And when we change...

PRESS

“[…] Orlin’s tent creations are artful imitations of natural processes: Fantastically, white gossamer starts to peek out of one of the tents […] and, after much shaking and quivering, becomes a dress covering the whole tent, conjuring the image of a lady in a baroque gown. Another shakes white bundles out of his tent to form a kind of crinoline in which he strides like a turkey before jumping back into the bundles – after several run-ups – and hiding in them. […] These are fantastic performances by the dancers, who stay hidden most of the time.”

www.tanznetz.de, 7 September 2021

PREVIEW TEXT

As we humans continue to exploit nature, we are in danger of sawing off the branch we are sitting on. This is the dilemma that South African choreographer Robyn Orlin looks at in the thought-provoking outdoor dance parcours “And when we change our landscape… is it with bare hands or with gloves… ?” that asks: “How much do we presume we can appropriate and control and why can’t we just leave nature to itself?” Shown in three outdoor settings, at Kunstfest in Weimar, the national garden show BUGA in Erfurt and here in the Herrenhäuser Gärten, the piece contrasts landscaped nature against moving bodies. Known for her radical and self-ironic work, in this piece Orlin cleverly and compellingly deals with climate change and the human conquest of nature. But rather than wagging fingers, with her group of performers – 12 dance students from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Künste in Frankfurt – she creates striking choreographic images that point ahead from the present day and into the future.

(approx. 65 mins)

cast & credits

Choreography: Robyn Orlin

Assistance Choreography: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla

Dance: Teresa Alcazar Diaz, Tadas Almantas, Luciano Baptiste, Alice Brunner, Guillermo de La Chica López, Vega Diesveld, Xavier Lott, Abril Lukac, Andrii Punko, Emma Rasmussen, Antonia Selow, Emanuela Vurro

Costume design: Birgit Neppl

Sound design: Cedrik Fermont

Dramaturgy: Dr. Katja Schneider

Production management: Linda Langer (Kunstfest Weimar), Dieter Heitkamp (HfMDK)

„And when we change…“ is an in-house production by Kunstfest Weimar 2021 in co-production with HfMDK Frankfurt and in co-operation with the BUGA 2021 Erfurt, Klassik Stiftung Weimar and TANZtheater INTERNATIONAL, Hanover. Funded by Thüringer Staatskanzlei, Nationales Performance Netz Koproduktionsförderung Tanz, Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der HfMDK, Sparkassenstiftung Weimar — Weimarer Land and Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.