Now & Next
The platform for up-and-coming choreographers regularly shows first works, projects, and works-in-progress by North Rhine-Westphalian artists. Up to three short pieces will be presented during one evening. Afterwards, there will be an exchange with the artists. For the October edition of Now & Next, we present young aesthetics from both the contemporary scene as well as from urban dance culture.
Duration: approx. 90 min.
| Sat 05.10. | Talk after the performance |
Gaia Pellegrini: culo 2 aka le veline
culo 2 aka le veline is the third piece of a series unpacking male gaze and showgirl presence in italian TV. Veline are TV showgirls whose role is defined by silence and presence. Positioned at the side of the host in what is known as the "velina position", they do not speak a word throughout the show. Their primary task is to perform the Stacchetto, a brief 30-second dance break strategically designed to maintain the audience's attention. culo 2 aka le veline focuses on the duo of le veline and its bounded destiny. Stacchetto by stacchetto, we delve into show dance to reclaim its sensuality, snatch it from the male gaze and rebuild it within a queer romance. Is it possible to reject sexualisation while performing sensuality? and can sexuality exist beyond dehumanization? Dancing along a curve that touches TV repertoire from the 90s to the present, the performers give up their role as spectacle and start enjoying each other as lovers and spectators.
Essen-based choreographer and performer Gaia Pellegrini completes her studies in Physical Theatre at Folkwang University of Essen, specializing in choreography at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza in Barcelona. Her work moves from a quasi-documentary interest for archives and pop culture, engaging her in the investigation of italian TV and queer feminist perspectives. In collaboration with dancers Rebecca de Toro, Shauna Fischer and Show Dance teacher Ley Akpinar, culo 2 aka le veline is a work-in-progress started in 2024 during Summer Residency at tanzhaus nrw.
Concept and Choreography: Gaia Pellegrini in collaboration with the Performers: Rebecca de Toro, Shauna Fischer; Showdance training and Coaching: Ley Akpinar; Music: GFOTY, Tim Pauli, Gaia Pellegrini; Styling: Giulia Parenti; Research Assistance: Alice Minervini.
Jennie Boultbee: Being With – Part 2
We are all here, carrying with us every day everything that has ever happened to us - now, in this moment, and beyond. Inspired by daily life and the world around her, Jennie Boultbee traverses real and imaginary times and landscapes in this concentrated solo. She uses her body as a tool to express encounters and experiences.
Which places, spaces, times and characters do we embody? How does an imaginary idea become a physical materiality through the means of dance? What makes the audience empathise with a dance? Being With - Part 2 focusses on the space between what is there, what is not there and what we can imagine in between.
Jennie Boultbee graduated with a BA in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in 2019. In 2021 she graduated with an MA in Tanz Interpretation from Folkwang UdK. Jennie has been working as a company dancer with the Folkwang Tanzstudio since 2021 and received the Folkwang Tanzpreis in 2021.
Choreography and Dance: Jennie Boultbee; Film and production: Jennie Boultbee; Music: Capriccio I in C minor. Joseph Marie Clements Dall’Abaco, Elinor Frey.
Residency and Support - Tanzhaus NRW & IG Tanz Essen.
Sophie Yukiko: RITUAL BPM
In March 2024, the UNESCO Commission announced that Berlin techno would henceforth be part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. On the one hand, recognising the subcultural spaces and scenes that have been created through techno music is important in order to highlight the need for a collective, trance-like experience and thus ensure that the places and spaces in which this can be experienced are worthy of protection. On the other hand, however, this award not only perpetuates an erasure of Black culture, but also reinforces an understanding of techno as a German/white phenomenon, which only became a movement to be honoured
and recognised through a supposed distance from its Black origins.
Techno pioneer Derrick May repeatedly makes it clear in his work that the emergence of techno in Detroit was inevitably linked to the social and political
circumstances of the Black population.
RITUAL BPM understands the practice of rave as a spiritual ritual in a West/Pan-African tradition and wants to make the origins of the culture visible again.
The spiritual understanding of West African cultures was transformed by the international slave trade – the MAAFA – to the USA, parts of South America and the Caribbean.
In the resulting cultures, spiritual rites are still practised today collectively and in connection with physicality, dance, music and ecstasy. Through physical exhaustion and dance exertion, RITUAL BPM aims to create a spiritual moment.
Sophie Yukiko is a German-American writer, curator and Performance artist, currently based in Berlin. Her work centers the topics of violence and legacy and rituals. Growing up in Cologne, Tanzhaus nrw was a place that has shaped her dance career through the constant exchange with other urban dancers for many years. During her career as a professional dancer, she became active in the Ballroom scene and has joined the community ten years ago. She is the founding mother of the Kiki House of Laveaux.
In english language; strobe and loud music
Story, Choreography, Performance: Sophie Yukiko; Sound Production: Trace; Photo: Lisa Sophie Kempke; Design: Mathè. https://www.sophieyukiko.com
