Interconnecting Dance & Ecology

On three different dates in August, Tanz im August presents the results of the open call "Interconnecting Dance & Ecology", in which Berlin artists were called upon to deal with the topics of nature and sustainability. Each Saturday of the festival you can experience a different parcours, where 8 of the total 22 selected projects are presented in Berlin parks. On the second Saturday of the festival, we will be guests at the Stadtpark Lichtenberg as part of the Kultursommerfestival Berlin.

Here is how the participating artists describe their projects:

Kévin Bonono “Walk of abundance – a research into nothingness”

This work describes, through choreographed movements, our ways of consumption and the urge into it from a critical but optimistic point of view of what it means to be part of a whole. Walk of Abundance engages with questions of environmental crisis and loss, late capitalist expansion versus the decline of sentient life. It starts from the premise that any political strategy or intervention that does not engage with more-than-human sentience is superficial and inadequate. 

Choreography & Performance Kévin Bonono
Music Anthony De Bono & Julian Fernandez

Chōri Collective “Chōri picnic ~Summer Roll~”

Chōri (調理/조리) means cooking in both Korean and Japanese. Our collective aims to transcend the boundaries of national gymnastics (ラジオ体操-국민체조), which is related to the colonial history of East Asia. We invite the audience to our summer picnic with multispecies to smooth-roll the paper stage together.

*All kinds of audience participation are encouraged.

Concept, stage design & performance Chōri Collective

Anna Natt & Roni Katz “Sublime Slime”

slow, slimy and molluscean
it is mating season
i'll follow your slick trail
undulate up your goo
you won’t even notice
a love dart has been shot your way
unapologetic mucosity
let us plunge into the depths of the
flesh gelatinous

Choreography & Performance Anna Natt & Roni Katz
Outside Eye Maya Weinberg
Masks Moran Sanderovich

Claire Vivianne Sobottke, Sheena McGrandles, Abigail Sanders “Étude de Chasse”

"Étude de Chasse" is a musical - choreographic investigation into the history of hunting. The study imagines the encounter between an animal and a hunter, the phantasms of conquest and oppression inherent to their relationship. "Étude de Chasse" examines the devaluation and exoticization of the animal, as well as the banalization and heroization of killing a prey.

Choreography & Performance Claire Vivianne Sobottke, Sheena McGrandles
Music Abigail Sanders (French Horn)
Concept Claire Vivianne Sobottke

„Étude de Chasse“ is a continuation of the ongoing collaboration between Sheena Mc Grandles and Claire Vivianne Sobottke on slowness and the slow gesture, as well as a continuation of Claire`s work “à mort” which premiered 2023 at Sophiensaele, Berlin.

Michelle Félix & Gilberto Moreno“Passage”

The origins of the deer dance go far back into the history of the Yoreme (Indigenous peoples of northern Mexico), whose worldview has been passed down through the mixture with the catholic religion. The performance “Passage” refers to the process of transformation, whereby the deer dancer becomes the projection surface of the relationship between humans and nature.

Dance & Research  Michelle Félix
Music Gilberto Moreno
The research was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the NEUSTART KULTUR programme, DIS-TANZEN aid programme of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland

Melissa Figueiredo & Giuliana Corsi “Ephemeroptera”

Under the veil of existence 
I live the invisible
time
to catch light is 
to touch 
what you don’t see
life is immense and ephemeral

Just let me burn
High world's away
for I live 
what you don’t say

The Mayfly is an insect with a larval stage that lasts months to years. The only visible stage for humans is the last one, as an insect, and it lasts 24 hours. The duet “Ephemeroptera” reflects on ephemerality, connecting the cycle of the Mayflies with human relations with existence, leaving trace, the past, present, and future. 

Concept & Performance Giuliana Corsi & Melissa Figueiredo
Music Carla Boregas

Diana Alina Serbanescu & Perperúna “She brings the rain”

She brings the rain is a poetic interpretation of an old ritual or rain-making. Păpăruda – also called Dodola, Peperuda, Perperúna or Gogul – is a magic rain-making ritual which can be still found in Romania, and other countries in the Balkans. Dedicated to a goddess, and enacted by young women, the ritual is performed in summer, in times of drought. Its symbolism connects the potency of the female body with the seasons, the fertility of the land and the perpetuity of human community. It is based on the belief that everything is interconnected.

Beyond its literal function of invoking rain, this ritual is also a symbol of fertility, good health, and abundance in one's life. It is based on the pagan belief that the Goddess of Rain (Păpăruda) can be summoned through a magical dance, a song incantation, and a sequence of ritual acts performed with the community. During the dance, it is believed that the goddess possesses the body of a young woman, bringing not only rain but also blessings and prosperity to the land and the community that witnesses and engages in the ritual.

Amidst this ethereal performance, whispers of innovation and the avant-garde emerge. Novel AI-based musical instruments, crafted with exquisite artistry, entwine with the ritualistic choreography. Through sonified performative movements, a captivating synthesis of tradition and technological marvels takes form, as raindrops of sound cascade and blessings rain down upon the land and the community.

Concept & Choreography Diana Alina Serbanescu & Perperúna, with contributions from: Pascal Staudt, Anni Blum, Ulrike Buck and Mika Satomi
Performed by Lorena Atrakzy, Dimitra Kandia, Angela Monaco, Saraï O’gara
Creative Coding & Instrument Development Pascal Staudt
Costume Anni Blum
Ceramic Vases Ulrike Buck
Wearable & Interaction Design Mika Satomi
Production Assistance Dimitri Cacouris

Sound & Wearable Design based on an original prototype developed for the project Dancing at the Edge of the World, by Mika Satomi together with Johannes Helberger, Lugh O’Neill and the REPLICA team, in the context of a research funding awarded by VolkswagenStifting in the context AI and the Society of the Future.

Shelley Etkin“Gut Instincts”

How can the digestive tract be a portal to connect with the gut-brain of our social-environmental bodies? Through the common act of drinking a cup of tea we enter into multi-faceted allyship with particular local medicinal plants. How might these plants infuse our guts to move in solidarity and reciprocity?

Thanks to Jared Gradinger as dialogue partner and to these lands and the plant allies present in this work.