Tales of the bodiless

Science-fiction music narration*

The Hungarian choreographer and performance artist Eszter Salamon had teamed up with composers of electronic music to develop a new science-fiction musical. The piece started out by asking how we can think about the future based on present conditions. How can you get off your body? Can you leave it for a while? The production explored a condition that is hard to imagine: a world without human bodies. Four stories unfolded four situations in which humans are a past, and hence, no longer central. Bodies turned into 'foam' or became one with the landscape until they transformed into colorful dust. Humans evaporated in the memory of the species that outlives them.
Eszter Salamon’s new piece took the audience on a journey through regions whose main property is a certain tangible sensation. Each place composed a movement of voices, sound, light, and space: from sinking to dissolution, from urge to aggression, from joy to explosion. The habitual hierarchy of senses was unsettled: listening overthrew vision and sight. The body of the spectator became the battleground of sensations; invoking them evolved in time, and prevented everything from being given all at once.


Artistic director: Eszter Salamon
Dramaturgy: Eszter Salamon (H) and Bojana Cvejic (RS)
Music composed by Cédric Dambrain, Terre Thaemlitz
Music research and musical adviser: Berno Odo Polzer
Set and light design: Sylvie Garot
Sound design: Peter Böhm
Sound recording: Bart Aga
Choir coach: David Helbich
Staging assistant: Sasa Ascentic
Voices: Polina Akhmetzyanova, Sasa Asentic, Ragna Aurich, Joanna Bailie, Patricia Barakat, Eleanor Bauer, Sofie Benoot, Johanna Beuys, Bérengère Bodin, Boglárka Börcsök, Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Saskia Bovijn, Claire Bringiers, Kuryn Buys, Pierre Caillet, Erwin Carlier, Chris Carroll, Michael Casey, Marie Cordonier, Bojana Cvejic, Céline David, Lisbeth De Ceulaer, Eva De Grave, Christine De Smedt, Kim Lien Dessault, Caroline Dewynter, Marcus Doverud, Anne Duquenne, Katrien Feyaerts, Elisabeth Franken, Nada Gambier, Nestor Garcia Diaz, Julie Gilbert , Rina Govers, Annerose Goyet, David Helbich, Catherine Herman, Matthias Koole, Gérald Kurdian, Aurore Labrosse, Giulietta Laki, Christophe Meierhans, Pierre-Guillaume Méon, Natasha Mokrane, Muna Mussie, Sandy Napier, Tim Oliphant, Chrysa Parkinson, Tiziana Penna, Agnès Peter, Jo Reymen, Anna Rispoli, Jan Ritsema, Eszter Salamon, Michael Schmid, Janne Steenbeke, Iffy Tellieu, Terre Thaemlitz, Gunhild Tuschen, Sylvie Van Molle, Anne-Sophie Van Neste, Margot Van Scharen, Michael Schmid, Anne-Sophie Van Wesemael, Wim Veys, Tracee Westmoreland, Adva Zakai.
Bodies: Eszter Salamon, Sasa Asentic
Production, organisation and administration: Alexandra Wellensiek/ Botschaft Gbr extrapole/Agnès Henry and Marianne Cosserat
Coproduction: KunstenfestivaldesArts (Brussels), Les Spectacles Vivants-Le Centre Pompidou (Paris), Ircam, (Paris), Internationales Tanzfest-Tanz im August 2011 (Berlin), Choreographisches Zentrum NRW - Pact Zollverein (Essen), Steirischer Herbst (Graz), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Les Subsistances (Lyon)


Venues and schedule:
Kaaitheater Brussels, Kunstfestivaldesarts, 21-23 May 2011
Les Spectacles Vivants -Le Centre Pompidou, AGORA, Paris, 10-11 June 2011
Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Tanz im August, 18-19 August 2011
Steirischer Herbst, Graz , Mumuth, Austria, 30 Sep./ 1-2 Oct. 2011
Les Subsistances, Lyon, France, 16-18 Nov. 2011
PACT Zollverein - Choreographisches Zentrum NRW, Essen, 20-21 Jan. 2012
Le Phénix, Valenciennes, France, 3 Feb. 2012
Kampnagel Hamburg, 19-21 Apr. 2012
Göteborgs Dans & Teater Festival, Goteboerg, Sweden, 22 May 2012
Armentières, Le Vivat, in cooperation with Opera de Lille, France, 25 Jan. 2013

Contact

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10405 Berlin