What: In Transit 09, 11-21 June

location: Haus der kulturen der welt

nande:Theatre, Dance, Body-art, Performances, Video and sound installations, lectures, discussions, laboratory, interactive library, parties.

 

Intransit....Housed in the Haus

The Haus is a great piece of architecture, it was a gift form the United States of America to West Germany when the wall was still up. The building was supposed to have no walls and no roof, the was a structure over the building that acted as the roof. Unfortunately, the roof structure collapsed and had to be rebuilt. It was then that the building was customised.  The structure is said to look like a pregnant oyster....Jimmy Carters laugh. If you get the opportunity to get to the building, stand close to the pools of water near the garden and look for the reflection of the building....it should look like an eye. 

Speaking of gardens, the are families of rabbits that house themselves around the grounds(but especially under the green zozo offices in the Haus. But, where there are bunnies there bound to be foxes....yes...foxes. We saw a fox on the first day at the Haus...walking out with a rabbit in it`s mouth.And that`s not all, there is a technician dog...well, actually. The head technician comes to work with his dog....whom we came to love and called `Fox`. Sweetest thing ever!

The Intransit Festival took place in Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt in the middle of Berlin,Germany. It ran from the 11th of June till the 21st of June. This years theme was Resistance of the object....which we only realised was a re-occuring theme in our work. 

I joined sharp-sharp activities in the earlier stages of the project. It has always been hard for people outside dance or performance art and people who have a fixed idea about performance to understand our work.  The beauty of this project is that we work between performing and not performing; theatrical events and social events. We have had a few activities where the start of the activity was a silent walk(we take a group of people around an everyday place like an office to show them a specific sites and events along the route) followed by a sort of social event where you will find elements of the theatre. 

The question for me as a performer is always that: are we putting chunks of theatrical stuff into social events? 

Looking at the whole performance-non-performance it does seem like its a blur, in that you don`t see where one fits into the other. But when you have planned out the activity(which we do do...a lot), you do see where the line is in the performance schedule. I guess the trick is working at an idea so much that, as open as it will be, it starts looking like a blur to the performer as well. 

Performances:

Butoh Banger

I had the pleasure of viewing a butoh performance at the festival. Sankai Juku performed Hibiki(1998). The performance was truly awesome. WARNING: If you aren`t into a more ancient, native flava....don`t attend these type of performances or genres cause they are that exactly. You won`t find people trying to fake or please an audience. It`s more of a ritual than a `dance performance`. 

I thought it was a great piece of art for my first butoh piece. The stage set was on point, the make-up, costume and music too. The stage was covered in sand...and when the performers ran across you could see the dust...loved it! The slow drips of water from these canisters hanging above the stage created a light effect on the stage as the dancers moved across or even stood still. I really felt that this performance combined mobu,metsi,moya,mollo(earth,water,air,fire) and man....as the fifth element. 

I would recommend to anyone that hasn`t been to a butoh show..to catch Sankai Juku if they can. 

Magriza Power!!!

The last performance I caught was a 60min comedy-dance trip. Gustavia)2008) performed by Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot. This was a hilarious 60minute piece. This was mix of dance, script,drama....well...physical theatre really. The ladies had social/cultural/political commentry. 

I was not bored for a minute....it was a good watch. I can`t say a lot, just that if you catch these two women...dancing away on stage at their age(they are in great shape.....my role models for my dance career). 

Intransit was  a great experience and was totally accomodative to the artists and housed most continents...the artist line up was great(even though artists don`t get to see each other`s performances cause of rehearsals).

Curator: Andre Lepecki

www.myspace.com/festival_intransit