GlückStück

Press

“[…] As her rounds stretch on and on and her beaming smile freezes to her face, we begin to suspect: it’s not going to be cosy. Choreographer Helena Waldmann sends her quartet into the ring. Each piece of music marks a new round in the fight for happiness. It’s toe-tapping music, lots of glittering twenties with rock ’n’ roll in between. And they roll and tap, gyrate and turn, do cartwheels, jump the splits, excellently, dynamically, thrillingly. […]” Neue Presse, 4 September 2012     

preview text

“Dance is completely contemporary art, and that’s the reason why dancing makes you happy,” says dance director Helena Waldmann. With more than a touch of irony, she has called her latest production “Glückstück” (happiness piece). In it, she sends her outstanding quartet of dancers into an alluringly glittering arena in search of happiness. In the – breathless and speechless – process, all roads leading to happiness are revealed to be dead-ends. Firing on all cylinders and with the precision artistry of tightrope walkers, dancer Brit Rodemund – voted Dancer of the Year 2011 – and her three equally talented partners remind us what it feels like to be truly alive with a blend of virtuoso dance from swing to rock and a grotesquely knee-wobbling jollity hunt. Self-mockingly tongue-in-cheek, grinning knowingly at the audience, they enter into a danced battle against sugar and whips, against the gilded cage of the arena with its golden border, and against conditioning and keeping in line with the norm – fearlessly and deadly beautiful.

(Approx. 60 min.)

 

Watch a video clip from the production on vimeo ...

 

cast & credits

Dance: Tobias M. Draeger, Moo Kim, Brit Rodemund, André Soares
Concept and direction: Helena Waldmann
Dramaturgy: Dunja Funke
Light: Herbert Cybulska
Stage: Jochen Sauer
Costumes: Mari Krautschick
Assistant: Bernardo Coloma
Auditor: Stefanie Schwimmbeck
Production: Helena Waldmann and ecotopia dance productions (www.ecotopiadance.com)
Co-Production: Belgrade Dance Festival/ Burghof Lörrach/ Festival Bregenzer Frühling/ ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival/ Migros culture percentage Dance Festival Steps/ Tafelhalle im KunstKulturQuartier, Nürnberg/ Tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf

Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds