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 final Saturday of the festival, you can experience the final parcours at Volkspark Rehberge.

Here is how the participating artists describe their projects:

Ming Poon “Instructions for dying”

Sometimes it is through accepting our own death, that we get a glimpse of how closely interconnected we are to each other as humans, as well as to all non-humans and the natural world. Instead of approaching death with fear and denial, “Instructions for dying” gently guides us to step into it and be embraced by it.

*This is an audio-guided participatory performance. Please bring along your own mobile phone and earphones to experience the work.

Concept & choreography Ming Poon
Sound design Haesoo Jung
Voices AngieM (EN) & Sandra Hetzl (DE)
Graphic design Duy Hung Kieu

This work was first created as a short dance video for “Tanz vom Tod” (2021), a film project by Saskia Oidtmann.

Hea Min Jung “Because of you”

Bringing together the memory of a children’s game and Korean shamanism, “Because of You” is a reflection of the dynamic and fragile relation of humans with nature. A chaotic web of elastic bands entangle performer and surrounding trees. What starts as a potential limitation is transformed into a source of creative possibility and celebration of interdependence.

Choreography & Performance Hea Min Jung
Music Sung Eun Jin

Renae Shadler & Collaborators “Under my Gaze – excerpt”

The Sun gazes upon the Earth, creating and destroying life, the engine on which our ecosystems depend. “Under my Gaze” is a ritual for our times – created by choreographer Renae Shadler together with Aerocene – a sculpture inflated by air, carried by wind and lifted only by the Sun. In this short extract, bodies and voices pulse with the gravitational pull and combustive power of this solar giant, tracing the Sun’s movements through limb and skin, through reflection and darkness.
The Aerocene sculpture gives a ‘body’ to the unseen forces that surround us: connecting Earth-bound dancers to aerial and cosmic worlds in a transforming landscape of shadowy creatures and molten forms.

Concept & Choreography Renae Shadler
Performance emeka ene, Dorota Michalak, Renae Shadler
Set design Camille Lacadee
Costume design Geraldine Arnold
Composition Samuel Hertz
Dramaturgy Ally Bisshop, Maikon K
Production & Distribution Dörte Wolter

Inspired by Susurrus group, 2017-2020: Samuel Hertz, Maria Nurmela, Kalle Ropponen, Renae Shadler
Presented by Renae Shadler & Collaborators in collaboration with Aerocene Foundation.
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR.

Patrycja Masłowska “Oryngham”

“Oryngham means ‘thank you for listening’ in the language of plants.” - Monica Gagliano
“Oryngham” is an attempt to become-with the species inhabiting Volkspark Rehberge. The movements and gestures collected during the attentive visits at the park, together with the organic textile grown in its soil, are decomposed into the ritual of interspecies, reciprocal listening.

Choreography & Performance Patrycja Masłowska
Textile Design Julia Huber

Alvin Collantes & Jun Suzuki “Fluids (Ritual)”

Fluids is an evocative duet by Alvin Collantes and Jun Suzuki, blending organic movement, dance, Japanese mantras and textural singing in an improvisational tribute to their asian roots. Navigating the complexities of identity, they juxtapose eastern heritage against western societies, presenting site-specific performances that fuse the mystical narratives of asian divinities, the struggle for acceptance and the ongoing exploration of cultural belonging.

Choreography Alvin Collantes
Music & Words Jun Suzuki

Iga Śśćk “Headflesh”

The cheapest meat, commonly sold as ‘a whole chicken’, provides the most common image of headlessness. In “Headflesh” the animal decapitates itself, but its wound is thriving and becomes a motor for movement. As a post-gender cyborg, genetically altered and abundantly multiplied, the chick/en/hen turns against the nuclear Oedipal family.

Concept Iga Śśćk
Performance Iga Śśćk mit Miiel Ferráez
Sound Miiel Ferráez, Iga Śśćk

Angelo Petracca & Wojtek Blecharz “Death Can Dance”

“Death can dance” is a collaboration between Petracca and Blecharz that merges ritual and ecological activism. Angelo recycles movements from his past works, reflecting on movement consumerism, while Wojtek buries speakers symbolizing the ‘funeral of technology’. An underground soundscape with Donna Haraway quotes highlights our impact on nature.

Choreografie & Performance Angelo Petracca
Sound & Performance Wojtek Blecharz
Choreografische Assistenz Verdiana Gelao
Kostümdesign Nico Navarro Rueda

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.