The three pieces presented at SWAN Day Berlin 2010 were:




fragile
by/ with Eva Baumann

Choreography, Dance, Installation: Eva Baumann
Artistic Advice: Doris Schopf
Assistant Choreographer: Cristina Planas Leitao
Photography: Caroline Grijsen

"fragile" is a dance solo in an installation about fragility and boundaries. Fragility is part of the human identity, and in my identity as a dancer I ask what makes me fragile or what makes me appear brittle. Boundaries – real boundaries as well as mental ones – are part of our living together. But we also each have our own individual boundaries. This can give security but also exclude one's environment. The installation acts as a metaphor; it stands for the boundaries that one can see as well as for the invisible ones. Similar to a spider's web, in which the dancer is the spider as well as the prey. As a choreographer I'm interested in human mechanisms and I look for a physical translation that moves something in the audience – either an association or an emotion. This is my motivation to create, and although I cannot give any answers to these complex questions, I'd like to deepen the audience's awareness for them.

"fragile" is supported by the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, the summerstudios of Rosas/PARTS in Brussels, Dansateliers Rotterdam and the Korzo Theater Den Haag.





Broken: Part I
by/ with Shannon Sullivan/
Performance Lab Berlin

Choreography, Text, Performance: Shannon Sullivan
Dramaturgy: Joey Juschka

I'm interested in the physical breaking of things – the explosiveness, the sound – but also breaking things in a larger context – limitations, expectations, obstacles. Breaking is often seen as something negative or destructive, but it can also mean a transformation – a breaking of illusions, of outer shells, an emergence or emancipation. In Broken: Part I I examine the transformative power of breaking, of being broken down to one's essence. Each text uses a broken body part as a springboard and goes on to explore the larger meaning of broken parts, broken structures. The texts are based on physical "broken parts" – broken body parts. In bones, joints and muscles function determines and influences structure; structure determines function. What happens to the functioning of a system – bodily or societal – when its structure has been broken?








The Bacchae
by/ with Anna Melnikova



"Weh, wehe! Wenn ihr eurer Handlung je bewusst
Euch werdet, welch ein gräßlich Leiden! Und verharrt
Ihr ewig so in diesem Zustand, seid ihr zwar
Nicht glücklich, aber euer Elend fühlt ihr nicht!"
- from "The Bacchae" by Euripides

Woman. Golden Dress. Wine grapes. Confusion.
Agaue, the mother of Thebes' ruler Pentheus, is put into madness by Dionysus, the god of wine. In her possessed state she believes she is hunting a lion, but what she rips to pieces with her bare hands is in fact her own son. She proudly displays the torn-off head in her father Cadmus' palace. Sobriety comes too late...
Anna Melnikova's interpretation of the 5th scene of the Greek tragedy "The Bacchae" shows sympathy for overwhelming emotions and empathy for overwhelmed people.





The full program of SWAN Day Berlin 2010 as a pdf-document can be downloaded -> here.