«Hydráos» a LUVOSmove®-production
It's alive. It's breathing. It's moving. Muffled, like in water. Is it animal? Plant? Human?
Organic, anyway, and most peculiar. It intertwines, surges, contracts, stretches, crawls, prances, rolls. Legs like feelers, hulls without heads, moving sculpture, archaic poses and always surprising moments of breathtaking harmony of forms and movements.
An underwater fantasy in green and blue of disconcerting, sometimes unsettling beauty is the new body illusion theatre of the editta braun company. Supported by Thierry Zaboitzeff's masterfully atmosphere-creating compositions between distorted piano sounds, meditative bubbling and hammering beats, three dancers in skin-tight full body suits let the viewer dive into a world of gentle waves that is both primeval and futuristic at the same time. Do the blue-green water creatures originate from a genetic laboratory or are they pioneers of a new evolutionary process that will repopulate our planet after the demise of the species Homo sapiens? This time without the right of the strongest and competition, without the right of the strongest to eat and be eaten. Beyond good and evil, in a time or world before or after this distinction, this organism is pure life that lives, breathes, moves. Until the end.
Also suitable for small stages: «Hydráos» proves to be a piece that manages with limited technical means and for this reason does not depend on classical dance stages. It can be adapted to different locations, which in turn makes it possible to address a different audience and reach people to whom the doors of high culture are not open for various reasons. However, essential requirements are: black and flat back drop, darkness and silence, audience frontal with a good view to the floor (either stage at 1.20 m or well rising public gallery, min. 30 cm step height), good PA.
dance, research:
Anna Maria Müller, Martyna Lorenc, Sonia Borkowicz
composition: Thierry Zaboitzeff
light design: Thomas Hinterberger
dramaturgy: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau
photos: Leo Fellinger, Editta Braun
choreography, artistic direction: Editta Braun
length: 47 minutes
funded by Österreichisches Bundeskanzleramt Kunst, Stadt Salzburg, Land Salzburg
Press reviews:
"It's strange, it's fantastic, and in some places it's frightening. But fear gives way to curiosity about the next creature, which immerses us in a delightful stringing together of aesthetic moments, listening in amazement to the masterful sounds of Thierry Zaboitzeff, who succeeds in setting the colours green and blue to such an extent that you can't get enough of them. “ (Leo Fellinger in “Nachlese”, 19.1.20)
"An impressive study of life, of growing and resisting, of failure and new beginnings. An evolutionary story in just 47 minutes (...) An extraordinary evening. At the end a long and enthusiastic applause." (Markus Honervogt, ovb online.de, 22.01.2020)
"Dressed is the new naked ...In the dance scene, nudity on stage has long been the norm. Braun swims against the current again: In Hydráos the dancers wear full body suits." (Clemens Panagl, Salzburger Nachrichten, 17 January 2020)
And the audience said:
"Rarely beautiful" "Fascinating, meditative" "Charming and very special" "Wonderful dancers"
Hydráos, part of the "Luvos" series
Emerging from the artists' collective "Vorgänge", founded by Editta Braun and Beda Percht in 1982, e b c continues to develop its extraordinary, sensational and early in Paris awarded form of movement theatre (Lufus, 1985) until today in its Luvos series with six pieces so far. In exploring this particular aesthetic of an all-female body theatre, which was accompanied by the creation of a veritable Luvos ensemble of dancers specialised in this repertoire of movements, the company goes far beyond the boundaries of conventional contemporary dance and also dance theatre.
In February 2019, Editta Braun returned with three dancers from e b c to Fanghoumé, a village in Senegal, where more than thirty years ago, at the invitation of Germaine Acogny, the grande dame of African dance, the body theatre Lufus was created. The work developed there is the raw material for the new production Hydráos.
Political dimensions of the abstract
"Editta Braun's plays are always significant in terms of content and on the pulse of the times; they deal with the social abysses as well as the qualities that make us human beings in general: Love, fear, jealousy, loneliness, happiness and longing and much more. Beautifully moving bodies in beautiful pictures are not her thing. This has long since ceased to be enough for Editta Braun. She is one who can tell stories with bodies and movements, sometimes she even succeeds with non-movements". (Leo Fellinger)
In each of our cells we carry with our DNA the protocol of our phylogeny, so to speak. As an embryo in the womb, we go through phases that relate to the history of evolution. So does the suffering of plants and animals hurt us physically? What is it that creates a resonance in us? Is everything really one? The piece invites us to search for new ways of perception, to free thinking and seeing a little bit and thus to deviate from an anthropocentric world view that is in the process of destroying the foundations of all life on this planet.
