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Bondage Show

Grenzenlos Kultur festival mainz bondage show dasniya Sommer
Foto © Holger Rudolph

Grenzenlos Kulturfestival Mainz.

Not all performances start easy but still they can be fun! Arriving on Friday and rehearsing into to the night at the Glasshouse of the Staatstheater. What if the dancing bike unexpectedly doesn’t run across the dance floor?
What is wonderful condition for dancers, turned out to be a nightmare for our Silke. Sticking to the ground, rubber wheels on rubber floor, nobody there to help, except Burkhard on the phone with some precious Mac Gyver solution. Like always helping in the last moment. We found a compromise to reduce our frustration.

Our show was to be all about lightness and speedy movement, contrasted with calm bondage. Thats what Silke and I have been exploring for some month. Accompanied by Johannas sound and Florians live guitar.
Including scenes we ritually go through in rehearsals. It had all in it, tying my boy and Silke, and dancing ballet.

The café scene, cause there is much fascinating stuff Silke has to tell, especially when it comes to her experience and life as small states persecutor. But it is not only her size that make things different and challenge me to find bondage alternatives. There are other bodily conditions which on one hand are restrictions, but on the other hand give us unique choreographic possibilities. Like her powerful lower arms, or air bondage with only one suspension chord :)

It was the first time showing this material to the public. Still a bit fragile, but people appreciated the mediative process (some got nervous, but ok ;)
Overall I think it was a good step for us, and against all odds I much look forward to continue!

“Bondage Show”

bondage@Institut-sommer

Unseren nächsten Auftritt Bondage Show machen wir beim Festival Grenzenlos Kultur in Mainz.

Performance Impulse: Silke Backofen – Schönfleisch, Dasniya Sommer und Florian Loycke
24. September 2016, 14 Uhr
Staatstheater Mainz, Glashaus

Im Rahmen des Symposion Who Cares?
Kuratiert von Astrid Kaminski und Jeremy Wade

Der zukünftige Körper: ein hochfunktionales, interaktives System. Perfekt? Auf jeden Fall verwundbar. Denn je besser wir funktionieren (wollen), desto größer werden auch die gegenseitigen Abhängigkeiten.
Wie gestalten wir dieses Verhältnis? Menschen mit Behinderungen sowie generell Menschen mit hohem Hilfsbedarf stehen oft in einem komplizierten Abhängigkeitsverhältnis – zu Hilfsmitteln, Sozialleistungen, Assistenzen, Therapien, Vormündern. Mehr Info

Harness — Amsterdam Fringe Festival

Knot Aplicable- Harness
Knot Aplicable- Harness

I am in Amsterdam! For the next week, I will be performing in the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, and teaching workshops. Sophie Fetokaki invited me to create and perform with her a live art / performance art / installation work called Harness, also with Vera Goetzee and Mei-yi Lee. We’re performing at Oostblok, Sajetplein, this weekend and early next week. All the details below!

Also I’ll be teaching shibari workshops while I’m in Amsterdam, email me for details, and check back here for more info.

Harness

Knot Applicable

Rope. Voice. Body. Percussion. These are the four elements of Harness, a work bringing together the music of John Cage and the Japanese rope-tying art of Shibari into one immersive performance art work, exploring the dynamics of tension and release; silence and sound; movement, stillness and duration.

Harness raises all sorts of questions, about trust and spectatorship, about consent and power, about beauty and desire. But most of all, it invites the audience to come along for the ride, to travel through the duration of the performance, to permit and explore the inevitable flux of responses; to dive into a deeply dynamic experience of slow, patient transformation.

About the artists

Sophie Fetokaki: voice, artistic direction
Dasniya Sommer: shibari artist
Vera Goetzee: dancer, model
Mei-yi Lee: percussion
Petyr Veenstra: light & technics

Where & When

Fri 2nd, Sat 3rd, Mon 5th, Tues 6th September, 2016
Fri & Mon: 21:00
Sat & Tues: 18:30
Tickets: €7,00
Oostblok, Sajetplein, Amsterdam
Amsterdam Fringe Festival