"[8:TENSION] - YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHERS' SERIES 2017"

The curatorial team of the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series 2017 of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival consisted of Anne Breure from the network partner Veem House for Performance in Amsterdam, Rio Rutzinger, Christa Spatt, Christine Standfest and Michael Stolhofer.
In 2017, danceWEB supported the production of the following dance pieces by providing them with 2 weeks research and working residencies. During these two weeks, the artists could participate in the workshop and performance program of ImPulsTanz for free and benefitted from a studio to work on their artistic practices. On two evenings, they presented their latest work to the audience of the festival:

Samira Elagoz “Cock, Cock…Who’s there!“
“Cock, Cock.. Who’s There?“ is an amazing documentary performance about violence and intimacy. Samira Elagoz takes us along on a personal research project across three continents – to online platforms and close encounters. She showcases gender relations in their brutal and wonderful ambivalence and reinvents her autonomous expression of sexuality. Confrontational, unrestrainedly funny, deeply touching and formally simply virtuoso, she explores desire, the power of femininity and the male gaze in a world in which the virtual and the real are inextricably intertwined. Is film editing a solution?
“Cock, Cock…Who’s there!“ was presented on 24 & 26 July at Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz.

Rachel Young created and performed with Dwayne Antony “OUT"
“OUT” is all about the bloody effort it takes to fit in. In this case: to be black enough, straight enough, Jamaican enough... In their intelligent performance Rachael Young and dancer Dwayne Antony not only attack the homophobia and transphobia prevalent in their Caribbean communities in London. “OUT” also reclaims dancehall and celebrates queerness amongst the bittersweet scent of oranges. A magnificent, euphoric and painful mash-up of remembrance and reinvention; a defiant act of self-expression featuring twerking, silence, repetition and voices, and: exceptional dance. Say “hallelujah” – (n)ever again.
“OUT" was presented on 2 and 4 August at Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz.

Ola Maciejewksa: “Bombyx Mori” 
She went all out at all times: Loïe Fuller, the early avantgardist and inventor of the “serpentine dance”. Last year, Stéphanie Di Giusto made an impressive film about her life called “La Danseuse“. Choreographer Ola Maciejewska from Paris has discovered the silk moth (Bombyx mori) as a metaphor for the critical potential in Fuller’s spectacular dance costume: movement as an interplay between body and object. Maciejewska’s fascinating “flights” of three black “serpentine moths” are such hybrids as well, defying classification as either one or the other.
“Bombyx Mori” was presented on 6 and 8 August at Odeon.

Costas Kekis, Petr Ochvat, Anna Prokopova “It beats soft in the veins”  
The voice is produced and perceived through vibrations of the bodily organs and the air. And, so the performers inform us, it is precisely in that physical space that body, voice and language meet. In “It beats soft in the veins“ the three extraordinary dancers examine and transform this space, their relationships to each other and to us, in search of ways to act in collaboration with others and to constantly re-examine this process. At the same time, their serious endeavour is filled with an accurate sense of the poetics of infinite vastness and loneliness, of unprecedented closeness and unfathomable comedy.
“It beats soft in the veins” was presented on 16 & 18 July at Kasino am Schwarzenberplatz.

Gaetan Rusquet “As we were moving ahead occasionally we saw brief glimpses of beauty (in process) 
Bodies live and bodies on video, bodies in a live video – where are the boundaries between being inside and out? The performance envelops its audience like a media body whose pace is set by metronomic devices. The title of this immersive choreography with its excellent dancers is derived from a film record: As “I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty“ by avant-garde director Jonas Mekas lasts for five hours and is considered one of the longest experimental films of all time. Gaëtan Rusquet’s fantastic experiment is a 45 minutes long mantra on time circulating and on being enfolded in communities and technologies.
“As we were moving ahead occasionally we saw brief glimpses of beauty (in process) was presented on 24 and 26 July at Leopold Museum.
 

Claire Viviane Sobottke “Strange Songs"
Dark angel or seductive siren? In her revue-like piece Claire Vivianne Sobottke creates “ambiguous body images in keeping with the times: nymph, Amazon, womanizer, punk and girlie, complemented by opera diva, singer-songwriter and rapper”, according to critic Elena Phillip in her praise for “strange songs“. A witty Q & A session with the audience is included – But beware! It can get quite coarse. In all this, Sobottke, the outstanding actress and dancer, makes her wonderful voice heard, oscillating between intimacy and political activism, between poetry and whistleblowing, love and terror.
“Strange Songs" was presented on 20 & 22 July at Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz.

Oneka von Schrader “Panda Express” 
A tea ceremony serves as a metaphor in this clever, exciting and profound examination of today’s theatre as a place of promise, enticement, surprise and danger. Three women and one man playfully use objects and actions to open up multi-layered spaces of association. In a mixture of absurdity, self-determination, provocation, humour and natural eroticism, the happening draws the audience into a fresh, relaxed world of representation where unaffected notions of dance, theatre and performance casually develop, redefine themselves and take themselves to the point of absurdity.
“Panda Express” was presented on 5 and 6 August at Schauspielhaus.

Joao Martins & Cyrique Villemaux “Autointitulado”
High-calibre dancers João Martins and Cyriaque Villemaux spent the summer in various dance studios all across Europe. It’s as if a whiff of Lisbon, Vienna or Barcelona was wafting through this piece, in which the two outstanding performers let the spirits of distant, recent and contemporary dance history rampage through their bodies: from classical ballet parts to expressive dance through to allusions to the stars of Voguing. With virtuoso devotion and a mischievous twinkle in their eyes, the two artists invite the audience to join them on a pleasant stroll through an encyclopaedia of dance that is as profound as it is surprising.
“Autointitulado” was presented on 27 and 29 July at Schauspielhaus.

These productions were nominated for the Prix Jardin d'Europe Award 2017.