PERFORMING IMMEDIACY | 

PERFORMING IMMEDIACY is an artistic research project of the Cologne choreographer Silke Z. in cooperation with the study program Scenic Research of Theatre Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum, supported by the Kunststiftung NRW. In seminars and discussion forums, practical experience can be gained using the methods of the performer Andrew Morrish and the choreographer Silke Z. In this framework, we investigate how and when we perceive originality, presence and immediacy in the context of a performance, how we let ourselves be touched and how we talk, write and think about them.

In a performance experiment between the Australian performer Andrew Morrish and the Cologne choreographer Silke Z., Morrish & Z. address the phenomenon of (stage) presence. At the interfaces of choreography and improvisation, practice and theory, philosophy and performance, Morrish navigates through his worlds of ideas with creative power and creativity, while the spontaneous interventions in the events on the part of the choreographer serve to irritate and disturb. Immediate, poetic, magical and touching moments arise at the breaking points whenever both worlds come together in a magical way, but without getting lost in each other.

Photography © Meyer Originals

Premiere | January 2019

ECHT. JETZT PERFORMANCE DAYS | #3 Alles.Wird.Gut

We reveal fears, dreams, hopes and face public expectations. We focus on the personal focal point of the body. We drop hulls. We dedicate ourselves to fragility, permeability and imperfection. We appreciate the void. We question success. We celebrate the challenge. We praise failure. We show the human.

The interdisciplinary Performance Days ECHT.JETZT, the annual event takes place in cooperation with the Kölner Künstler Theater and focuses on the friction between art, society and politics.

Photography: © Meyer Originals

 Premiere | September 2018

https://www.resistdance.de/wp-content/uploads/Echt.Jetzt3Innen.pdf

PRESS

“… the need of the artists to devote themselves to their sensitivities, says Silke Z. Something about the madness of having to produce all the time. This professional group is called the “free scene”.

(Cologne City Gazette)

“Silke Z. explains that the theatre is to become a place of negotiation between artist and audience, sending Felix Marchand, a performer from Berlin, into the first season who has already had strong performances in Cologne. After an evening with him, one is convinced that one has witnessed an event.”

(Kölnische Rundschau)

VENUES

ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne

Cologne Artist Theatre, Cologne

Bread Factory Stage Bonn, Bonn

YOU ARE SAFE |

YOU ARE SAFE  The new dance performance by Cologne choreographer Silke Z. resistdance deals with questions about the (un)controllability and effects of fear on our soul, our body and our human relationships. Fear becomes more and more obvious in their grasp. It occupies a key discourse of our time that deals with the core of the human and difficult to answer questions. Live electro sounds by André Zimmermann drive a cross-over round of the disclosure of social fears. Survival strategies, solidarity and cooperation as well as defensive attitudes and peer group formation are intensively researched. As is usual in Silke Z.’s productions, in her latest choreography YOU ARE SAFE pure and direct physical reflections become a scenic manifesto for the ensemble DIE METABOLISTEN.

Premiere: 2018 | 60 min. | 10 performers

“The fact that Silke Z. and her company are so purposefully addressing a current social phenomenon gives the production a freshness that convincingly demonstrates how political questions are inscribed in the body of society.
“I want to inscribe questions into the body of society”  says Silke Z.”

(Kölnische Rundschau)

CREDITS and FUNDERS

Concept/Choreography: Silke Z.

In collaboration with the performers: Angus Mc Lean Balbernie, Ulrike Lösch-Will, Karel Vanek, Malina Hoffmann, Alice Smith, Lisa Kirsch, Florian Patschovsky, Abine Leão Ka, Caroline Simon, Stefan Henaku-Grabski

Composed by: André Zimmermann

Light/Stage: Garlef Keßler

Production assistance: Dario Stasch

Administration: Brita Keller

PR: mechtild tellmann cultural management

Photography: © Stefan Henaku-Grabski |  © Meyer Originals

A production by Silke Z. resistdance.

Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, Minister President of the State of NRW

SHOW – Successes and failures of a dancer career

In SHOW the award-winning solo performer Caroline Simon reveals her personal professional secrets. Very close. Pure. Honestly. She offers deep insights into her world of performance, her sacrifice for art with all its ups and downs. A balancing act between happy moments of success and gruelling failures that repeatedly lead to the artist’s own physical and psychological (stress) limits. As a 40-year-old performer – close to the age limit of a “normal” dancer career – Caroline Simon looks back on her artistic repertoire and presents a medley of her versatile performances. The dancer, who is praised as charming, humorous and wonderful, shares in SHOW excerpts from her long and multi-layered career in performance art.

Within the framework of the performances, the renowned dance scientist Dr. Doszmann from the Netherlands will invite to an introduction to the topic. In the well-known discussion series “Tanz – fragile Momente teilen” (“Dance – share fragile moments”), which Dr. Doszmann has been conducting for two years with internationally renowned performers, she now meets the extensive work of Caroline Simon in SHOW.

Premiere: Juni 2017 | 55 min

PRESS

“If the mask sits on her face, something happens not only to the dancer, but to the whole theatre: a touch of magic. Very useful because the performance called “Show” works tirelessly on disenchanting.”

(Cologne City Gazette)

CREDITS and FUNDERS

Artistic direction: Silke Z.

In collaboration with the dancer Caroline Simon.

Coproduced by: DansBrabant (NL)

Photography © Meyer Originals

DIE METABOLISTEN – STOFF WECHSELN |

 Die Tanzproduktion „DIE METABOLISTEN – Stoff wechseln“ unternimmt eine Reise durch die Erfahrungswelt eines Performers – vom jungen, energiegeladenen, in die Zukunft blickenden, hin zum älter werdenden, erfahrenen, aus der Vergangenheit schöpfenden Körper auf der Bühne.

15 Performer zwischen 19 und 62 Jahren begegnen sich und verhandeln auf Augenhöhe in tänzerischen Dialogen ihre jeweiligen körperlichen Möglichkeiten. Auf der Bühne lesen und selektieren sie die Bewegungen der anderen und transformieren sie gemäß ihren innewohnenden Erfahrungen zu eigenen, neuen Bewegungsabläufen. Welche unterschiedlichen Qualitäten entstehen und werden sichtbar?

Erfahrung – Wissen, Energie – Emotion: Stoff im permanenten Wechsel.

In unserer Gesellschaft, in der das Älterwerden von jüngeren Generationen häufig mit einer Ansammlung von Defiziten gleichgesetzt wird, zelebrieren „DIE METABOLISTEN“ nicht nur die (Bühnen-) Erfahrung und das Wissen, das sich ein Performer mit zunehmendem Alter angeeignet, sondern auch die Gelassenheit, Spielfreude und den glaubhaften Ausdruck, die damit einhergehen.

PREMIERE

März 2017

CREDITS und FÖRDERER

Künstlerische Leitung/Choreographie: Silke Z.

In Zusammenarbeit mit den Performern: Angus Balbernie, Abine Leao Ka, Bettina Muckenhaupt, Caroline Simon, Gitta Roser, Lisa Kirsch, Charles Ripley, Josef Hofmann, Malina Hoffmann, Dong Uk Kim, Marion Dieterle, Florian Patschovsky, Susanne Heck, Ulricke Lösch-Will, Karel Vanek

Assistenz: Alice Smith

Lichtdesign: Ansgar Kluge

Musikkomposition: André Zimmermann

Kostüm: Yvonne Stammsen

Management/PR: Mechtild Tellmann

Organisation/Administration: Brita Keller

Koproduziert von: Tanz- und Theaterwerkstatt Ludwigsburg und DansBrabant (Tilburg, NL)

Gefördert durch das Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW, das Kulturamt der Stadt Köln und die Kunststiftung NRW

Weiterhin gefördert durch das NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) Koproduktionsförderung Tanz aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien aufgrund eines Beschlusses des Deutschen Bundestags.

Foto: © Meyer Originals