DIE ÜBERSETZER – How(I)

The world seems increasingly stranger and more confusing to many. What does “home” mean in a time of refugee crises and immigration societies? How secure, or insecure, how open or closed should be “home”? How is “home” constituted for people from different cultures? Jessica Van Rüschen, Menghan Lou, Simone Deriu and Felix Landerer approach the question in quite different ways: How can one translate the hybrid and dynamic basic structure of the term “home” into dance?

‘How I’ (= how do I?) is a work based on a previous residency and research at Dansateliers Rotterdam.

The work examines the absurdity of the notion of an objective meaning of life, proposing that individuals create meaning for themselves, and this personal ‘meaningfulness’ often does not translate to others. The image of someone investing enormous effort into something incomprehensible to the observer is central to this idea.

‘Getting up’ in the slowest possible, constant motion was an image created in the context of ‘getting up for your needs’.

While working with the physicality of ‘super-slowmotion’, a shift in perception can be observed. Committing to the task, both physically and mentally challenging, the mind slowly finds little ‘openings’ for freedom. Initially enduring the physically heavy task, being stuck in time, and wishing for the future to happen, one can later perceive the possibility to continually release tension in the body and mind. Through shifting weight imperceptibly, releasing unnecessary tension, and observing the movement of breath as a support to create space in the experience, it is possible to sometimes find peace in ‘now’ instead of longing for the future to happen and for the effort to end.

This raises the question: when defining oneself as home, how free is one to realize ‘Self’? An ‘I’ grown by nurture and nature, often unexamined by conscious awareness, frequently feels oppressed by thought and habit patterns.

This piece aims to work with a very reduced physical task to have the dancers observe their thought and habit patterns within their body and mind. In a movement imposed from outside, they seek their freedom of choice. They ‘get up’ for their needs and find their freedom in ‘how’.

‘To me, the person who can give meaning to what he does, is a picture of freedom and inspiration. He adds something that wasn’t there before:

A creation.’

Choreography: Jessica van Rüschen

Performance: Simone Deriu, Anila Mazhari, Luigi Sardone, Karolina Szymura, Menghan Lou

Music: Christof Littmann

Stage: Melanie Huke

Costume: Theresa Klement

Lightdesign: Wolfgang Denker, Jessica van Rüschen, Menghan Lou, Simone Deriu, Felix Landerer

Photo/ Video/ PR: Marc Seestaedt

Production/ PR: Achim Bernsee I minusmalminus

Assistance Production: Selina Glockner

Office: Judith Elbeshausen

WITH THE SUPPORT OF: LANDESHAUPTSTADT HANNOVER, KULTURBÜRO, STIFTUNG NIEDERSACHSEN, NIEDERSÄCHSISCHES MINISTERIUM FÜR WISSENSCHAFT UND KULTUR