COBRA BLONDE – PART 1

Traditional German guard dance and contemporary dance, highly international at its very core – two different realms that hardly ever mingle, even if dance as an artistic means lies at the centre of both. Reut Shemesh, choreographer and Factory Artist at tanzhaus nrw, now leads both worlds onto the stage together, setting her eye on the gender relations that are prevalent in them in “COBRA BLONDE – PART 1”. Reut Shemesh has taken a deep dive into the world of guard dancing in recent years, studying its movement repertoire and historical background. In the encounter with the Tanzgarde der Karnevalsfreunde der kath. Jugend Düsseldorf, she is looking out for the rich tradition and repertoire of guard dancing and her own works, informed by contemporary dance. Together with the guard dancers and their coach Ulla Gerling, a choreography emerged in which she opens the rigid form of guard dancing and lays out space for individuality. Between the dominant approach in contemporary dance that emphasises individuality and the power of community the dance guard draws from, an unusual aesthetic and political force field comes up. “COBRA BLONDE – PART 1” shows the first part of this work in a space oscillating between fairground and stage. The complete opus will see its premiere in Summer 2021.

Reut Shemesh, Factory Artist at tanzhaus nrw alongside Alfredo Zinola and nutrospektif since January 2020, deals with interconnections between visible self-expression of femininity and imagined self-ascriptions and outside ascriptions in her works. Following her education at ArtEZ in Arnhem and post-graduate studies at the Cologne KHM, she lives and works as a choreographer and performer in Cologne.

“Thanks to a performance that proves as sharp as a tack, one could get the impression that carnival’s doleful core would have been conjured up all of a sudden, a core that was rarely dreamt of in our philosophy.” Martin Krumbholz, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, June 24^th, 2019

Duration: 40 min.