A special third advent. With Silke, our first show, in Markus Öhrns ‘Adventskalender – Wir sind die Guten‘ on the small stage of Volkbühne. Markus proposed to honour Saint Lucia with a Shibari ritual. Only than I learned about the female martyr of Syracuse, who was executed around 300 AD. She had denied to get maried, and there are many stories around her. The most known one is, that her eyes were gouged when she was tortured, so in one way or the other I thought it was perfect. She is also associated with light rituals and is the patrone of the the blind.

Already rehearsals were interesting. The third floor of Volkbüne is not easily accesible, but no problem for us!

The first time we took the front entrance, crossing the main stage, Pollesch was rehearsing, taking the goods lift with dance bikes and Jack. After we decided for the stairs and waited for the dramaturgic assistant to come by to give Silke a lift. She is so cool with these things! Thank you Tim :)

We quickly figured that a dress needs to be made. The costume stuff was super helpful. I got the white one from the rail and Silke had a couple fittings, so in the end we both got the same Lucia look, like the Swedish choral girls.

Another day of rehearsals in my space. Nothing worked, ropes were pinching and sliding all over the place, just not where they are supposed to sit. Padding didn’t work..a perfect sort of general.

On the Sunday Markus and the team were so there for us! Fixing suspension points in theatre becomes more easy, he took care of everything, especially since there was another Bondage performance in the calender, so hanging was bomb proof safe.

And like always, preparation takes more time than performing, Silke took care of my make up (I love how we can be girlish together :) and I check the hardware. Two sun salutes to tune into my body, sit ups, back warm up. Relevés and a little stretch so I don’t injure..(I did a light barre befor just to mentally complete my ritual). Two interns helped with last minute needs biscuits and tea, everything was sweetly wonderful.

But what was the performance about? I guess with the rope work it’s always about the process. Silke and I have been working together for one and a half years now. We met at Impulstanz Festival in Vienna in 2014, where she participated in our Yoga/Shibari workshop. It was mind blowing for us to have her doing the five day workshop. We were constantly looking for new solutions to alter the traditional technique and make it fit for her body. The same with Yoga. The first day she came in on her dance bike, with Jack, her assistant dog, and asked if she could take part. Of course! It was not just easy, since some of the dancers avoided partnering with Silke, so often Frances or Florian worked with her and they made beautifully odd couples.

On day three she found herself suspended in the air. And for ‘Impressions’, the public workshop try outs performances, we sort of performed together, even with Jack who got tied up ;).

Ismael Ivo commented, “I didn’t even know these things were happening in his festival..”.
Guido Reimitz introduced us again and suggested we should work together and he will support us whenever he can.

Here are some moments..