Not Punk, Pololo

PRESS

„[…] a shrill spectacle by all available means, made up of thumping music, shouted texts and muscle-popping, hyper-sexualised movements. One of the dancers simultaneously explains the phenomenon; distinguishes Pololo, a testosterone-fuelled dance from Abidjan, named after a murderer, from Europe’s freestyle punk dance, and the gay scene’s ‘Voguing’ from ‘Couper Decaler’ danced with exposed underpants. […] Some of it looks like combat, some looks like sex, but it is all highly energetic and results in something more like a concert performance […]. In fact the evening should take place without seating so that the audience can dance along. […]”

www.tanznetz.de, 10 September 2014

preview TEXT

The hitherto largest production by artist duo Gintersdorfer / Klaßen, “Not Punk, Pololo” is anything but dull. It takes the glamorous but violent “Pololo” movement that emerged in the Ivory Coast in the 1980s as the point of departure for some fantastic style clashes. A total of 16 international male and female performers from the fields of dance, music and drama – from the Ivory Coast, Europe and the USA – create an “International Dance Show Deluxe” featuring Ivory Coast-style Couper Decaler dance, voguing, contemporary dance and electronic music, including sexy dancehall styles, supplemented with spoken explanations and accompanied by live music and song. With this piece, director Monika Gintersdorfer and visual artist Knut Klaßen continue their hands-on exploration of European and Ivory Coast cultural phenomena and add more fresh impetus to the German dance theatre scene.

(Approx. 90 Min.)

 

 

cast & credits

Concept/ Direction: Monika Gintersdorfer
Concept/ Décor: Knut Klaßen
With: Christine Joy Alpuerto Ritter, Marc Aschenbrenner, Alex Cephus, Gotta Depri, Karin Enzler, Julie Flierl, Ted Gaier, Hauke Heumann, Jezzeline Preach, Anta Helena Recke, Magali Sander-Fett, Richard Siegal, Eric Parfait Francis Taregue alias SKelly, Hans Unstern, Thomas Wenzel, Franck Edmond Yao alias Gadoukou la Star
Music: Ted Gaier, Timor Litzenberger, Sniper, SKelly, Hans Unstern, Thomas Wenzel
Dramaturgy: Nadine Jessen alias DJ Abidjaninski, Katinka Deecke
Assistant to the director: Anta Helena Recke
Production Assistance: Camilla Kloss

Production: Gintersdorfer/Klaßen in co-operation with Theater Bremen

With the support of the „Doppelpass“ fund by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

This event was made possible by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK with funds provided by the federal government’s office for culture and media, and by the ministries of culture and art of the federal states.