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Collaborations

BALLET TRY OUT III – OPEN STAGE AT MOTION STUDIOS

Quickly sewing point shoes – Photo: Frances d'Ath
Quickly sewing point shoes

On Friday 22nd, 2013 there was an open stage evening at Motion Studios which takes place twice a year, and dancers and their trainers can present what they are working on in an informal frame.

Yui and me got to show an excerpt from ‘Agon’ by George Balanchine. The Gailliarde duet with music from Igor Stravinsky. It’s fucking weird to count, but very beautiful to move to once we got used to it. After that I did the ‘Kitri’ variation from ‘Don Quixote’, which I have been working on, but also paused for a while. I unfortunately over rehearsed it a little, so that my ankle got injured. Nevertheless I decided to do it on pointe, but there also went my concentration ;) have a look.

Since a while I am thinking about how to use ballet technique for performance. After this evening we spoke more about how to make the process visible, rather than the perfect end product, or on which other levels ballet can tell more than ideal bodies and romantic images. How could it be more punk, conceptually but also performance wise?

It was a great learning process to wrap my mind around these two, and train the complex states of thinking, imagining, counting, breathing…, which I much notice in my daily training. Thanks again to Jo Siska who rehearsed with us, and to Frances d’Ath who filmed the evening.

To see the video please write an email to workshops@dasniyasommer.de. Then we send you the password.

Performance: Starwurst Premiere – das Helmi

Heute, Samstag den 19.10.2013 um 16 Uhr premiert ‘Starwurst’ vom Helmi–Puppentheater im Ballhaus Ost, Berlin. Wir freuen uns in einer Woche enthusiastischen Probens die drei Filme auf einen Abend zusammengestückt zu haben. Das ganze für alle, Kinder (SA + SO 16 Uhr), und nächste Woche am 23.,24.,25. um 20 Uhr dann die Erwachsenen Version. Mehr Informationen hier.

Starwurst – das Helmi
Starwurst – das Helmi

Performance: ‘Planet der Affen’ – das Helmi

Photo by Brian Morrow, Some Self Suspension in 'Planet of the Apes' with das Helmi at At.tension Festival, September 2013

On Saturday 7th das Helmi is performing at the at.tension festival in Brandenburg.
A weekend full of theatre, film, readings and installations for everyone.
Frances and Dasniya are coming along, so surely there will be some Shibari around!
The in- and outdoor venue is a beautiful former airfield in Lärz by Neustrelitz.

Hope to see you there!

Dasniya & Frances

Emiliano Ron – Aerial Rope & Shibari

The photos are from a private coaching session with the aerial artist Emiliano Ron this July. It was still new to try how the different rope practices work together. He would change from highly acrobatic aerial rope tricks to self– suspension figures, to complete passive hanging qualities. It was super pretty and exciting to watch how he bridges his field of expertise and the Shibari knots, which were newer to him. It seems a very logical combination, and a progression in terms of moving, dancing and flying… . Something that I first tried with Emily Aoibheann  from the ‘Paperdolls’  last year. In the end we stuck some bamboo in the mess, which gave some support to sit or stand on in the air, but also made the whole thing a very unpredictable kind of moving sculpture. Funny enough knowing how this feels from my performance ‘x=bô’, it is much ‘safer’ to dance in this mess with closed eyes, and to more rely on the tactile senses and their memories about where the sticks are, and how they behave as one moves through them.

 

Mahagonny Festival Bremen

I am writing this some time later…
In June Florian spontaneously asked if I feel like doing the Helmi – Swan Lake again in Bremen. At the Mahagony Festival with two other dancers, and the answer was yes! We performed on the 26th, and here are some photos of our Dodo – occupy camp in the theatre foyer.
The evening was a mixture of a sort of installation/interactive/walk through the whole theatre musical–opera–performance. Our camp was cosy but unfortunately a little far of to where the main actions took place. But as storks and swans we were running around anyway! And whenever a spectator got lost and ended up by our camp site, there was a certain smile in their face. For me for sure a remotely familiar experience from 2009, to transform an official entrance area into mayhem. Foam, puppets, blankets, tents, ropes, tutus, banners and other strike materials ;)

Öffentliches Schwanenballett

Tanzt mit uns, denn jedeR von uns ist ein Schwan! Direkt vor der Oper in der Nacht, flankiert von weißen und schwarzen Schaumstoffschwänen könnt ihr Euch einreihen ins Schwanenballett und mitwirken an der Verwandlung  der Stadt. Verführt dazu werdet ihr von der Ballerina und Performerin Dasniya Sommer und den Schaumstoffschwänen vom ZIRKUS DES FORTSCHRITTS!

Sa, 1. Juni 2013, 21:30 Opernplatz

Eintritt frei!

Infos: www.schauspielhaus-hannover.de/dashelmi

Revolutionsrevue – Das Helmi

Hey Püppi!

..rief es letzte Woche aus jeder Ecke, jedem Karton, von hinter dem gelbblauen Gardinenrund des Helmikontainers auf dem Stephansplatz in Hannover. ‘Zirkus des Fortschritts’ nennen die PuppenspielerInnen den wahrlichen Aufführungsmarathon, der noch bis zum 2. Juni läuft. Mehrmals täglich können Eltern, Kinder, Großeltern und Urverjüngte sich hier von den buschigen Nasen und schiefen Augenbrauen der liebevoll aus Schaumstoff geschnitzen Puppen verführen lassen, in Märchen- und Filmwelten.

Am Samstag mein kleines Debut in der Revolutionsrevue. Während die Richard Wagner Puppe schon die zweite Szene einläutete, habe ich Solene Garnier alias Rocky, oder war es Rambo, irgendwie ruhig und fluchs in die Luft geschwungen. Eine simple Hängung auf der Seite ohne Umschweife und geschmeidiges Abseilen von der Hüfte her brachten sie gleich darauf zurück auf die Füße.

Juchuhh Helmi goes Shibari (and ballet :). Anschließend wurde die Marco Puppe, der Herr Zirkusdirektor und ein Schaumstoffweg eher andeutungsweise verschnürt, aber doch so, dass letztlich jede auf  ganz süße Art ihre Hängung genoss.