Dance / audiodescription pre-premiere
What features are actually decisive for how we picture a person we don’t know? The age, the sex, the size, the social environment, or the clothes? In “Vermutungen über (…),” the choreographer Birgit Freitag seeks other possibilities by creating an unusual experimental setup. She works with two female dancers who do not know each other and meet personally only after the end of the rehearsal process. For several weeks, they only communicate in writing, repeatedly making assumptions about who the other is. These assumptions form the basis for movement sequences that the dancers choreograph for and exchange with each other. In learning and implementing these movement ascriptions, the speculative process of getting to know each other is continued, until the two finally meet on stage, where the material is examined in regard to its narrative power.
We would now like to make a similar attempt and at first offer a pure audio version of the piece, which consists in sounds recordings from the stage, the original sound design and an audio description. “Vermutungen über…” along with a live audio description will premiere on stage at the Schwankhalle in June. What assumptions do you make? And how do they change as soon as you experience the dancers live on stage?
CONCEPT Birgit Freitag
CHOREOGRAPHY Birgit Freitag und Ensemble
SETTING Anna Lena Grote
MUSIC Michael Henn
DRAMATURGICAL ADVICE Sebastian Rest
WITH Anne Leira van Poppel und Mandy Fleer
Supported by Senate for Culture City of Bremen and Sparkasse Bremen
The audio description is based on a video recording by Gravity Access Services. It was supported by DIEHL+RITTER/TANZPAKT RECONNECT, funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the frame of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Hilfsprogramm Tanz.
Gravity Access Services provides a range of services making live performances more accessible for audience members with different sensory modalities and bodily conditions. They include live and recorded audio descriptions, haptic tours, on-site visits, media evaluations, and general consultation on accessibility. www.jesscurtisgravity.org