featuring works by Bouni & Paul Davis Newgate

Two regional urban dancers, famous not only as tanzhaus teachers, but also from numerous battles deal with hybrid identities in their solo performances. From maskgate to masquerade – street show dancer Paul Davis Newgate, well-known from the “Rheintreppe”, devises a narrative about inner and outer disguises in “The Mask”, employing alternating masks coupled with an explosive, energetic and dynamic style of dancing. Wearable masks, tangible masks, masks that lend expression to sensation. „The Mask“ is simultaneously physical and abstract, highly emotional and almost unreal. Bouni, as a dancer a specialist for urban styles at tanzhaus nrw, tackles the human mechanisation in “The Anthropomorph”: How would a robot learn a dance style, and to what extent could its movements become humanoid? How do technological developments influence the human body? He harnessed a variety of dance styles for his representation of possible physicality. This Urban Double Bill presents two solos by promising urban dancers with choreographic ambitions. Both works were created during different formats aimed at promoting up-and-coming artists at tanzhaus nrw: The two dancers showed first drafts of their work processes during the Performance Session, followed by another developmental phase in which their research became part of Now & Next, and now, the completed solo performances will be presented as a Double Bill.

Duration: 90 min.