Performance
David Brandstätter’s US Debut Engagement: FRE!HEIT

Fri - Sat, October 7 - 8, 2022, 8:00 PM | Sun, October 9, 2022, 2:00 PM
CounterPulse

The upcoming US debut engagement of internationally acclaimed German performance artist, David Brandstätter will comprise of three presentations of his acclaimed solo work, FRE!HEIT (which translates to Freedom in English) and a three hour workshop titled, “Movement and Freedom.”

The US premiere of FRE!HEIT will be a collaboration with American mezzo-soprano, Michelle Jacques. The piece is a treatise on the multiple meanings of, and negotiations around, the concept of freedom. Based on the primary parameters of the original solo piece, Brandstätter negotiates time and space in fragile suspension, balanced on white porcelain cups that he deploys into allegorical constellations on the stage. Simultaneously and in response/juxtaposition, Jacques narrates, sings and sermonizes from a repurposed pulpit as the pair transform FRE!HEIT into a dynamic, thought-provoking, text-driven multidisciplinary duet.

FRE!HEIT will be performed at CounterPulse in San Francisco from October 7-9, 2022. There are more details at this link: sfiaf.org/2022_freiheit

The “Movement and Freedom” workshop will take place one week earlier on Sunday, October 2, at Lines Dance Center. There is no cost to participate in the class and it is open to non-professional and professional performers alike.

The workshop is premised by several questions: What are the values we stand up for, and the virtues we need to maintain constructive relationships? How do bodies respond when faced with such questions? What are your aesthetics of freedom? How do you express freedom, give it a movement?

These questions constitute the base for the workshop’s exchange. The three-hour session will start with a dialogue between the participants, moderated by David, about what moves us in relation to freedom.

The workshop will culminate with participants creating their own physical sketches and choreographic phrases. Participants will have the option to perform these movements as part of David's matinée performance of FRE!HEIT the following week at Counterpulse on Sunday, October 9. There are more details at this link: sfiaf.org/david_b_workshop

The US Premiere of FRE!HEIT by David Brandstätter with Michelle Jacques is an event of the San Francisco International Arts Festival 2022 and was funded in part by: Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V; BLZT Performing Art Fonds; Kulturreferat München; DRAC Normandie / Ministère de la Culture; Région Normandie; Département de L’Eure, Institut français Paris, Région Normandie, WESTAF and Goethe-Institut San Francisco.