DEUTSCH

Am I a man who had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man? – Zhuangzi The Butterfly Dream

Yui Kawaguchi translates in Mugen (Japanese: illusion, infinity) the classical elements of Japanese Nō-theatre into a hypnotic interplay of dance, music and light. In a fast-paced choreography, Joy Alpuerto Ritter seems to outright fly through an installation on stage. She is fueled by Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, who single-handedly creates a sound atmosphere of orchestral quality with his instruments. Although each element exists in its own cosmos, a trance-like flow is created through ever new encounters, changing tempos and incidences of light, dissolving the boundaries between fantasy and reality, dream and wakefulness.

▼ PREMIERE ▼

Premiere: Friday December 17 2021 - 19.30
December 18 2021 - 19.30
December 19 2021 - 17.00

Sophiensaele Festsaal
Sophienstr. 18
10178 Berlin

Tickets 15/10 Euro

Duration: 50min

▼ TEAM ▼

Concept, Choreography	Yui Kawaguchi
by and with	Joy Alpuerto Ritter (dance)
	Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (music)
Stage Set	Acci Baba
Light & Technic	Fabian Bleisch
Sound	Satoshi Okamoto [sub-tle.]
Costume	SADAK
Dramaturgy	Rosi Ulrich (WEHR51)
Producer	Ilja Fontaine
Production	Yui Kawaguchi - Mendora & Nico and the Navigators
Co-production	Sophiensaele, MA scène nationale – Pays de Montbéliard, WEHR51

YUI KAWAGUCHI has been working in Berlin since 2005. In addition to her collaboration with Nico and the Navigators, she shows her own compositions of movement, space, light and sound worldwide, in which the dancing body is rediscovered. Milestones are andropolaroid (Cologne Dance Award 2010) and the multimedia production MatchAtria. In 2019, she co-choreographed Flying Pictures by Flying Steps at Hamburger Bahnhof, and in 2020 she developed Suor Angelica with Kirill Petrenko and Nicola Hümpel at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2020 Kawaguchi is developing DisTanz (Der Faust Retrospektive 2021) with Ruben Reniers. 2021 saw the world premieres of SUITE CUBIC with Julia Kursawe and Daniel Mandolini at the Konzerthaus Berlin and Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere with Alison Currie at the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide. 

JOY ALPUERTO RITTER (born 1982 in Los Angeles/ USA) completed her training at the Palucca Dance School in Dresden in 2004. Since then she has worked as a contemporary freelance dancer with many choreographers, including Christoph Winkler, Akram Khan and Wangramirez. In 2016 she was nominated as "outstanding dancer" (modern) at the National Dance Awards UK. As a choreographer she became internationally known with her own solo work Babae, which premiered at Sophiensælen as part of the Witch Dance Project 2016, and is one of the Aerowaves artists 2020. She works as (associate) choreographer with Akram Khan, Chen Shi-Zheng, Riz Ahmed, Viviana Durante, Florence + the Machine and supports other academic institutions in Austria, Germany, Italy and Beijing.

MOHAMMAD REZA MORTAZAVI lives in Berlin as a composer and musician. He plays Tombak and Daf, two percussion instruments that have influenced him since his childhood in Isfahan, Iran. Inspired by sounds of everyday life and nature, his emotional connection to life is transformed into pulsating and polyphonic rhythms. The award-winning musician presents his music both solo, e.g. at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall or the Sydney Opera House, and in international projects with other musicians, e.g. Rundfunkchor Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, as well as producers, theaters and dancers.

▼ PHOTOS ▼