Bee Dances
Premiere online
by
Kareth Schaffer, ninus
In the frame of Open Spaces – Making It Happen #1
You can find a trailer for the performance here.
An interview with Kareth Schaffer & ninus you can find here.
Bee Dances presents the first collaboration by the Indonesian choreographer ninus and the Berlin-based choreographer Kareth Schaffer. Moving into the digital realm as a livestream at the end of February 2021 for reasons familiar by now, Bee Dances is an embodied exploration of what cultural exchange can mean in postcolonial times. How are different dance techniques inscribed in the bodies of the six dancers—from Indonesia and Europe—and how do flows of physical knowledge spread around the globe? Bee Dances maps the interconnections between contemporary dance as is often performed in Berlin and traditional Indonesian dance techniques, tracing their interrelations through a series of interventions, interviews, reconstructions, and new choreographies. The famous Balinese love duet by I Mario, Oleg Tamulilingan, is a key reference, as is the “waggle dance” of Asian and European honey bees (apis cerana and apis mellifera), first correctly described by German zoologist Karl von Frisch. The six dancers are accompanied by live music by Klaus Janek as well as by composer I Wayan Gede Purnama Gita’s gamelan musicians, whose digital presences float through the performance space of Uferstudios 1 on moving projection screens. Developed in the austere confines of the Berlin winter lockdown, Bee Dances explores notions of responsibility and proximity through a probing mutual pollination of movements, concepts, languages, histories, physicalities, and performers.
28.02.21 14:00 Artist Talk with guest speakers Anak Agung Gde Oka Dalem (Choreographer and director of Balerung Stage ), Ida Ayu Wayan Arya Satyani (Choreographer and lecturer of Dance Department ISI Denpasar), Zwoisy Mears-Clarke (Choreographer and performer), Ingo Schöningh (Head of cultural programmes Goethe-Institut Jakarta). Live auf zoom. Registration via anmeldung@tanzfabrik-berlin.de
An interview with Kareth Schaffer & ninus you can find here.
Bee Dances presents the first collaboration by the Indonesian choreographer ninus and the Berlin-based choreographer Kareth Schaffer. Moving into the digital realm as a livestream at the end of February 2021 for reasons familiar by now, Bee Dances is an embodied exploration of what cultural exchange can mean in postcolonial times. How are different dance techniques inscribed in the bodies of the six dancers—from Indonesia and Europe—and how do flows of physical knowledge spread around the globe? Bee Dances maps the interconnections between contemporary dance as is often performed in Berlin and traditional Indonesian dance techniques, tracing their interrelations through a series of interventions, interviews, reconstructions, and new choreographies. The famous Balinese love duet by I Mario, Oleg Tamulilingan, is a key reference, as is the “waggle dance” of Asian and European honey bees (apis cerana and apis mellifera), first correctly described by German zoologist Karl von Frisch. The six dancers are accompanied by live music by Klaus Janek as well as by composer I Wayan Gede Purnama Gita’s gamelan musicians, whose digital presences float through the performance space of Uferstudios 1 on moving projection screens. Developed in the austere confines of the Berlin winter lockdown, Bee Dances explores notions of responsibility and proximity through a probing mutual pollination of movements, concepts, languages, histories, physicalities, and performers.
28.02.21 14:00 Artist Talk with guest speakers Anak Agung Gde Oka Dalem (Choreographer and director of Balerung Stage ), Ida Ayu Wayan Arya Satyani (Choreographer and lecturer of Dance Department ISI Denpasar), Zwoisy Mears-Clarke (Choreographer and performer), Ingo Schöningh (Head of cultural programmes Goethe-Institut Jakarta). Live auf zoom. Registration via anmeldung@tanzfabrik-berlin.de
Kareth Schaffer
Kareth Schaffer practices an extended concept of choreography with manifold collaborators under the name Construction Company. To date her works have scrutinized ancient monastic practices, honey bee movement patterns, prophecies, mudwrestling, synchronized swimming, foley, Angela Merkel, emojis, and imposter syndrome—among other things. constructioncompany.dance
ninus
Ninus (1990) is an architect and dancer based in Bali, Indonesia. She started creating since 2014 after she decided to move from Jakarta to Bali. Her background in architecture impacts her creative process in dance. She sees dance in her architecture and vice versa. This creates a signature of her works, which are mostly site-specific and visual (composition, forms, shapes and textures within space) rather than story-telling with characters/narration. She has been actively involved in many collaboration projects with other multi-disciplinary artists. She is committed to exploring methods of creating and designing accessible entry points to (her) dance works. In this sense she tries to see entry points from a wider perspective and sometimes extreme point of view—for example, using photography or deaf space architecture principles as points of departure.
You will find the link to the video from 27.02. at 19:00 here, then continuously available until Sunday evening 22:00.
Artistic Direction: ninus, Kareth Schaffer I Performance: Tatiana Mejia, Vilja Mihalovsky, ninus, K.S. Gitaswari Prabhawita, Kareth Schaffer I Putu Wibi Wicaksana | Music: Klaus Janek, I Wayan Gede Purnama Gita & Kemala Entertainment | Production: Marius Mailänder, Ruth Onduko | Press: Michael Tsouloukidse | A production by ninus and Kareth Schaffer with funding by the Project Funding of Berlin Department of Culture and Europe, Goethe International Co-Production Fund, and Tanzfabrik Berlin. With friendly support by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia Berlin, Lenggang Pertiwi, and Ketut Rahayu.