We like to pick our noses.
We like to watch on our own shit.
We don’t like weddings.
We fantasize about having sex with more than two people, but we never dare to do that.
We want to have a big cock.
Our mother was telling us that we were special.
Our mother once thought, that we were dead for a certain period of time.
I like to pick my nose.
I like to watch on my own shit.
I don’t like weddings.
I fantasize about having sex with more than two people, but I never dare to do that.
I want to have a big cock.
My mother was telling me that I was special.
My mother once thought that I was dead for a certain period of time.
…and I’m a human.
Gob Squad: Tina Pfurr, Berit Stumpf, Bastian Trost, Simon Will, Mat Hand
Gather some people in the same space. Give them small pieces of paper and pens. Ask them to write the statements on behalf of WE, which should be based on:
- Things, that WE believe in
- Things, that happened to US
- OUR confessions.
Agree on a random selection of the pieces of papers and statements announcement.
Put a rule: If WE agree with the announced statement, WE stay in the space-of-action.
If WE disagree, we stay aside.
(!) Make two important notes: WE should stand behind OUR statements. WE should dance behind OUR statements.
You’ve got a score for a dance performance!
From WE to I, from MY to OUR – becomes the central drama of Dancing About, the first dance performance of legendary Gob Squad collective.
The performance creates a multidimensional interactive space, where a viewer’s eye constantly wanders around the diverse elements of the happening: dancing bodies in the center; announced statement to the microphone; a live mantis in a glass box, which all the statements are addressed to; a big screen on the back wall with the text, immediately typed after each announced statement; changing music tracks; the dancing bodies again.
The numerous statements are direct, hillarious, consistent, breif, provocating, modest, vulgar, indecent, ridiculous, absurd.
Each statement, addressed to the mantis in the glass box, appeals to you, the one sitting in the audience. As though you are a prist at the confession, as if you are obliged to decide whether you are in the space-of-action or out.
…Would I stand behind this? Would I dance behind this? After all, I’m a human as well.
Obviously, in their first dance piece the performers of Gob Squad don’t challenge themselves for strong dance technique and esthetic perfection: no refined movement patterns, no active shifting in the space, no virtuosity, no impressive tricks. A disco club party instead.
Without any emotional and physical strain performance accumulates more adventurous, more sincere and more honest confession one after another.
Stout Tina Pfurr and skinny Bastian Trost encounter each other in We Don’t Like Weddings dance; Simon Will shares his childhood bitter memories, Mat Hand confesses a cruel lie to his mother; Berit Stumph performs a solo dance I’m Afraid When My Daughter Turns 11, because she promised to have sex in that age.
All of them lose themselves dancing behind the last statement We Need To Dance.
…I stand behind this as well… I dance behind this as well…and I’m a human…
Maria Prokhorova
Writer is a dancer who tries out different ways of viewing and reviewing dance.
°°°°°
DANCING ABOUT
Concept: Gob Squad
Performed and devised by: Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Tina Pfurr, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Laura Tonke, Bastian Trost, Simon Will
Guest performer: Mat Hand, Tatiana Saphir
Performers in Helsinki: Tina Pfurr, Berit Stumpf, Bastian Trost, Simon Will, Mat Hand
Sound Design: Sebastian Bark (Jeff McGrory)
Video Design: Miles Chalcraft
Costume: Marie Perglerova
Costume Sculptures: Josa David Marx
Dramaturgy and Production Management: Christina Runge
Coproducers: Gob Squad, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Schauspiel Köln
Supported by: Kulturverwaltung Berlin, Goethe-Institut Finnland, Federal Foreign Office Germany
