Performance Presentation Gisela Müller and Gebrüder Teichmann – Play Back Distance

In the frame of the Creative Crossroad activity, Gisela Müller & Gebrüder Teichmann were selected by brain store project to receive a 2 years structural support by the LLB network to work on several projects. They are receiving a residency at Workshop Foundation in Budapest and a residency at Station in Belgrade.

Residency in Belgrade

In the frame of the residency program StationOne and with the support of the Nomad Dance Academy and Life Long Burning project, Sation hosted three fantastic artists from Berlin: Gisela Mueller, dancer, choreographer and dance pedagogue, and Teichmann brothers, Andi and Hannes, DJs, musicians, producers and cultural activists. They are inspired by the idea of a non-hierarchical interplay between dance and music. These relations were explored in a new surrounding of Station, independent cultural center Magacin and Belgrade from 11th till 19th June 2022.

The trio wants to leave their defined roles as dancer and musicians, to request the duality of dance and music / sound and movement. Their research aims towards a musicality that is based on bodies: the body of sound, the body of space, the body of time, the body of objects, the body of bodies. They like to jam with these bodies and position sounds in space. At the end of their research work in Magacin, the artists shared their work in progress and hosted a Q&A session on 18th June. 

Gisela Müller is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher.  She studied in Amsterdam (SNDO) and New York, and was a member of several dance companies and founder of The Move Company.  She is a board member of Tanzfabrik Berlin and responsible for their artistic and educational programme. Beside that she is an active member of the east European network for performing art Nomad Dance Academy.  The Berlin based duo Gebrüder Teichmann, Andi and Hannes work as musicians, DJs, producers and cultural activists.  As live musicians, they seek the organic and direct interconnection of analogue electronics and acoustics.  They have been working with contemporary ensembles and with musicians of various traditions and countries, as well as in interdisciplinary collaborations.

Residency in Budapest

The performer Gisela Müller and the electronic music duo Gebrüder Teichmann started working together in 2017. They are inspired by the idea of a non-hierarchical interplay between dance and music.

As a trio they focus on exploring direct forms of communication, in order to create a simultaneity of body and sound and a dynamic system of interaction, beyond the classical models of transmitter and receiver.

During the CC cycle the trio wants to dig deep into the physicality of sound and the musicality of movement and develop hybrid performative formats that are neither to be understood as a dance piece nor as a concert, but as a space of resonance where movement and sound converge.

At the end of the residency, the artists delivered a work-in-progress presentation to a local audience. This open sharing contributed to enhancing and strengthening the local scene, disseminated the LLB project’s results, as well as introduced new methods and works to Workshop Foundation and the wider local scene. The residency exchange however was mutually beneficial both for the artists and the local host, Workshop Foundation. The trio got to know Budapest’s art sector and more specifically Trafo House and Jurányi House, the most important venues of contemporary arts.

View their experience report on the residendy in Budapest in the upper right column.

Performance presentation "Play Back Distance" @ Tanzfabrik Berlin

Our last phase of the research project happened in Berlin between September 19th until 30th and ended with a public showing at Tanzfabrik Berlin on September 30th.

Our main focus and interest during this last research period consisted of bringing together all the elements / ideas we had been collecting, researching and working on during our residencies in Budapest and Belgrade. The question was: How to place and work them in a new space as well as researching and working the new environment. The topic of our research project Play Back Distance was to explore new forms of simultaneity and equality of music and dance, sound and movement in space, as well as leaving the defined roles of dancer and musician in order to question the duality of dance and music / sound and movement. Our research aims at a musicality based on bodies: The body of sound, the body of space, the body of time, the body of objects, the body of bodies. Moreover, we like to jam with these bodies and position sounds in space.
The starting point of our research was bodies in space, bodies and space and their relationships to each other. Based on an open and playful approach, we dealt concretely with the spaces and their surroundings in the work and explored them spatially and sonically. To do this, we initially limited ourselves and began our research without technical or musical instruments. We used randomly found objects in the space, their materiality and sonority. Later in the process we added loop recorders, knitting needles, bigger cases, stools
and different types of handles.
Our first phase of work in Budapest started from entering into an empty space, only using two portable tape recorders and our bodies. The reduction of the setup was a conscious decision to be able to concentrate on the essentials of our questions. This phase ended with a studio showing where we presented a very clear score, where in Belgrade, our second residency, we looked for ways to emancipate ourselves from a fixed score while maintaining dramaturgical clarity. During the residency in Belgrade one observation of our work was that it makes a big difference whether you act out from the body or from the sound. Is the movement motivated to produce a certain sound or is the sound a result of the movement? Our last phase in Berlin allowed us to revisit all these different approaches, replaying the found materials physically as well sonically and it opened up a space for us to deepen our knowledge and practice. We clearly achieved getting away from movement in the sense of playing instruments musically.
For the public showing we decided to keep an open structure/ an instant composition with the agreement to only play with ideas, concepts and objects we had been already working on. So in short to play our repertoire.
After all this very fruitful and inspiring period we feel ready to play any room, to play without a room, to play the stage, to play the clubs.

In "Play Back Distance" dancer Gisela Müller and musicians Hannes and Andi Teichmann go beyond their “regular” artistic roles. Their genre-expanding research explores a musicality based on bodies: the body of sound, the body of space, the body of time, the body of objects, the body of bodies. They love to jam with these bodies and position sounds in space.

Since 2021 the trio has been part of the Creative Crossroad / Life Long Burning (EU Project) residency and research program. Following periods at Workshop Foundation Budapest and StationOne by Station Service for contemporary dance, Magacin in Belgrade.