: MartinSonderkamp/Darko Dragičević and Shannon Cooney with her team. From this phase of the evening I would like to mention the idea of the “responses”: After both groups showed each other an excerpt from their current productions, Reuter and Martin spontaneously stepped onto the stage and performed a “resonance”, which they attribute to their subjective memory as a moment from the presented material. In so doing, they present what they have personally perceived and experienced for all of us, what they remember and what they can do with their bodies. The theoretical concepts introduced at the beginning of the co-creative power of the art-recipients as well as the aesthetic experience of an aspect can be practically experienced here. On the other hand, both artists’ groups present their works in a way that actively involves the audience directly: Martin Sonderkamp asks half of the audience to leave the studio for a while, so that he can provide the other half information about the production. In this way, he wants to discover how being informed can augment or affect the visual experience. After the performance, both audiences can exchange their own visual experiences with a glass of sparkling wine and pretzel sticks. A lively “working break” is the result. Shannon Cooney, on the other hand, asks all interested parties to take the stage and initiates a five-minute somatic session in which we practice three-dimensional vision with our eyes closed. This sensitization not only has a pleasant, personal effect, but also prepares you physically and atmospherically for the subsequent part of the performance.

Positioning: The subsequent eighth session of the evening invites all participating artists to reflect on themselves and their art through the terms “improvisation”, “material”, “movement”, “dance”, “choreography”, “vision”, “relation”, etc. The terms are written on cardboard boxes and quickly invite all to partake in a group improvisation, in which different meanings and definitions arise through different arrangements – and are dissolved again.

Is the format transferable? The person in the seat next to me says goodbye at the end of the salon with the words “Now everything’s even more complicated for me than before! But it was exciting!”. In this sense, I can fully recommend the format for other productions, especially as a prelude to smaller festivals.

Maren Witte, Dr. Phil, is professor for theatre theories, dance and movement research at Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen, Ottersberg, Germany.

Artistic Research Lecture Performances – other themes

– 3 April 2022 Miteinander improvisieren: Ein Tanz, ein Vortrag und zwei Übungen zum Sich-Anstecken, Lecture Performance, Symposium Gruppenpsychoanalyse, Wien

– 25 October 2018 Ties & Bonds, together with Alex Nowitz, conference Alliances & Communalities, University of the Arts, Stockholm, Sweden

– 7 April 2018 Learning. Teaching. Dancing. An interactive danced lecture, Tanzfabrik Berlin

– 29 November 2017 live acts, moving bodies, and the sharing of time and ideas: a danced lecture, artistic research conference, Swedish arts council, Stockholm

Performing Improvisation at Bucharest Contact Improvisation Festival (2017)

22 June 2017, group improvisation performance of the teachers at Bucharest Contact Improvisation Festival, with Steven Batts, Inna Falkova, Elisa Ghion, Sergey Golovnya, Susanne Martin, Virginia Negru, Adrian Russi, Alexandra Soshnikova, venue: CNDB (Centrul Național al Dansului Bucuresti)

Photo Eugene Titov, duet with Adrian Russi

Photo: Alina Usurelu, duet with Virginia Negru

Photo Alina Usurelu, duet with Adrian Russi

Photo Alina Usurelu, with Steven Batts, Elisa Ghion, Susanne Martin, Virginia Negru

What do I teach (in 2019)?

My teaching deals mainly with dance, improvisation, performance, the body in different contexts, artistic research methods, or topics such as such as dance & age(ing) or improvisation & engineering, which developed out of my own artistic research.

In which formats do I teach?
– Workshops / Classes = practice oriented, limited time for verbal interaction
– Seminars = mix of input, practical exploration, group reflections/discussion
– Supervising / Coaching = one to one work, content focus tailored to supervisee
– Lecture Performances = performances aiming at knowledge production/dissemination, therefore therefore including a substantial amount of verbalizing

Workshops / Classes
Generally speaking, I teach what I embody as dancer and performer. I teach what I know most about, what I learned and still passionately study. So I design my dance teaching around one of the following 3 focal points
– contact Improvisation
– improvisation and composition for performance (group-duet-solo)
– improvisation-based workout

Photo Eugene Titov, contact workshop Dancing with Others – Dancing for Others, Bucharest Contact Festival 2017

Seminars
These are thematic seminars that combine practical and theoretical inputs and explorations with the participants. Themes are
– artistic research
– improvisation as exploration, as performance, as research
– showing process on stage, staging your work (e.g. “bad performing for shy artists”)
– dance & age(ing) (e.g. “undoing age appropriateness”)
­
Supervising / Coaching
I started to support individuals and groups in developing their respective artistic research practices. Currently I am supervising some MFA students, helping them the find, find back, not loose their very unique paths through the jungle of art and academia., I’m sharing inputs, tools and strategies from dance, theatre, artistic research and from my personal experience with collaborative artistic practice. I’m supporting processes of performance making

Photo:Harald Mühle, Zeitgenössischer Tanz und Alter(n), Dialog der Generationen Werkstattgepräche, Berlin 2013

Lecture Performances
I keep developing the hybrid format of lecture performance.
I’m staging, dancing and discussing specific themes often with invited guests and/or the audience – these lectures often include some audience activity/participation. For past lecture performances go to „Research“ and “Salons” in the menu.

Video Still Benedikte Esperi, Dancing Age(ing) – Sliding through Time, Göteborg University for Music and Drama, Q&A with Benedikte Esperi 2017

The Fountain of Age (2015)


Photos W. Gillingham Sutton​​

A Solo / Dance / Piece / Lecture / Performance
Premiere: 18 June 2015, Ravensfield Theatre MIddlesex University London
Duration: 40 min
Supported by: Middlesex University London, Tanzfabrik Berlin

Photos William Gillingham Sutton

The Fountain of Age tells an ambiguous and ironic tale of age(ing). Through a collage of scenes in which dance, text, costume, mask work, and music interrelate, the piece aims to counteract any simple ascertainment of youth and age.

Ambiguity is emphasised in this performance to see what can be learned when we complicate and question our ideas, expectations, and judgements around age(ing). What happens if we linger in the multitude of sensual, imaginative details of bodily doing, experiencing and showing, and in the multiple possible meanings of age(ing)? How can dance introduce less stereotypical and more complex perceptions of age(ing) and moving through time?

This solo performance constitutes one of two artistic outcomes I present as part of my PhD dissertation Dancing Age(ing) at the School of Media and Performing Arts.

The Fountain of Youth & The Shadow (2013)

_MG_9290crop
Photos Lars Åsling, Graphic Sophie Jahnke
_MG_9282_1crop Foto Lars Åsling, Graphic Sophie Jahnke

The Shadow and The Fountain of Youth – Two Dances on Staying Alive
As a new step in their long-term collaboration Bronja Novak Lindblad (Göteborg) & Susanne Martin (Berlin) have created each a solo on the same subject: the facts of getting older and sustaining in the world of dance. ”The Shadow” by Novak  and ”The Fountain of Youth” by Martin are two creative and quirky responses to the exciting challenge of moving forward in time.

Premiere: 19 April 2013, Atalante, Gothenburg, www.atalante.org
Additional performances:  Dance and Theatre Festival Gothenburg, Sweden,  2014. Venue: 3e våningen
Sound: Anna Gustavsson
Light: Thomas Dotzler
Production: Big Wind/ Sofia Åhrman, www.bigwind.se
Supported by: Swedish Arts Council, City of Gothenburg, Tanzfabrik Berlin

The Fountain of Youth

_MG_0183Fount.papers1024
Photos Lars Åsling
Foto Lars Åsling _MG_0244Fount.960

A solo/ dance/ piece/ lecture/ performance by Susanne Martin
Duration: 45 min
Additional performances: Grove Theatre, Middlesex University London, November 2014

The Fountain of Youth
Is a dance on forever-youngness and on being old enough to tell the story differently

The Fountain of Youth
Is an untrustworthy lecture on trusting an ever-changing body

The Fountain of Youth
Is also a core part of my doctoral research in dance, dedicated to exploring and questioning dominant views on ageing dancing bodies through my own improvisation-based dance practice and performance making

Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanzi Teateri 2008 – 2012

50450034_1024
Photos Viktor Rahmqvist
Photo Viktor Rahmqvist 50440017_1024

An improvisational performance project by
Katarina Eriksson (San Francisco)
Susanne Martin (Berlin)
Bronja Novak Lindblad (Gothenburg)
Coaching: Andrew Morrish
Production: Big Wind
Supported by: the city of Gothenburg and Statens Kulturråd

The studio version:
Sept. 2008, Konstepidemin Gothenburg

The stage version:
Premiered 23.5.2009, Atalante, Gothenburg
Performance time: 75 min
Light: Victor Wendin
Touring: Stockholm, Malmö, Berlin

The site specific version:
June 2012 in Gothenburg

At the intersection of folkdance culture and contemporary improvisation culture this international trio indulges in made up and experienced cultural roots, traditions they never had and dances they never learned.
Connecting home is: the practice of improvisation and contact improvisation.
The shared questions are: how much improvisation can a thematically set piece take without bursting? And how much individuality can an improvised trio take without falling apart?
Dressed in Bavarian Dirndl’s, armed with irony, supported by newest improvisation technologies the three dancers dig into our projections and clichés of country living and the traditional. They are odd and familiar in their pride of and will for a self-made nature idyll and in their passionate attempt to include every soul in the room into the warmth of their temporary village.

Press:
“Hoppalappa is a performance you want to experience rather than observe“
“Hoppalappa, an hour long display of exhilaration, strings of associations, of well trained collaboration and of joyful courage towards the unknown. The safety net is called humour.“
“It was a joy to look into the minds of these crazy performers and to be embraced by their warm madness when it’s so damn cold outside.”

Die Eigentümlichkeit, der Exhibitionismus und die Damen von Welt (2005)

by Susanne Martin and Bronja Novak
75 min. In English and Swedish language, also possible in German/English and English/English

Premiere: 2005 at Atalante Gothenburg, Sweden
Supported by: Statenskulturråd, Göteborgstads Kultur, Folkuniversitetet

Performances: Gothenburg, Stockholm, Malmö, and in many many other Swedish cities, Berlin, Potsdam, Brunswick (USA), Chisinau (Moldova).

Photos: I need to look it up

To make a special evening an unforgettable one, Mesdames Martin and Novak, friends of all available luxuries, will indulge in: make up and freshly coloured hair, expensive clothes with the best possible looking dekolleté, wine at the perfect temperature and favourite songs that are far from Top Ten. In any case: to dance good means to look good. They “are” and in this they are generous and limitless communicative, using their mottoes: “everyday is a première” and “where does vanity end and art begin?”

DE: Frau Martin und Frau Novak präsentieren und genießen allen Luxus, der ihnen zur Verfügung steht: Make up und frisch gefärbte Haare, teure Kleider mit vorteilhaftem Décolleté, gut gekühlter Sekt und chartsunverdächtige Lieblingslieder. Außerdem bedeutet gut tanzen auch gut aussehen. Die Damen „sind“, und darin sind sie großzügig und mitteilungsfreudig. Ihr Motto: „Everyday is a première“ und „Where does vanity end and art begin“