Demonstrate Restraint

In “Demonstrate Restraint”, Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder herself returns to the stage. Together with musician, vocalist and composer Tomer Dansky, she embodies and deconstructs images, terms, sounds and symbols from Israel’s political context. At the centre lies the desire to be explicitly political. At the same time, she recognises the impossibility of this endeavour – a tension that is already hinted at in the title. Because, for Yasmeen Godder, two aspects oppose one another: The wish to loudly protest and to campaign with one’s complete force, and one’s own restraint as well as doubts on what can be said at all on the other hand.

At the centre of this creation stands the voice. For Yasmeen Godder, working with the voice as a generator opens new access to movement. Through dance, music and singing, the duo designs a play, a play exuding vitality, a play oscillating between loud protest and movements where they are silenced or where they become hushed by themselves. So, they develop tactics to permeate highly charged, even explosive themes on stage, as women and performers.

Yasmeen Godder has been touring globally since 1997, winning the renowned “Bessie Award” in 2001, followed by a multiplicity of other international prizes. She teaches at her Jaffa studio that combines research and production facilities, while also producing numerous projects, among them those with the Arabic-Jewish community. At tanzhaus nrw, she was present most currently with her widely noticed plays “Common Emotions” and “Simple Action”.

Duration: 60 min.