Studying in times of a Pandemic
Since the summer semester 2020 we are working under extreme conditions in every aspect: we have digital semesters in times of a global crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, without classroom teaching and with strict hygiene requirements for the few teaching formats that can be implemented in some cases. Without a doubt, these digital semesters are a constant challenge and a test of endurance for every single one of us. But especially in times of crisis, the arts are gaining in importance, taking a prismatic look at a fragile present or providing the tools for activism and change. Here we show some of the works of the digital semesters since March 2020 at HZT Berlin.
Barfuß auf dem Beton
By Judith Brückmann
From the Luisenbad to the Tegeler Fließ: The dance and choreography students of the HZT Berlin conquer public urban space a forest and experience the movement in it as something unpredictable. Dancing so close to the audience holds completely new challenges for them.
Finally out again, was the motto of the summer semester! After three semesters, the students of the HZT Berlin were able to leave the digital tiles. After online trainings, seminars and break out rooms, they explored the city and nature reserves with site-specific choreographies and performances. Go to article (only in German) >
KörperRaum – Material studies from maChoreography
59 one minute films
In KörperRaum the students of the MA Choreography at the HZT Berlin investigated the relationship of inside and outside, of borders and connections, of interior spaces and enclosures. Developed from their movement practice and formulated in recycled materials, the structures are foldable, collapsible or dismountable, transportable and obstinate. They question the position that humans occupy in relation to the environment - always already entangled and involved in a relational structure.
Works by: Akiles, Ariane Burghardt, Veronika Heisig, Jonathan Kolski, Valentina Menz, Dominique Tegho. Film & Editing: Roberto Duarte. Direction: maC-Team. A Project by maChoreographie // Winter term 2020/2021
The Audience is present
Works in the frame of the seminar "Audience" by Sandra Umathum"
Theaters are not only spaces where performances are presented. They organize the ways in which the visitors are supposed to relate to what is happening on stage as well as to the other spectators. Theaters, as much as performance spaces or museums, are therefore never neutral or innocent. They represent and at the same time (re-)create particular ideas of audiences and their behavior codex. The seminar explored how audiences are shaped by spaces and by artistic strategies. In the field of performance the preoccupation with questions concerning the role of the audience have a long-standing tradition. Which means and approaches do artists choose in order to challenge traditional ideas of „the“ audience? How do they reflect, for example, on the possibilities (or problems) of audience involvement? And to what effects?
scenarios
By Liv Haumann
With: Google Translator
Listen to the audio file on scenarioo.wav >
an encounter… maybe
By: Liisi Hint
Listen to the adio file on soundcloud >
Ressentiment
By Liv Haumann
A faded inner Disney Princess is locked down at home. Her puppets are the only company that she has. There is too much time for contemplating. Too much of a desire to change what’s there, and there isn’t a lot, but a body that wants to be loved and admired, accepted and respected, seen as hard- working and successful. If there is no response, then she is going to be her own judge. And she’s a harsh one. The puppets don’t mind, they are just doing their job. They are watching as she struggles to become like them whilst being stuck in her own body. A body that courts her a slight resentment. But why should they mind? After all, it’s good for the industry.
9 Emerging rules, for playing Regenerative Games
By Michela Filzi & collaborators
“9 Emerging Rules for playing Regenerative Games”, is a visual poem made of research material, collected starting from October 2019. Regenerative games are interferences of bodies, aiming at vanishing the mental separation between environment (studio/objects/camera) and organism (my own body). Every available element is integral to the ecological approach to my practice, performance is always relational and a sympoietic process.
The Story of ... GOING WILD
Clara Federica Crescini
Last 19th June 2020 I was supposed to graduate. I was supposed to stage a 60 minute dance performance. Everything was ready to start the process, but it happend the lockdown and those interesting time we are living are now has given a new wave to our life. The experience of the forced stop gave me the possibility to review many aspect of the project I am going now to stage in January 2021. I dive, like most of us, in the world of the online relationship, trying to keep alive the red string that was connected us from the creative team. We, as team, started the creation of a digital archive of news, pictures, sounds, book bibliography, that allowed us to connect and expand into a common imaginarium. We hold on into six weeks of online weekly rehearsals and exchange talks. It happens that, from those online encounters, the questions, tasks and reflections we asked to each other, we ended up producing texts, poems and videos (all shooted with selfphones). The continuity we were able to hold in our research it helped me to expand and to focus at the same time and sintetize the core of the research. GOING WILD , the title of the project, will be staged in January 2021 as a long duration installation performance. Read on >>
RAU
Lilly Pöhlmann
RAU is a video work that deals with the entwinement of bodies and environments. The environment forms the body and at the same time the body shapes the environment. By playing with camouflage attention is drawn to their reciprocity. They are in continuous transformation and in a process of fine-tuning; they are inevitably and actively in relationship.
Hannah Schillinger „Transient“
The only thing I am sure of is that everything is always changing.
Constant movement - movement as the only constant.
Unfolding.
An uncountable amount of micro shifts.
Shaped by waves of fields of information.
Partially crossing my body.
Some breaking into particles when crashing against my skin.
Potentials being pushed and pulled into existence.
All of them.
Temporarily materializing through reception.
Kachelkurs statt Körper in Kontakt
Von Susanne Vincenz für das Tanzraum Magazin (07/08.2020)
How do you teach dance students when distance rules have to be observed and shared studio hours are limited? Report on the daily state of emergency at HZT Berlin. (Only in German.)
1. Lockerungsstufe
Mikro an. Mikro aus. Irritiert vom Geruckel auf dem Bildschirm. Fünfzehn Kacheln, aus jeder wuchert eine Vielzahl von Informationen. Gesichter mit Augenpaaren, die sich in jede Richtung bewegen, manche huschen von rechts nach links, andere scheinen den Bildschirm abzutasten. Das ganze Fenster ist gefüllt mit zappelnden Handpuppen, ein Flickenteppich aus Bewegungen. Es ist mein erstes Zoom-Meeting, und dies ist der Auftakt zu einem digitalen Semester am HZT nach dem Shutdown. Aber wie soll das gehen? Wie kann man Tanz und Choreografie digital unterrichten, wie gemeinsam proben, ohne im gleichen Raum zu sein? Wie begegnet man einander digital in einer Kunstform, die von Kontakt, gegenseitiger Wahrnehmung und Kopräsenz abhängt? Read on >>
Ana Lessing Menjibar MA SODA Almuna
Covershooting for UdK Tagesspiegel Magazin for "Kunst Raum Stadt" Demonstration
Aleksandra Petrushevska: the sound of the forest
Outcome of this semester's class "Your Own God" with Judith Sanchez Ruiz.
Lockdown Theatre: Die Rache des Hustens
Von Sandra Umathum für das Journal des Schauspielhaus Zürich (Only in German)
Kurz nach der Corona-bedingten Schliessung der Theater teilt bei Facebook jemand einen Cartoon aus der Times: Darauf zu sehen ist ein älterer Herr im Sessel, der, als er in der Zeitung liest, dass alle Theateraufführungen und Konzerte abgesagt sind, seine Frau und vor allem sich selbst fassungslos fragt, wohin er jetzt zum Husten gehen soll.
Das Lustige an diesem Cartoon ist, dass er die Einstellung der Spielbetriebe ausgerechnet aus der Perspektive einer Person kommentiert, die in den Theatern und Konzertsälen zum Kreis der unbeliebtesten Gäste zählt, zu denen, die an diesen Orten als besondere Nervensägen gelten. Autoren wie Heinrich Böll oder Thomas Bernhard haben ihnen ein literarisches Denkmal gesetzt; nach einigen von ihnen ist sogar eine Hustenart benannt, der sogenannte Theater- oder Konzerthusten. Natürlich ist das Böse an dem Cartoon aber auch, dass der Herr im Sessel selbst schon mit dem Virus angesteckt sein könnte, der die Schliessung der Theater bewirkte. Read on >>
Gareth Okan: Do you daydream often?
Outcome of this sommer sems class "Your Own God" with Judith Sanchez Ruiz.
DECISION TREE
Von Emeka Ene
On the 21st of June, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and perhaps the most auspicious day for a tree, I decided to walk in the direction of the sun from sunrise to sunset, with the resulting lines traced on the map being the titular DECISION TREE. Decision trees are analysis tools used in machine learning and statistics. Being that the tree metaphor was repurposed for digital means, I reappropriated the metaphor to observe phenomenologies of the city.
allostasis
By Maria Ladopoulos
The term allostasis describes the process of achieving stability through change, the mechanisms our bodies are involved in to adjust to unpredictable events. In this semester, filled with unpredictability and a sense of stasis (standing still), I checked in with Judith every week for five weeks and was guided through a practice of looking in. Five short movement sequences, five drawings and five written reflections served as an archive of mood and quality and were the starting point of this choreography and film