A new production by Ninus and Kareth Schaffer
The video will be available starts from February 27, 2021, at 7 PM CET/Berlin on the Youtube channel of Tanzfabrik Berlin.
After its premiere, the video will be continuously available until Sunday evening, February 28, 2021, 10 PM CET/Berlin.
Artists Talk on Zoom with the artists on February 28, 2021, 2 PM CET/Berlin
Please send a short email to register your participation through anmeldung@tanzfabrik-berlin.de
© Saki Tagami
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 live stream 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 probing mutual pollination of movements, concepts, languages, histories, physicalities, and performers.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Artistic Direction: Ninus, Kareth Schaffer
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
Bee Dances is a production by Ninus and Kareth Schaffer with funding by the Project Funding of Berlin Department of Culture and Europe, Goethe-Institut's International Co-Production Fund, and Tanzfabrik Berlin.
With friendly support from the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia Berlin, Lenggang Pertiwi, and Ketut Rahayu.
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