danceWEB mentors 2022

Wim Vandekeybus (BE) and Nicola Schößler (AT/DE)

Statements

"Working with people is exchanging tools and experience but always with a focus on the uniqueness of each performer. Only this makes every moment unchangeable real. I am not a teacher but can share my way of arriving from any idea to a presentable interesting stage work. Dance is always communication and goes hand in hand with theatrical presence and expression. When movement asks for full engagement the drama will be inherent in the movement itself and freedom appears naturally.
To guide dancers/creators who start their career is, for me, never to say how or what they should do. Each one will pass by a father or mother murder to find their very own way.
There is not a solid truth in creation forms and it should never be judged that way! When I started,  my experience was like planting a tree in a dessert while in these times you’ll have to find a place in a forest.

I believe in an intuitive, animalistic and ritual way of physicality. An indirect way of ecstasy which doesn’t present itself as cerebral but rather as a memory of the body itself.

With Nicola Schössler on my side,I feel a strong relationship of equilibrium. We are very different in approach and even taste but make together a stronger balance."
Wim Vandekebus

"DanceWEB at ImpulsTanz is a setting that is unique, divers, experimental and extremely nourishing – I am looking forward to join you there, to give, to learn and to participate.

Coming from performance, acting and bodywork it is my interest to read people, how they create, how they function and what their needs are.

What connects me with Wim is that we have known each other for a long time and we both are looking for a special energy and intensity in performance that can be found in very different situations, bodies, speeches and even thoughts. Lets waste some energy together -- !"
Nicola Schössler

CVs
Wim Vandekeybus

Wim Vandekeybus (1963) is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and photographer. He founded his dance company Ultima Vez in 1987. He made a remarkable artistic debut with his first performance What the body does not remember. The performance won a Bessie, an award granted for groundbreaking work. His second performance Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles (1989) was also honoured with this award. In his unique style, Vandekeybus has created milestones in the development of modern dance with his performances over the last few decades, at home and abroad.

Vandekeybus has created a language of movement wherein he juxtaposes intuition, impulse and instinct with energy, risk and danger, which exemplifies a dramatic Weltanschauung, full of dynamics and conflict, through the medium of dance. A central focus in his work is the irreconcilable conflict between body and mind, feeling and intellect, man and woman, nature and culture, man and animal, group and individual, illusion and reality. Vandekeybus’ work is characterised by almost obsessive reiterations of one single concern: how man responds to extreme situations. In this context, he attaches special importance to what he refers to as ‘the moment of catastrophe’ - which ironically does not preclude his inclusion of humour, playfulness and even a certain jocular lightheartedness in his work.

Vandekeybus’s performances take the form of associative montages with a penchant for crisscrossing borderlines between disciplines that at the same time lose nothing of their strongrooted autonomy in the process. His dance is rendered in a powerfully theatrical manner. (Live) music and video/film are not only integral to his mode of theatrical expression, but more often than not, are actually the prime movers underlying the performances. The choreographer has also created short films for use in various performances - some of which may be regarded as standalone works in their own right, such as Blush (2004) and Monkey Sandwich (2013). Vandekeybus also made Galloping Mind (2015), his very first feature film.

In the course of the years, Vandekeybus developed a stronger narrative style that presents coherent fables with a broader scope, often revolving around community, individuals and conflict. His performances represent a transition from tensions between bodies at a purely physical level, to more complex tensions as between groups, and as between groups and individuals. In essence, his performances are and remain rooted to the vital energy of the body itself. This is a realm in which Vandekeybus has been able to create a rich and diverse oeuvre that is acclaimed not only at home, but internationally as well.

Nicola Schößler

Nicola Schößler studied acting at the Folkwang University in Essen and F. M. Alexander-Technik in Berlin. Numerous engagements at theaters in Germany (a.o. Schauspielhaus Bochum, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Theater Freiburg, Staatstheater Mainz, DT Berlin, Schauspiel Hannover) and a collaboration with Wim Vandekeybus in Brussels followed. She was a member of the Faust ensemble under Peter Stein. As a director she worked with Vandekeybus, among others, and as a film actress she is present in films by Edgar Reitz, John Bock and others. She has also worked for many years with Hans Werner Kroesinger at the HAU in Berlin. She was a curator for the Entropia-Festival Berlin. After moving to Vienna, projects at ImPulsTanz with Ivo Dimchev and Claudia Bosse followed. Most recently she collaborated with performer/choreographer Mirjam Klebel on Die Infantin trägt den Scheitel links at Toihaus Salzburg.