

Masse
Choreography with Students
12 dancers,
45 minutes
Collaboration with the University for Music and Dance Cologne and
Collaboration with the Attakkalari Center for Movement and Dance Bangalore, India
In the piece, “die Masse(demos)”, I worked with dance students in Bangalore and in Cologne. The piece was, in fact, two separate ones, each engaging with the same concept and which developed very differently in these distinct environments. The concept was about “the people”, a term that I sought to define through the body, in particular the collectiveness, the feeling of togetherness, which allows one to see oneself as a part of “the people”. Within the realm of collective experience and action, demonstrations and strikes are of special interest to me.
“Die Masse(demos)” was about a community, even if temporary, that emerges now, in a time where the traditional idea of community is suffering under our increasing individualism. The work dealt heavily with connecting oneself to which is considered to be lost - a community, our bodies, humanity. I was interested in the possibility of escaping social control and creating, with gathered bodies a political power that could have an impact, that could make some kind of de facto change. If not in its environment, then at least within the group itself.