Die Gelbe Seite

Note: Before the play, Rymon Zacharei alias Rayboom will present his work-in-progress from DER PASS on Sat 02.12. at 19:00. Admission is free.

In Die Gelbe Seite, Takao Baba and Bounracksa Phomkhoumphon bring together martial arts and urban dance culture in one stage production. Based on the movement qualities displayed in such martial arts genres as Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, and karate as well as in ritual practice like wai khru, they pose the question for the development potential inherent in certain urban dance styles.

Both artists consider the martial arts field within their personal code of values as well as movement repertoire, dealing with the historic origins of urban dance cultures. Because those are, for the most part, rooted in Afro-American culture, they probe for the attached question for their own roles, identities, and biographies. They are characterised by their own Southeast Asian and East Asian family heritage as well as by their daily work and dealings with urban dance cultures.

Die Gelbe Seite translates this personal biographical exploration into an artistic aesthetic one on the stage: In a social context marked by racism and clichéd notions of Asiatic-diasporic life in Germany, Takao Baba and Bounracksa Phomkhoumphon reclaim the power to tell their own story. The dancers scrutinise and examine facets of Asian culture within urban dance and glance on those fields with an age gap of 14 years, from different generations.

Takao Baba was born in Tokyo (Japan) in 1974, grew up in Germany, and lives in Düsseldorf. The roots of his work lie in urban dance, which he combines with contemporary dance. Takao Baba set up the EMotion dance company that regularly develops dance theatre productions in 2003. They received an invitation to Tanzplattform in 2008 for their production 2nd ID, as the first urban dance company ever. Their most recent children’s production Boys don’t dance received invitations to the Augenblick Mal and Westwind festivals. Additionally, he has been active as a choreographer for Urbanatix since 2010, a project that connects young street art talent with international artists every year. Takao curated the urban dance section at the international dance fair Tanzmesse NRW 2018. Takao has a longstanding and continuous collaborative association with tanzhaus nrw.

Bounracksa Phomkhoumphon is an urban dancer with Laotian roots, known under his stage name Bouni. His artistic work mainly deals with urban dance styles, in which he has gradually specialised more and more. As an urban dance artist, he has been gathering different experience in various stage productions since 2007. He gained his first impressions in tanzhaus nrw youth productions such as Battle your own life under Guido Markowitz’ and Damina Gmuer’s choreographic direction and t(h)ree of life under the choreographic direction of Nora Pfahl and Karl Kane Wung. He was active with the Urbanatix international ensemble for many years, showing at Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. With the aid lent by the artistic support formats Performance Session and Now & Next at tanzhaus nrw, he was able to perform his first solo piece Anthropomorph as part of the Urban Double Bill on the tanzhaus nrw stage.

Duration: ca. 60 min.
Age recommendation 12+
In German, Japanese and Lao. With surtitles.

Please direct ticket enquiries for school performances to Maresa Grote-Sinn: 
mgrote-sinn@tanzhaus-nrw.de
Other visitors are also welcome to attend the school performances.

Choreography and dance: Bounracksa Phomkhoumphon, Takao Baba; lighting design: Horst Mühlberger; video: Ricardo Castagnola; dramaturgy: Célestine Hennermann; scientific supervision: Mbingo k.Itondo; music: Ricardo Castagnola, Takao Baba.
A production by Takao Baba, co-produced by tanzhaus nrw. Supported by the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e.V.