The Source Code by the Berlin-based choreographer Jochen Roller is an online project dedicated to the Viennese choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser who emigrated to Australia in 1938.
A recreation of her last dance drama Errand into the Maze (1954) provided an opportunity to create a layered interface on the website www.thesourcecode.de in order to highlight the material that was used for the reconstruction in Sydney in January 2013.
The project documentation (see above) shows the first phase of The Source Code, namely the recreation of Errand into the Maze in Australia, which, alongside Jochen Roller, involved four dancers, the video artist Andrea Keiz and the journalist Elisabeth Nehring. The intention was not to perform the reconstructed choreographic work but to document the individual research and rehearsal steps on film.
These videos as well as the historical material the team came across during its research were published on www.thesourcecode.de in a second phase of the project in February 2014. Photos, letters, interviews and rehearsal clips are linked to the filmed version of the recreation via graphic markers, thereby making the team’s work transparent: which material was assessed? How and why?
Every visitor to the website has the possibility of piecing together the information about Errand into the Maze that is archived online into an individual reconstruction.
In the interview, Jochen talks about Gertrud Bodenwieser’s influence on dance in Australia, about working with archives and contemporary witnesses, and about his understanding of the term ‘reconstruction’.
Jochen Roller talks about Gertrud Bodenwieser’s influence on Australian dance history, the trials and tribulations of rights clearance for the reconstruction of a reconstruction, and the appropriation of history as a creative process.
Jochen Roller
Born in West Berlin in 1971, Jochen trained in classical ballet before studying Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and choreography at the Laban Centre in LondonHe has been working as a freelance choreographer since 1997 and has produced more than 40 works for stage, galleries, fashion and film. His stage productions tour Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific region. The three-hour solo trilogy perform performing (2002-2004) was performed 147 times, toured in more than 12 countries and was auctioned by Christie’s auction house in Hamburg in 2009. He has been on the Goethe-Institut’s list of most important choreographers since 2004.
From 2007 to 2010, he curated the season dance programme at Kampnagel Hamburg, during which time he also founded the annual Live Art Festival with Anne Kersting. He was artistic director of the festival in 2009 and 2010. He has worked as a dramaturge for various choreographers, including Angela Guerreiro (Hamburg), Joavien Ng (Singapore) and Jecko Siompo (Jakarta), and as a dancer and performer for Martin Nachbar, Thomas Lehmen, Matthias von Hartz, Ami Garmon and Gintersdorffer/Klassen. He lectures at the FU Berlin (MA Dance Studies), University of Hamburg (MA Performance Studies) and the Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore (BA Theatre and Acting).
Concept, Research, Re-Creation and Archiving – Jochen Roller
Video Documentation – Andrea Keiz
Archiving – Theresa Willeke
Research – Elisabeth Nehring
Re-Creation Errand into the Maze – Nadia Cusimano, Matthew Day, Latai Taumoepeau, Lizzie Thomson
Custodian of the Bodenwieser Archives – Barbara Cuckson
Bodenwieser Advisors – Carol Brown, Lee Christofis, Biruta Clark, Moira Claux, Barbara Cuckson, Shona Dunlop-MacTavish, Elaine Vallance
Additional Research – Jan Poddebsky
Additional Archiving – Andreas Russe
Programming – wemove digital solutions
Graphic Design – Claudia Heynen
Production – DepArtment
With the support of Rozelle School for Visual Arts, Sydney.