Demnächst

Premiere: War Games – Münchener Kammerspiele

 

Choreographing for WAR GAMES by Skart at Münchener Kammerspiele.
After a longterm rehearsal process, stretching over two years, with 12 devoted teenagers from Munich, we opened yesterday with a blast. There are two more shows at Therese-Ghiese Halle this week end:

Premiere June 26, 2025 at 19.30h
Saturday 28, at 19.30h
Sunday 29 at 16h.

Theatre of the new generation

War is as old as mankind. For 300,000 years, there has been fighting somewhere in the world – despite all the cries of “Never again!”. Why can’t mankind break out of this spiral? “War Games” examines war as a performative cultural history and social vicious circle. Together with children and young people, SKART questions power, violence and the rules of the game. The result is a multi-layered performance with theater, video, sound, costumes and stage design – perhaps even dance. But “War Games” is not children’s theater. SKART and the team deal with “adult topics” on a radically equal footing: What is violence? What does it do to us?
Humorous, provocative, intense – SKART is one of the most innovative groups working with children and young people in the German theater scene. “War Games” is art, education and a social statement at the same time. SKART gets involved – with a bang!

SKART & Friends Charlotte Heidenreich (Performerin), Stephan Janitzky (Künstler), Anton Kaun (Video- & Noisekünstler), Deniz Khan (Musiker), Lea Letzel (Künstlerin & Pyrotechnikerin), Janne Plutat (Kostümbildnerin), Mark Schröppel (Performer & Theatermacher), Dasniya Sommer (Tänzerin & Choreografin), Henrik Weber.

With Karla Bacher, Lionel Barth, Isaac de Mercey, Sophie Einloft, Milan Glück, Anna Haas, Emma Konrath, Lukas Lauser, Nala Ouaffi, Melanie Siebs, Jakob Waldow.

Artistic Production Management: Elke Bauer, Daniela Schroll
Technical Production Management: Richard Illmer
Stage Management: Thomas Graml, Josef Hofmann
Lighting: Wolfgang Eibert, Yongwoo Kwon, Christian Mahrla, Louis Nickel
Sound Paolo Mariangeli, Alejandro Nieto
Video: Technician Julia Römpp
Carpentry: Florian Thoma
Props: Julia Molloy
Costume: Janne Plutat
Make Up: Jannes Donner
Stage Manager: Hanno Nehring
Photos: Judith Buss

Workshop series: Harness in motion

choreografie-tanz-dasniya-sommer-bondage-shibari-Kunst-yum-yum-ballhaus-ost-berlin-rope-dance-workshops-klassen-performance

The series ‚Harness in Motion‘ consists of three workshops this summer:

1. class: Navigating weight lightly – 27.6.25
2. class: Skin, ropes and trust – 22.7.25
3. class: Adrenalin: shibari fight club – date tba / in September

The workshop focuses on dynamic system of movements and rope restriction. Dasniya will open her vast dancers tool box to creatively expand the traditional shibari vocabulary. Rope harnesses will serve as anchor points and transform the classical top-bottom dynamic into playfully and intimately moving with your partner through space.
Note: This class is the second of a series of three classes that will explore this topic in depth. The classes build on each other but it is not obligatory to take all three of them.

For more information please contact: workshops(at)dasniyasommer.de
or register via: Karada House.

Dasniya Sommer is a Berlin-based choreographer and teacher who works in the range from performance to photography and video art, from Japanese Shibari to classical ballet. She examines movement and image from the perspective of the dancer. For 20 years Dasniya has practiced Japanese Shibari/Bondage stretching performative aesthetic categories, making shibari accessible to a wider and intersectional community.
 She tries to combine pure Japanese techniques (currently Akira Naka inspired) with an unconventional anarchic approach, often integrating objects or organic material into the process. 
Dasniya’s teaching is informed by her experience as a rigger and shibari model. Melting schools and philosophies from a great number of teachers such as Chanta Rose, Kamijoo Saki, Kasumi Hourai, Arisue Go, Akira Naka, Tamandua, Gestalta, and Norio Sugiura. She regularly teaches at ‘Haus Sommer’ her studio in Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, and a.o. at ImPulsTanz Vienna, Lismore’s Queer-Community/Australia, and Braunschweig University of Art. ‘Sculpting or moving with ropes I deeply enjoy the handcrafting moment combined with sensual attention towards my partner or the bondage material.‘

Photo by Pippa Samaya.

 

SKART & MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Eine neue, schöne Zusammenarbeit mit den MOTUS und Meine Damen und Herren Ensemble.
Premiere ist nächste Woche auf Kampnagel, 9. April 2025, 19 Uhr.

WAR GAMES

In der rund 300.000 Jahre alten Geschichte des modernen Menschen gibt es keinen Augenblick, in dem nicht irgendwo auf der Welt Krieg geführt wurde. Obwohl die meisten Erdenbewohner*innen anscheinend dagegen sind, gibt es wenig Vorhaben, die der Homo sapiens so zuverlässig umsetzt, wie das Morden im großen Stil. Wie eine schlechte Angewohnheit wechselt der Krieg regelmäßig seine Erscheinungsform und wird kontinuierlich verdammt – wirklich aus der Mode kommt er allerdings nie. In ihrer neusten Produktion WAR GAMES widmet sich das altersgemischte Kollektiv SKART & Masters of the Universe zusammen mit Performer*innen des inklusiven Ensembles Meine Damen und Herren dem Phänomen Krieg als performativer Kulturgeschichte. Gemeinsam mit Schüler*innen der Stadtteilschule Altona untersuchen sie kriegerische Konflikte als gesellschaftliche Teufelskreise. In Form künstlerischer Endlosloops stellen sie die Frage: Warum ist »Nie wieder!« eben nicht jetzt?

Mit: SKART & Masters of the Universe

Von und mit SKART & Masters of the Universe, Björn Auftrag, Charlotte Heidenreich, Friederike Jaglitz, Deniz Khan, Lone Lausen, Isabella Lüthe, Maja Maciak, Stephan Mahn, Tintin Patrone, Janne Plutat, Lars Rubarth, Minu Schilling, Mark Schröppel, Sina Schröppel, Michael Schumacher, Dasniya Sommer, Henrik Weber

Gefördert im Programm Jupiter – Darstellende Künste für junges Publikum der Kulturstiftung des Bundes – gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien. sowie von Hamburgische Kulturstiftung. In Kooperation mit ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.

 

Raven with Long Covid

Showcase Beat Le Mot - Raven with long Covid Hebbel am Ufer Berlin -Dasniya Sommer
By Showcase Beat Le Mot

Dates: Thu + Fri 19. + 20.December 2024. And Sat + Sun 4. + 5. Januar 2025.
German text and tickets here

“Breathe in, breathe out. Find a niche in the brutal world until the storm has passed. Breathe in, breathe out. Dealing with the authorities, healthcare forms. Noise & light are no longer a simple joke, but nasty everyday hurdles. Breathe in, breathe out. What happens when the limits of consideration meet the limits of perception? Breathe in, breathe out.”

“Raven” is a symposium, gathering and performance about peak performance and the question of what happens when nothing else works. The frame of reference is the chronic illness ME/CFS, as a chronicised form of Long Covid. Sick and non-ill artists are involved in the conception and design of the event series with various contributions. The title refers on the one hand to the dance and party culture of the 90s, and on the other to the claustrophobic fantasies of forced standstill as sketched by E.A. Poe in his famous poem of the same name.

Over four days, “Raven” creates space for the art that is created with and despite ME/CFS. ‘Raven’ is explicitly designed for sick people, companions and allies, as a theatre in a reclining position, with quiet spaces and landscapes with reduced stimuli.

Cast

Concept, realisation: Showcase Beat Le Mot / Artistic collaboration: Florian Feigl, Christopher-Felix Hahn, Albrecht Kunze / Performance by and with: Philip Albus & Ana Berkenhoff, Catherina Cramer, Katharina Cromme, Gosia Gajdemska, The Millennial Midlife Crisis, Malin Harff, Stephan Hellweg, Clara Heinrich, Anja Ibsch, Sunniva Innstrand, Ania Kolyszko, Josephine Lange, Sophie Lenglachner, Roxane Llanque, Romy Lutze, Sebastian Meissner, Dana Müller, Rebekka Muth, Leonard Nadolny, Carolin Ott, Crash Theater, Johanna Pigors, National Ballet of Kosovo, Julia Sandforth, Louisa Schiedek, Lilia Schliephacke, Showcase Beat Le Mot, Elisabetta Solin, Dasniya Sommer, Birte Viermann, Mirjam Wählen, Sebastian Warne, Lisa Wiedemann, Erik Zürn, 4 Faule Frauen, Dania Alasti, Toni Kritzer, Moritz Andreas Bürge, Amar Halilović, Lukas Kahn Kesler, Black Ferk Studio (Matthias Mollner, Judith Schößbock) /Technical direction: Bart Huybrechts / Production management: Olaf Nachtwey
Photo: Michael Shenbrot.

Production: Showcase Beat Le Mot. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

Tying and Timing

shibari-bondage-berlin-dasniya-sommer-tara-samaya-photo-pippa-samaya


Shibari classes at Karada House: 24.9. + 22.10.2024
Shibari classes at Haus Sommer 1. + 8.+ potentially 15. 10.‘24

Topic: Tying and Timing
Hours: 19-21h
Group size: max. 10 couples

Repeating Japanese inspired technique: futo momo, gote and potentially semi-suspension, we will look at different temporalities while tying. Considering the preparation time before a bondage ritual. Connecting individual rhythms of rope from slow binding to mid tempo or speed tying, and also talking about ‘crip time‘ – constellations. How can experimenting with tempi, rhythm and rope translate intimate desires into a groovy session? Or, how can we embrace our anti-groove?

More info and directions: Karada House
Address: KARA, Perleberger Straße 59, 10559 Berlin (Moabit)

More information and the Haus Sommer address here.

In ropes: Tara Samaya
Picture: Pippa Samaya

LATE

Soon travelling to Finland for Juli Reinartz resaerch/doctoral thesis. We will spend two weeks at the Saari-Residence in rural nature. A journey by land with a multi-divers team and my little one joining as well. Last week we shortly touched on the topic in her studio in Berlin where the final presentation takes place at the end of June.
I much enjoy the reflective-somatic space Juli creates on ‘Temporality and Bodies’:

LATE is a long ball.
A baroque opulence with contemporary bodies.
A collective dance on crip time.
An excess of the time that we have.
An experiment on collectivity.
How can we share time if we cannot share time?

A group of performers returns to the beginnings of dance notation, gets in formation and assesses anew the cultural past that has defined the power space around them. They put in question the possibility of synchronicity and organize the space along their temporal scope. By way of that, they create a space of simultaneities. They engage with the past in order to create a future for themselves.

Research direction and choreography: Juli Reinartz
In collaboration with the performers Addas Ahmad, Ariane, Hassan Pour-Razavi, Dasniya Sommer and Matilda Carlid
Research participation: Daria Dönch, Jojo Büttler, Massiamy Diaby
Audio description: Silja Korn in collaboration with the performers
Outside eye: Gerko Egert
Music: Iftah Gabbai
Production assistance: Merle Wurl
Technical direction: Fabian Bleisch

Funded by Kulturamt Pankow and Theater Academy, Uniarts Helsinki. With generous support of Saari Residence, funded by Kone Foundation. Supported by residency program at PACT Zollverein (Essen), funded by the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westfalia. Research funded by the performing arts Fund with funds from the Federal Government Commisioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR. With generous support of Theater Thikwa.

22 and 23 June 2024
Entrance between 7 and 9pm
Storkower Strasse 115
10407 Berlin

For tickets, further information on the performance and accessibility: www.late-night.net

Contact: latebirdnight@gmail.com
German invitation here

Photo: Iftah Gabbai
Review: The Centre is Everywhere – The Circumference is Nowhere by Alice Heyward

QUEER ROPE 2024

Happy to announce that I will teach two workshops at virtual Queer Rope Festival by Karada House:
1. Shibari Spa – combining hot stone massage with ropes.
2. Plastic Coocons – developing narrative by involving material into self-tying.
All workshops take place online to meet queer shibari womên and our community from five time zones.
Thanks a lot to Caritia – I much enjoyed teaching together ^^ and to Karada House!
Full program and tickets here.

Autonomous Avatar Excerpt

Back to dancing Tobia’s Staab’s Autonomous Avatar at Planetarium Bochum. This time as solo. And no less adventurous to motion capture our creepy beauties (by Luis Krawen).
We experienced how fragile the technique still is. Big thanks to Warja Rebakova for translating my movement to the full dome. Where the avatars went their own way during our second show. They first obediently danced, crawled just as I do on stage as reference body surrounding the Zeiss Universarium IX projector ;). But suddently Sumo-ballerina jumped accross the dome hectically, flickering behind the emergency exit sign and didn’t reappear befor the show ended. These glitches and errors are most helpful with developing the piece further, but during the performance it gave me an massive sense of my tininess.

The next show will be in Berlin at A. MAZE festival / Silent Green on May 9th, 2024.

YUM YUM @ Open Studio Weekend

A dance performance for the Uferhallen- and the Berlin visual art community during Open Studios/’Frequently asked Questions’ at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt.

Dates: September 16 + 17,  2023
Open Studio between 12 -8pm
Shows Saturday + Sunday at 3pm

Whirlpools of packaging waste circulate in the ocean. Feminine sharks glow. Nimble hands fold oversize origami. Ropes become noodles, intestines, ghost nets. Care ballet and slow-food porn meet at the wok campfire of an Asian megacity. In a dance performance, the visual cosmos of a glutamate-soaked fast food world is unleashed. Hard-to-digest realities of life lead into absurd waters. A ritual that sensually questions Eurocentric views.
With the piece »Yum Yum« Haus Sommer investigates the connections between (culinary) cultures, digestive processes and artificial worlds. By reflecting on hydrofeminist approaches, following the idea that we are all “Bodies of Water”, an oscillating projection surface is created for a critical examination of anti-Asian racism.

Haus Sommer is the network label of dancer and choreographer Dasniya Sommer. In changing collaborations with different artists she questions and expands the formal language of classical ballet under the influence of Shibari, Body Art and contemporary performance art.

The process and the performance are created by the actor Michael Schumacher from the inclusive ensemble Meine Damen und Herren, the MMA performer and poet Fungi Fung, the eco feminist dancer Tara Jade Samaya, as well as Yui Kawaguchi, whose dance-choreographic approach moves in the field of tension between tradition, present, East and West.

Dance, choreography, stage
Dasniya Sommer

Dance, co-choreography, performance
Yui Kawaguchi, Tara Jade Samaya, Fungi Fung

Dramaturgy
Barbara Schmidt Rohr, Marie Baumgarten

Sound Design & Composition
Nguyễn + Transitory

Stage design assistence
Mark Schröppel

Critical companion
Juli Reinartz, Melmun Bajarchuu

Sound assistence
Deniz Khan

A production by Haus Sommer in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost and with the support of Meine Damen und Herren Ensemble. Supported by the process funding of the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR. The Open Studio weekend is supported by Uferhallen e.V. and n.b.k. .

Haus Sommer – Yum Yum

Premiere: May 12, 2023 at Ballhaus Ost .
In the picture: Michael Schumacher/Meine Damen und Herren Ensemble, Tara Jade Samaya, Yui Kawaguchi, Fungi Fung, Dasniya Sommer.
Documentation by Pippa Samaya.