souvenir

a collaboration by christina ciupke, kerstin follenius, martin schüttle
 

the piece is based on the interaction of dance/movement and acoustics/sound. it is a search for common forms, their terms and possibilities.
 
within a fragmentary window of light, expectation and supplementation form the increasingly complex layers of an image. the present seems to split itself into single acoustic and visual moments. the flow of time begins to falter, comes to a halt. this opens up the dimension of the act of forgetting as an elemental component of the perception of the present. the heard and the seen are only assembled into a complete image in one's memory.
through the repetition of this fragmentary present, a subtle shift takes place: the length of the piece becomes an emptiness that transfers the visual attitude into a visual act. it establishes a space, whose perspective guidelines are the transitions, within which conditions become cycles. all beginnings are re-beginnings. and purely through the re-beginning of the already experienced, do differences, small changes shove their way into the events. the now and the before flow into each other, repel each other away. memory floods the present.
this becomes legible in sequences of repetitive movement, whose temporal structure increasingly concentrates perception on the non-visible. (txt kerstin follenius )
 

credits:

choreography / dance christina ciupke
acoustics/ composition martin schüttler
dramaturgy / lighting kerstin follenius
 
duration 60 minutes
 
co-produced by tanztheater international, zentrum für kunst und medientechnologie karlsruhe, grand theatre groningen, association ballet preljocaj, aix-en-provence, funded by fonds darstellende künste bonn e.v.
 

presse
 

tanzjournal 04/05

christina ciupke presented her new piece souvenir at "tanztheater international". a rectangle of light gradually pushes its way into the darkened space, precisely illuminating her shoulder, leaving the body above and below shrouded in shadows. the section of light grows minutely larger and smaller, and just in the moment when you think that time is growing a bit long in all the repetitions and new beginnings, the shoulder area begins to move, turning back and forth as if it had a mechanism installed. arms fly apart, arms are thrown outwards, the head has its own pace. finally the body comes apart, shifts, shoulders, neck and torso are displaced like in a folding picture gone wrong. this proficient display of passion is followed by calm. also emotionally. for christina ciupke (in collaboration with kerstin follenius and especially the musician martin schüttler) is, in her, what can be called, opulent reductionism and concentration, able to not only forcibly heighten the level of awareness for subtle changes, for the sense of time, the interaction of sound and movement, but also to create an atmosphere that is emotionally touching.
katja schneider