dealing with life

christina ciupke and nik haffner
 

in their new duo dealing with life christina ciupke and nik haffner move between unfinished stories, large topics and famous couples. the connections which are developing over the duration of the performance relate to the cultural memory of the spectator, challenging it at the same time.
christina ciupke and nik haffner met in october 2003 at tanzquartier vienna during a laboratory for dance and media. since then, an intensive exchange developed until they collaborated and produced the duett subtitles (2006).
in their new production dealing with life they continue their physical investigation of the reciprocal effect of language and movement, which they started two years ago.
 
 

 

credits

performance: christina ciupke and nik haffner
artistic advise: frauke havemann

production: christina ciupke and nik haffner
with support of: der regierende bürgermeister von berlin - senatskanzlei kulturelle angelegenheiten, fonds darstellende künste e.v.

thanks to: andreas stirnberg, jack rath, andrea keiz
 

 
 
press
 
berliner zeitung, 08.12.2008

in the gold fish glass. the festival "tanznacht" the weddinger has bank resounding as new dance place establishes
of michaela schlagenwerth
 
(...) and actually: day after day more people are coming . on saturday uferhallen are crowded.
in the evening during the premiere of christina ciupkes and nik haffners " dealing with life" it comes to an absurd situation: the spectators squeezing already at the sides of the stage, where upon a table, a bed, cabinets and chairs. in between ciupke and haffner and behind the glass gate - spectators, who couldn´t get in - and enduring however the entire performance, looking from outside in like into a gold fish bowl. in the gold fish bowl ciupke and haffner tell wondrous stories, about love, the conceptions, which we create ourselves about love and about all kind of things. endless paper lists with terms are hanging on the cabinets: the betrayal, the secret, the family, the trap etc at the beginning the two show alternating small actions, for instance putting the hands between the cushions and cross out one of the words. what seems first in a way banal, is getting ever more cross-linked, referential, starts the whole own chain of individual associations - and remains thereby uncommonly smart (...)
 
 

corpusweb, 08.12.2008

experiment successfully. peter stamer turns ”tanznacht berlin” 2008 into a festival
constanze klementz

(...) the radical final speech for the ensemble as multiple organism of the collective, praticable has a lasting effect in its honesty likewise as that conceptually and physically selective, wondrously cleared up new pas de deux from christina ciupke and nik haffner. (...)