Crossover and Dance Reunion

The Schauspiel Cologne and the dance company Richard Siegal / Ballet of Difference initiated a two-season artistic collaboration, the purpose of which was to develop the project “Crossover and Dance Reunion”. For the project partners, this meant integrating the independent dance company into the production and performance processes of the theatre and fostering equitable and open collaboration which explored and surpassed the boundaries of dance and spoken theatre, uniting both in aesthetic interaction.
Dance movement patterns and various texts have served as the starting point and basic material for the “Crossover and Dance Reunion”. The participants investigated, for example, the rhetorical strategies used in speeches and statements by American and European politicians, and conveyed their messages in relation to the speakers’ gestural repertory. This vocal and choreographic study has focused on the broad range of interpretation and possible misinterpretation of situations and sentences. When words fail to convey what we wish to communicate, what possibilities of expression do bodies and movement possess? The project has been accompanied by lectures, workshops, discussions, public rehearsals, a two-part think-tank titled “Dancing in the Dark – Body and Politics in 21st-Century Europe”, and the symposium “Performing the Postdigital” with internationally renowned participants from the fields of science, art and philosophy.

Artistic director: Richard Siegal (US)
Choreography: Richard Siegal (US)
Dramaturgy: Tobias Staab, Hanna Koller
Artists: Claudia Ortiz Arraiza (PR), Léonhard Engel (FR), Katherina Markowskaja (RU), Matthew Rich (US), Margarida Neto (PT), Navarra Novy-Williams (US), Joaquim de Santana (US), Diego Tortelli (IT), Jin Young Won (KR), Zuzana Zahradnikova (CZ) and the acting ensemble of the Schauspiel Cologne

A production by Richard Siegal/The Bakery and ecotopia dance productions in co-production with the Schauspiel Cologne / Tanz Köln and the Muffatwerk Munich

Additional Venues and Dates:

Performance, discussion series, think-tank, workshops, symposium at the Schauspiel Cologne and Munich: 1 Jan. 2018 – 30 Jun. 2019