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Research: Storia Infinita

Try outs: Eliko moves and suspends between plastic plates. Moss-swings, passepartout underlay for organic material and the skin as intimate surface. Eliko‘s partner joins the session, lifts and swings her gently for hours in the air.
Meanwhile woollen clouds are falling apart. One looks like Falkor from the Never Ending Story, maybe after the Japanese luck dragon Fuku Ryū.

Model: Eliko
Fotos: Werner Amann
Support: Iman.rhv
Space concept + ropes: Dasniya Sommer

Some thoughts trying to connect different levels of a research and questions on how the space would be shared with sound and performance. During Open Studio weekend at Uferhallen one guest asked if the contrast of the material has specific meaning. Others saw references to the Czech/Slovak feminist female artist Anna/Anča Daučíková.
To star with I was mainly inspired by the bright, oversize Dojo of the BJJ championship in Crete I saw last autumn.
Or is it a colourful chessboard? A dojo as place of learning, or a chessboard as place to play against each other? Speaking with a sound person they wondered if the geometric plates is a visual arrangement of music? Is there a correlation between the coloured areas and a performers physical impact on the material, for example a extra boxing dummy? And is the boxing dummy recognisable as such, or is it stuffed with sheep‘s wool into an amorphous structure that eventually bursts open, revealing soft wool?
Do the squares represent tonal sound diagrams, or are they simply colored dojo mats depicting a non-hierarchical space? Do the panels in the primary colors need to be complemented with intermediate/pastel tones? Is the wooden ladder part of the space and does it suggest something about the process-oriented, unfinished nature of the work, which is what research always is? Not a finished piece, but a step/phase in the creative process.

 
Vergebliche Kunst: Moose
Moosgarten- und Terrariumrecherche im Rahmen des Tanzpraxisstipendiums. Ursprünglich war geplant großflächige Moosplatten für Bühnenelemente und Kostümskizzen im Atelier zu züchten. Das Raumklima stellte sich dafür leider als zu hell und zu trocken heraus. Ich begab mich auf die Suche zwischen Dachrillen und kreuzberger Hinterhöfen zunächst dahin wo das Gewächs oft unbeliebt ist und langsam vor sich hin wächst bis es entfernt wird. Ich bestellte Kokedama (japanische Mooskugeln) online, aber diese konnte man nicht oft genug gießen und nach kurzer Zeit verloren sie ihr saftiges Grün. Zimmerterrarien schienen mir eine bessere Alternative. In den ‘Petite Jungle’ Workshops von Aurélie lernte ich wie simple sich Terrarien gestalten lassen. Und, dass es für Moosfans auch Moosarien gibt, besonders pflegeleichte Moos-Terrarien. Weil sich die Pflanzen im Glas aber kaum vermehren, schien mir ein weiterer Versuch outdoor sinnvoll. Den ganzen Sommer bearbeitete, bzw. ‘skalpierte’ ich 20 qm2 Rasen unseres Schrebergartens. Denn ich hatte gelernt, dass Moos dort wächst wo Gras kämpft. Also, wenn Gras keine Photosynthese mehr machen kann, wird es von Moos verdrängt und die Fläche verwandelt sich langsam in einen Moosteppich. Die großformatige Recherche setze ich diesen Sommer in der Uckermark fort.

Parallel dazu experimentierten wir mit der Beschaffenheit von Moosen und dessen farblichen Kontrast auf der Haut. Oder im Ramen des Open Studios Weekends mit ‘Moosschaukeln’. Schwebende Platten auf denen Moos ruht und in einer begehbaren Installation vom Publikum geschaukelt wurde. Außerdem waren Besucher*innen eingeladen Formen aus den getrockneten Pflanzenresten zu legen, die an geografische Landkarten erinnern.

In letzter Zeit liest man immer häufig über dieses uralte Gewächs. Wahrscheinlich wäre es das Beste es sich einfach in Ruhe vermehren zu lassen. Ein Japanischer Moosbauer sagte einmal: ich bin von dieser Pflanze, die es schon lange vor dem Menschen gab und die den Menschen wohl auch überdauern wird einfach fasziniert.
Fotos: Haus Sommer. In ropes: Tiana und Eliko.
Autonomous Avatar at Festival der Zukunft
Autonomous-avatar-Tobias-Staab-Nadja-eller-Corey-Scott-Gilbert-dasniya-Sommer 

On tour at ‚Festival der Zukunft‘ – enjoying our 10th show and arriving at a mind set where dancing becomes second nature. Walking on stage and just do it.
Date: Friday July 4, 2025

Location: Deutsches Museum München/ Planetarium

Time: 19 Uhr
Can machines learn on their own? Is an algorithm able to hallucinate? What if our lives were just a computer’s dream? The hybrid dance performance AUTONOMOUS AVATAR deals with these questions. Two performers discover their human bodies until they transcend into superhuman forms. The encounter with these new digital deities takes place on the threshold between analog and virtual realities.
Berlin-based artist Tobias Staab has developed the choreography together with the dancers Dasniya Sommer and Corey Scott-Gilbert. Using live motion capture technology, their organic physiognomies are combined with the immaterial bodies of the avatars. The texts were created on the basis of a story by Jorge Luis Borges and in close collaboration with various artificial intelligences. The spoken and sung sounds derive from on a number of voice recordings made with the award winning actress Sandra Hüller. The score was conceived and arranged by composer Beni Brachtel.
Direction, Text, Concept: Tobias Staab

The choreography was developed in close collaboration between Tobias Staab and the dancers Dasniya Sommer and Corey Scott-Gilbert.

Performers: Corey Scott-Gilbert & Dasniya Sommer

Voice: Sandra Hüller

3D-Design: Luis August Krawen

Music: Beni Brachtel

Stage Design & Concept: Nadja Sofie Eller

Costume Design: Annika Lu Hermann

Motion Capturing: Warja Rybakova

Light Design: Matthias Singer
Funded by: Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien / NEUSTART KULTUR, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland / tanz:digital. Produced with support by: DOCKdigitalLab, Planetarium Bochum
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 – 23.9.25
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, dancer 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.
 
TANZPRAXIS STIPENDIUM
With many thanks to the ‚Senatskanzlei für Kultur und Medien Berlin‘ and to the jury Begüm Erciyas, Sheena McGrandles and Peter Stamer for supporting my artistic research with the ‚Senior artist‘ grant in 2024/25.
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
SKART & MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Eine neue, schöne Zusammenarbeit mit den MOTUS und Meine Damen und Herren Ensemble.

Premiere 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.
 
SHIBARI CLASS IN April
 
Shibari class Tuesday April 8th, 20th 2025

Hours: 7-9.30pm
The course Beginner with Previous Experience is directed at learning the basics of Shibari/Kinbaku technique. We start the class intuitively by following individual impulses with rope. After that we focus on systematic management of rope. On body handling and safety principles: knots, wrapping and aesthetic frictions. The material contains a wide range of harnesses for floor work and simple semi-suspension. It is strongly inspired by shibari works of Japanese artists I learned from over the last fifteen years. There is time to switch roles to deeper understand restriction from both the models perspective as well as the complex skill set of the rigger. In order to experience sexy phantasies and meditative ties.

Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt. The atelier with a tea kitchen allows for suspension on bamboo for four couples. The small group size creates an intimate frame to start exploring Shibari for single participants, couples and groups of peers.
– Please bring soft clothes and ropes if you have.

– You can register alone or with partner. If you want to join alone it’s possible to pair up with each other. We will try to connect single participants a few days befor the workshop, but can’t always guarantee. Many thanks for patience and understanding.

– At the beginning we suggest regular participation and practice to create a solid technical base.

– Costs 30 Euro per person.
Mail: workshops(at)dasniyasommer(dot)de / FB: haussommer / Insta: Kinbaku Haus / WA: +49-174-393 70 49
Dates: 8.4.2025

Hours: 19-21.30h

Costs: 30 Euro per person (max. four couples)


Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt – Wedding Uferstrasse 8,13357 Berlin. Entrance B6

In case the door is locked please call the number above.

Map here
In the picture: Eliko. Photographed by Werner Amann. Ropes: Dasniya.
Intermission by VAL
Dramaturgy for vAL / Corey Scott-Gilbert‘s new work at Tanztage Berlin 2025/ Sophiensaele. Passionately exploring what a dramatugical approach means from a practical dancers perspective. Thanks for this beautiful collaboration, and the lovely team brought together by Corey.
INTERMISSION
Reality has become so absurd that it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction and we, simultaneously the viewers and the subjects, are left numb. If our authentic self is being clouded by the ravages of social ills, what do we have that can break through this psychic interference to be shared? The answer could be in our dreams, but what if we are so overwhelmed and oversaturated that we can only stare in a dreamless abyss?
INTERMISSION is a solo work based on a collective archive of dreams, aiming to fill the gaps of a fragmented remembering. By falling through a procession of postures stored in his body’s archive, vAL mines for clarity in a dense fog of disrupted dreams. What memory remains is shared through a stichting of narration, ballad and physical conjurings that start to reimagine what new dreams might sound or look like. The archive is brought to life by his own performative doubt, variability and curated interruption. This relentless pursuit of lost dreams inspires anarchy which ultimately becomes his repair. What may eventually erupt when we sit together in our puzzlement?
Cast and credit:

Performance: Corey Scott-Gilbert | vAL

Choreographic Associate: Ariel Cecelia Freedman

Dramaturgy: Dasniya Sommer

Sound: ILYICH

Light: Gretchen Blegen

Scenographer: Lea Steinhilber

Costume: SADAK

Production: Neda Sanai

Photos: Mayra Wallraff
This performance features hanging textiles made in collaboration with Luis Alberto Rodriguez and SADAK as well as the voices of Charli Reese Kane, Harvest Shira Shiloah, Kayden Tickner, Stelios Tsatsos, Gus Solomons Jr.
A production by vAL. Originally commissioned by Emerging Change Tanzfestival with the support of Flutgraben Performances Residencies and Sophiensæle. The 34th Tanztage Berlin is a production of Sophiensæle. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. With the kind support of Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., Theaterhaus Berlin and Uferstudios GmbH. Media partners:  Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.