Ein Tanz-Stück über die Extreme der gegenwärtigen weiblichen Selbstdarstellung und den Einfluss von Social Media. Scheitert das Individuum hier an einem Ideal, das aus dem ständigen Abgleich des Ichs mit der Selbstdarstellung der Anderen entsteht?
Premiere Mai 2019
Performance und Konzept: Cindy Hammer und Vera Ilona Stierli
SMACK
A multimedia dance performance that positions the influence of pop-culture on the individual and shared portraits of three women, which emerged from conversations around common memories of 90’s youth. This work is a dialogue between the digital camcorder and the female body, where the actual body and the digital image of the body are in conversation. We meet and communicate with the audience through technology, through a lens, allowing choices of what to see and how to see be made by the viewer. Space is given to any embarrassment we may/may not have. In SMACK nostalgia and criticism, awkwardness and physical agency are explored.
How do you say what you want through your body with an awareness of how culture defines/defined it? The dichotomy of wanting to embrace and wanting to reject serves as a base for this production.
“SMACK is both playful and carefully considered. Assertively performed with attention, against the soundtrack of Barbie Girl [Aqua], I found myself reassessing the mantras of our childhood without neglecting joy of dancing to pop music” — Hannah Parsons
SMACK has since 2016 been co-produced by Gaskssel Bern, supported by venues and residencies including Hamar Teater, Hamar Kulturhus, Dampfzentrale, Tanzatelier NiVo, and funded by Stanley Thomas Johnson Fund, Swisslos / Kultur Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Norwegian Embassy of Bern, Hamar Kommune & Hedmark Fylke.
Choreographed & Performed by: Olivia Edginton, Ingvild Marstein Olsen & Vera Ilona Stierli
“Utopia of the Present – Variations” is an event, containing performance, dance and installation – driven by the idea that a (social and personal) utopic reality should not be envisioned in the future or the past, but can and should be explored in the present moment.”
A place in which no one needs to achieve anything
By Katja Cheraneva, Oded Littman, Vera Stierli, Vivianne Balsiger
“A place in which no one needs to achieve anything” is an attempt at entering a state of mind of total openness and sensitivity to the space, the audience, the partners and the self. It is a daily practice the performer took upon themselves in order to give up on any control or choice and be on the stage in a state of pure “being”.
Oded: Aaa, phf… ok… something about the practice you mean?
Katja: Yes, about the practice; about the piece.
Oded: Well first of all it is about the space and it’s about being in the space. It is about being open to the possibilities of the space, but also being open to the people in the space and everything that can happen between me and the people in the space
Katja: For me it is mostly to strip away the meaning of things the way I know them and to let go of the idea of correlation. To maybe have that feeling that everything exist on its own, even if I am not here. Even if I am gone.
Vera: I mean, It’s good that the things and the people have a past, but we just observe them. Only when you start judging you involve the past and the future. Can we reach that moment of not judging?
Die Protagonisten des Abends sind hin und her gerissen. Sie befinden sich zwischen Absturz und Höhenflug, sind auf der Suche nach der Verknüpfung von Erinnerung und Gegenwart oder pendeln zwischen Blick und Reaktion. Welche Schwingungen bleiben in der Dunkelheit und wo tragen sie uns hin, ohne uns zu verletzen?
Von der Notwendigkeit des Erinnerns ist eine Studie zum Kunstwerk Untitled 1979 von Jannis Kounellis. Eine Tänzerin geht bis in die Ewigkeit durch die Dunkelheit – verfolgt von den Bildern der Toten und der verlassenen Stadt.
Choreografie: Vera Ilona Stierli | Tanz: Sarah Elizabeth Lewis | Gesang: Rebekka Gruber | Mentorin: Cindy Hammer
