Life in Numbers

One look at the statistics tells us your date of birth, the amount of money in your bank account, how many children you have, the number of residents of your city, how many times you are on the phone per day, how much time you spend sleeping, how many friends and relatives you have, the price of butter, the dimensions of your house, how many days you attend church in a year, and many more things. Hailing from Mozambique’s capital of Maputo, choreographer Katia Manjate and Dresden choreographer Anna Till gave extensive attention to statistics for their new work: For a loaf of bread, they pay 52 Meticais or 3 Euros, Katia will live to be 62,3 years old, Anna 83,5. They measure 1,68 and 1,54 meters each. Katia will bear 5,24 children, Anna 1,5. Their monthly income will be 31 Euros or 3,224 Euros, respectively. Katia’s day has 7,7 sun hours, Anna’s has 4,6. Approximately, averaging, statistically speaking.
“Life in Numbers” is the first collaborative effort by Katia Manjate and Anna Till. The starting points are taken from their respective realities in life: Age, gender and vocation are the same – yet the conditions under which they live are vastly different. “Life in Numbers”, accompanied by live music provided by Jorge Domingos and Johannes Till, asks for the relevance and the effects of statistic comparison. What do the numbers tell about us and the world which we live in? On what grounds do we compare two realities in life?
The artists met during the international artist project “Shifting Realities” that supported the encounter and exchange between 14 promising up-and-coming German and African choreographers. Internationally acclaimed Mozambican choreographer Panaibra Gabriel Canda dramaturgically conducted this production.

Duration: 45 min. / in English