TANZFONDS ERBE EXTENDED

A key part of the Berlin-based Dance On Ensemble's work is its engagement with defining works of dance history. At the heart of it is one question: how can dance and choreographic heritage be passed on, re-examined from a present-day perspective, and brought to life? This has led to productions such as 'A re-imagining of Merce Cunningham's "Story"' and the evening 'Works in Silence', which features six restagings of early pieces by the American choreographer Lucinda Childs.

The ensemble's 'Replies' series takes this a step further. Key works of modern and postmodern dance meet contemporary artists, who each respond to the historical material with a piece of their own. In the first three editions, Tim Etchells, Mathilde Monnier, and Ginevra Panzetti & Enrico Ticconi responded to the work of Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and Lucinda Childs.

The fourth edition, 'A Suite of Dances – A Day in the Studio', turned the spotlight on the Israeli choreographer Noa Eshkol (1924–2007). Her pared-back, rhythmically clear dances are recorded in precise detail in Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation, a system she co-developed. Members of the Chamber Dance Group, which Eshkol founded, taught the ensemble selected sections of 'Theme and Variations'. Eshkol created this first suite using her notation in 1965. The dances were passed on not just through archive material but from dancer to dancer. This also allowed the dancers to share a kind of embodied knowledge that notation, photos or film simply can't capture.

The French choreographer Noé Soulier answers Eshkol with a new piece. 'A Day in the Studio' picks up on her radical, systematic approach to geometry and space. He doesn't use it as a blueprint but as a starting point for rethinking how movement is put together and how we see it. Soulier takes actions such as hitting, dodging or throwing out of their everyday context. He then directs them at imaginary objects, at other dancers or at the dancers' own bodies. The result is a constant shift between acceleration, momentum and tension that needs no story to hold it together.

Together, Eshkol's work and Soulier's response open up a conversation across movement systems and eras, one that lets audiences experience dance history first-hand.

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

Part of DanceMap, funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation.

DANCE ON is a project by BUREAU RITTER, funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.