Tanzfabrik
Berlin
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Radialsystem Stage
Stage
Photo: Sergiu Matis, Philip Ingman

Blazing Worlds

Performance · Premiere by Sergiu Matis
In the frame of :Love:

Tickets
The need to imagine better worlds – not to escape reality, but to reimagine the present – courses through human history. Driven by the force of utopian thought, Berlin-based choreographer Sergiu Matis experiments in his new performance “Blazing Worlds” with imagining a possible future of which dance will continue to be a part. “Blazing Worlds” is presented as part of the collaboration :LOVE: between Tanzfabrik and Radialsystem presented in Radialsystem’s spaces. The initiative “Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik” fosters cooperation between the two institutions specifically to improve the conditions of presentation by dancemakers.

Inspired by the 1666 (proto-)feminist science fiction novel “The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World” by Margaret Cavendish, the performance unfolds to reveal an exploration of past and present utopian desires. Sergiu Matis combines visionary feminist science fiction and climate fiction literature as well as literary works of queer utopias into a latticework of condensing, intersecting and overlapping references. Hybrid bodies composed of fictions navigate and dance through interwoven relations and ideas in search of the visionary force that animated these literary utopias.

22.04.2023  19:00  Haptic Access Tour + Audio Description by Jess Curtis / Gravity Access Service (Irene Baumann)
Please register by telephone on +49 (0)30 288 788 588 or by e-mail to ticket@radialsystem.de.
In collaboration with Gravity Access Service, Tanzfabrik offers selected events with audio description and a so-called Haptic Access Tour (tactile tour). This includes live and recorded audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired visitors* and, in addition, sensory access consultations. For more information, visit the website: www.jesscurtisgravity.org/access

Sergiu Matis

Sergiu Matis (he/him) is a Romanian choreographer living in Berlin since 2008. He has created dance performances such as «Neverendings» (2017), «Hopeless.» (2019), «Extinction Room» (2019), «UNREST» (2021), «DRANG» (2022) and «Blazing Worlds» (2023). His work has been presented at festivals throughout Europe. Matis´ dance practice can be understood as a tireless search through physical and digitalised archives. His performances provoke intense experiences that break with expectations and strive towards a new understanding of dance. 
Duration approx. 2 hours.
In English
The performance has English and German surtitles throughout.
Tickets: Pay as you can (10€ / 15€ / 20€ / 25€)#
Tickets are also available at Radialsystem.
Tickets
Concept & Choreography: Sergiu Matis
Performance & choreographic collaboration: Emilie Gregersen, Kelvin Kilonzo, Nicola Micallef, Guilherme Morais, Aya Toraiwa and Kasia Wolinska
Dramaturgy: Mila Pavićević
Set design & video: Adrian Ganea
Composition: Andrea Parolin, Ana María Fonseca Núñez, Manon Parent
Choir master and vocal coach:  Ana María Fonseca Núñez
Costume design: Philip Ingman
Technical direction & sound design: Andrea Parolin
Light: Adrian Ganea, Fabian Bleisch
Choreographic assistance: Manon Parent
Subtitles and translation into German: Calvin Lanz
Production management & dramaturgical assistance: Anna Chwialkowska
Distributing Producer: Danila - Freitag, Agency for the Performing Arts
Thanks to: Juan Pablo Cámara, Evgenia Chetvertkova, Katrina Bastian, Emma Juliard, Orlando Rodriguez
 
Audiodescription Gravity Berlin, Audiodescription: Irene Baumann in collaboration with Gerald Pirner
 
Music: 
“Glacier Rave” – Music by Andrea Parolin and song by Manon Parent
„Into that that part of the world” – Based on “Zephyrus brings the Time” - Music by Michael Cavendish and text by Margaret Cavendish. Arrangement: Ana María Fonseca Núñez 
Recitativo „There was but one way” - Music by Ana María Fonseca Núñez and text by Margaret Cavendish, keybord: Aya Toraiwa
„Zefiro Torna” – Music by Claudio Monteverdi, text by Ottavio Rinuccini. Arrangement and basso continuo: Ana María Fonseca Núñez
“Jelly Fruits” – Music by Andrea Parolin, arrangement by Manon Parent, text by Emilie Gregersen
„97 mini organs“ – Collective composition by Andrea Parolin and Ana María Fonseca Núñez. Musical translation of the dance and organetto: Ana María Fonseca Núñez 
Theme from Symphony Op. 95 No. 9, “From the New World” - II. Largo. Music by Antonín Dvořák, text by: Kasia Wolinska
 
Text: 
Excerpts from Margaret Cavendish: Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World, 1666; Thomas Halliday: Otherlands: A World in the Making, 2022.
Storytelling and song lyrics by: Emilie Gregersen, Kelvin Kilonzo, Sergiu Matis, Nicola Micallef, Guilherme Morais, Aya Toraiwa and Kasia Wolinska

A production by Sergiu Matis.
Supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds. Co-produced by Tanzfabrik Berlin, Radial Stiftung, PACT Zollverein and ICI-CCN Montpellier Occitanie in the framework of Life Long Burning, co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Supported by Bureau Ritter/TANZPAKT RECONNECT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR initiative.
Sergiu Matis is supported by apap - FEMINIST FUTURES 2020-2024, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Media partners: taz. die tageszeitung, tip Berlin, Exberliner und Rausgegangen


↪ FURTHER BIOGRAPHIES

Emilie Gregersen
is an artist and choreographer. Their practice spans and bridges dance, choreography, artistic organization, care and community. They are co-founder of Dance Cooperative in Copenhagen, an artist run house with focus on feminist, intersectional and artistic practices. They hold a degree in dance and choreography from The Danish School of Performing Arts and has since 2018 produced their own works such as “Touch” and “Caresses” which both received the Edith Allers Memorial Grant (2021). She has regularly been teaching at Dansehallerne in Copenhagen and has been working as a dancer and performer with among others Marie Topp, Tina Tarpgaard, Andros Zins-Browne, BADco. and Jules Fisher.

Kelvin Kilonzo is a contemporary dancer and actor based in Berlin. He is originally an urban dancer, which has shaped his handwriting a lot. He has been working with Anne Imhof since 2020, he is part of Sasha Waltz & Guests, Mouvoir/Stephanie Thiersch and collaborates mainly with solo musicians and video artists in Europe. As an award-winning actor, he debuted in 2017 with "Toro" at the Berlinale. He won his last best actor award with "The Third King" at the Revolution ME Festival New York. In 2016 he founded a performance duo with experimental trumpeter and performer Pablo Giw. GIW & Kilonzo are currently shooting a film to be released next year as part of a performance project titled "SUM".

Nicola Micallef was born in Malta in 1999. She began her training in classical ballet at the age of 7. In 2010, she found her interest in contemporary dance and went on to further her training in this field. In 2018, she joined ZfinMalta Dance Company as an apprentice, with Paolo Mangiola as artistic director. She joined full-time for the successive three seasons, where she had the opportunity to work with numerous internationally renowned choreographers and artists such as Roy Assaf, Jacopo Godani, Sergiu Matis, Jose Agudo and Jorge Crecis. She has since found her base in Berlin, collaborating with Sergiu Matis, Sebastian Matthias and Agudo Dance Company, touring throughout Europe, as well as performing in the DubaiExpo2020.

Guilherme Morais is a brazilian choreographer, performer and dance pedagogue. Very interested in the movements of the mind, nervous system and unconscious. Starting with dance research at the Federal University of Minas Gerais UFMG, with the premiere of the show asararás (2017) where he signs the direction and conception. He continues developing research on the brain by creating neurosensory activation exercises and activating the unconscious. In 2023 she returns to Brazil to create a dance piece. This brings together her research on the painting "Dança Macabra", funded by the Goethe-Institut, with the solo "Projeto Monstro", researched in "Casa Vella", Spain, with the support of the Iberescena program.

Kasia Wolinska is a choreographer, dancer, and writer born in Gdańsk, living in Berlin, graduate of the Dance Department at Music Academy, Łódź, the Cultural Anthropology Department at University of Łódź and the “Dance, Context, Choreography” programme at HZT Berlin. She was a resident of Centro Selva Peru, transeuropa Festival in Hildesheim and Zarya AIR in Vladivostok. She collaborated with Lina Gómez, Anna Nowicka, Agata Siniarska, Rosalind Crisp, Anton Vidokle a. o. 2013-2018, she ran a performative project called “Hi Mary”. She is a board member of ZTB e.V., representing the interests of the free dance scene in Berlin. In 2022-23 she is a fellow of the programme Critical Practice - Made in YU.

Aya Toraiwa is a dancer/performer. She was born in Tokyo and lives in Berlin. In recent years she has danced in pieces by Isabelle Schad, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, Wilhelm Groener among others.  She holds an honors degree in Moving Image with focus on experimental cinema, from University of Brighton.
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