Close Up 2.0
"What do the bodies remind me? The description of the show says lemurs. Perhaps... Moving mushrooms? Hardly. And then, I remembered a creature from Estonian literature and animations who seemed to fit perfectly. Poku. Pokus are silent and fast, strange but friendly, coy but comical. Exactly like the bodies next to the eclectic soundtracks of Cécile Thevenot.
Oliver Issak, theatre researcher
Kaisa, 30: "It's their third production I've seen and they still keep me surprised. Very powerful"
Mart, 41: "Beautiful! That's all. No more words needed."
Iiris, 16: "How special human body can be! How capable of... everything!"
International Prize for Arts and Culture of the City of Salzburg for Editta Braun December 2014
«CLOSE UP», 2015
„My highlight of the evening, festival and most likely one of the best dance works I will see in 2016 was Editta Braun company’s ‘Close up’. The work starts powerfuly as a writhing pile of rubble throbs to the time of AyseDeniz’s charged piano performance. Any imaginings of what lies underneath, perhaps informed by five children and it, are surpassed. As bodiless limbs emerge from the pile, seemingly unhindered by the rigidity enforced by the rest of the skeleton, this skillful re-writing of the the female body builds a steady momentum.“ (manipulate festival blog, Christiana Bissett)
Visually, the effect of limiting the movement to hide parts of the dancers' bodies is both absorbing and unnerving. The richness of the imagery brings to mind Hieronymus Bosch's human limbs, that protrude angularly from eggs and other creatures: Braun has most viscerally brought to life the deformed and fragmented leftovers of a psyche. [ ... ]
The final encounter and touch (between dancer and musician) is satisfying, and clearly points towards a less constrained future. A gloriously tongue-in-cheek (or butt cheek on keys) piece of surreal dance invention. (TV Bomb 01.02.2016)
The body shapes created over 70 minutes by these four dancers – with lighting designer Peter Thalhamer – are extraordinary; Thierry Zaboitzeff's music is as thrilling as Gokcim's performance. And like all the best work at Manipulate, Close Up raises profound questions about the familiar shapes around us and how easily those perceptions can be disrupted, even as it also leads the pianist into an unsettling encounter with forces in her music of which she is barely aware, until they literally come to nudge her in the back.” (The Scotsman, 06.02.2016)
Across an hour, the initial impact dwindles, but the sheer stamina of the performers – and
the spurt of ensemble bopping when Michael Jackson's Billie Jean hits the keys – remains
strangely fascinating.“ (Herald Scotland 02.02.2106)
How does a dance performance and a piano concert find common ground? A pianist and a choreographer are looking for ways...(and) Surrealist Salvador Dali would have really enjoyed the result (....) The star of the evening is 27 year old pianist AyseDeniz Gockin who has gained international recognition with her inventive interpretations which link wildly different music styles. (....) a most harmonious and technically successful performance. An essential part (of the production) is provided by the outstanding lighting design of Thomas Hinterberger.
Verena Schweiger, Salzburger Nachrichten, 17.10.2015
A temperamental pianist, faceless creatures from the shadows, and the sounds which bring them to life: The impressive interaction between sound and movement fascinates the audience from the very beginning. Turkish pianist AyseDeniz and the dancers of the editta braun company tell a story with gestures, movements and dance, which becomes even more compelling because not a single word is spoken (...) Among other things the fascination of this piece arises from the space it creates and the questions it poses, questions which only can be answered in the individual imaginations of each audience member (...) Editta Braun's latest work creates a lot of space for an audience's fantasy to run riot. Most definitely it leaves a powerful impression.
Claudia Maria Kraml, DrehPunktKultur, 16.10.2015
The piece's intention - that through her playing the tragic situation of the protagonist enters the hearts of a carefully listening audience – is, without a doubt, fulfilled. You would need to have a heart of stone not to be touched.
Josef Irgmaier, pianist and composer, 16.10.2015
An alien landscape, a grand piano, a pianist. The musician concentrates, She plays. She moves herself and her audience. The landscape starts to move. It glides, it is alive. Body parts are exposed, a knee, or is it a little face? Life is awakened by the music, with the music. Mysterious creatures, monsters or aliens emerge. They shake, they flounder, they stick close to each other, seemingly astonished to be alive. They start to explore their world and each other. Staying close to the grand piano they become stronger and more confident as the music ebbs and flows around silence. The way that life outlives even the greatest silence we will all come to face.
Barbara Klein, stage director/theatre director
While musician and music ensnare each other, vexing cratures emerge. They are genderless, as their touching nudeness suggests. They slink, they crawl, they slide around the piano. They seem to adore the unsuspecting pianist, to want to be close to her. Puffing, snuffling and snorting, they nestle and roll around and up to the piano (…) The arc of suspense linking the musician's structured creativity and the seeming random movements of the teeming creatures around her challenges audiences to respond emotionally to this contradictory and indivisible interaction.
Barbara Neuwirth, writer
«currently resident in», 2013
an unforgettable and brilliant performance - «currently resident in» in Crete
So great to see you again and to see your dance creation with Dante Murillo in DanceDays 4 Chania! It was an unforgettable and brilliant performance from concept-choreography-dance points of view ...I would love to see it again ...
Effie Caloutsis, founder of all contemporary dance movement in Crete
„The inventiveness, the simplicity of materials, and the dynamics of speech and silence during the performance contributed to a unique masterpiece. Your subject, one so complicated and common, with so many components, was delivered with humor, dignity, and strength without losing the depth, leaving the audience with intense concerns but also a delightful mood.“
Sofia Falierou, festival director, choreographer
«currently resident in» in Salzburg
Pleasant sun-splashed watercolors show life in idyllic poverty somewhere in the Latin American countryside: the brown moving boxes are an ideal screen, making the colors painted on them seem softer and warmer. It must be fun to build a wall by the light of the Latin American evening sun. Suddenly, the scenario completely changes. You wouldn’t even kick a dog out into the dismal, cold snow showers of Salzburg’s suburbs. And yet, Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla lands here, even manages to get a room, if not the right to lead a life of his choosing...
As far as Anif is from Peking’s suburbs or Mombasa’s slums, so distant is Editta Braun’s solo piece from being a “tear jerker”. No cheap ingratiation to people whose fate are often so easily misused as a projection plane for naive fantasies about making the world a better place...
The dancer and performer Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla was born in 1982 in Colombia, studied in Bogotá and – from 2006 on – at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, where he currently teaches. Together with Editta Braun and co-director Arturas Valudskis, Bobadilla developed – based on real experiences – a solo performance that describes hope and optimism, rootlessness and disappointment, anger, rebellion and resignation.
The fact that this virtuously narrated story leaves a lot of room for humor and irony lends it the kind of detachment essential in artistic analysis. In fact, Juan Dante Murillo Bonadilla is not only a dancer and performer who is a master of contemporary dance’s movement language, effortlessly using it to portray to perfection a teenager on a fenced playground. He is also a superb actor and player who knows how to play with “language” – be it Spanish, his mother tongue or German as a foreign language – virtuously.
Indeed, most parts of the text come from Langenscheid’s “German in 30 days”. Lesson two: Finding a place to stay. Lession three: going to the immigration authorities, Lesson six: skiing. Lesson seven: looking for a job... Much of this is hilarious and interpreted by Bobadilla with an almost comic charm...
The big scene ”This is a new regulation” – a tensely built crescendo leading up to complete frenzy in the face of an indifferent world – was a highlight of the good seventy minute performance. Another highlight is the portrayal of the complete loss of speech in the face of the Kafkaesque power plays of an incomprehensive and invulnerable authority. Not only the laboriously acquired German language skills, but also verbal skills and human dignity are lost when an individual turns into an obscure number.
An outstanding artistic analysis with an up-to-date topic, a political statement, a moving evening.
Heidemarie Klabacher, Drehpunkt Kultur, Salzbug 12. December 2013
Don’t try to work in system, which is not yours…
[...] „Currently resident in...” plays with the pain of a modern itch – the itch to run away. It deals with the desperation of being “here”, which turns into the loneliness of being “there”. The stranger enters the stage and asks “Is this my new room?” and it's as if another question shines through - “Is this my new life?” [...] We understand that somewhere there lives a woman called “Mrs. Happiness”. “Somewhere” in the stage reality, where Dante dwells amongst an empty cardboard-box world, and a dictionary. The play isn't trying to impose any limitations or to evaluate – its power is in its point of view and the frankness with which it is represented. Trying to find a perfect happiness, which by default is a variable value, we can forget who we are, where we come from, what makes us so unique that we were born in this “rotten country”. [...] The physical boundaries of the play are not limited – Dante runs around the boxes, arranges them, then destroys his arrangement. And again, and again – he creates his reality. He enters a box and we are almost fooled he'd stay there and this will serve as a sad conclusion and finale – but he goes out. And goes mad. Gradually he turns into an humanoid creature, that makes sounds. Sounds of discontent, fear and alienation. The director Editta Braun provokes us to throw away the boxes. Or at least paint them with our own colours. Katerina Georgieva, translated from Bulgarian by Elena Doynova
«planet LUVOS», 2012
What remains is greater than man
“planet LUVOS”, the editta braun company’s fascinating dance premiere at the Bruckner Festival
The Salzburg choreographer Editta Braun leads us through a blue underwater world back to the origins of life. In her new piece “planet LUVOS”, she completes the round dance of surreal body worlds, which began with “Lufus” (1985) and continued with “Lufus, vol. 2”, about the dangers of genetic engineering. The viewer sinks into a blue, bubbling waterworld. The only sign that humans exist is the distant sound of a steamship whistle, somewhere far away. And a woman who suddenly finds herself in a kingdom full of strange, but peaceful beings. Seven dancers (Katja Bablick, Andrea Maria Handler, Sandra Hofstötter, Dorota Karolina Lecka, Martyna Lorenc, Marcella Mancini and Spela Vodeb) constitute this symbiotic, sensitive collective. Their legs wave in the air like anemone arms, each movement reacting as fast as lightning to the other . Their bodies lose their humanness and become entities. Naked torsi move like alien beings across the stage. These are fascinating images, a thoroughly successful illusion, underscored by Peter Thalhamer’s perfect light design and Thierry Zaboitzeff’s spare underwater sound.
The arms enfold the human being in a nearly tender way, and it willingly surrenders to the gentle embrace. What appears to be the end is a consoling dissolution of the individual into the greater whole. Long, enthusiastic applause.“ Upper Austrian News, September 29, 2012
«schluss mit kunst», 2011
No rational, intellectual analysis can portray the real suffering, the insanity experienced daily, than the writhing, springing, communicating, fighting bodies. (...) Every moment of this evening showed me how much nearer art can bring me to the world’s injustice and absurdness than a mere message can. Tobias Fernbacher
I’m glad to see this vision of theater, although the damned of this earth won’t rise up until they have nothing left to eat or are being choked to death, in our feel-good-society an uprising appears to be an illusion, yet still we should keep it in mind. Christoph Luber
I greatly respect and admire your courage to say things straight forwardly, and the way you can balance between making the audience think and feel about your theme. It has been a long time I’ve left the theatre feeling I’ve receiving something, and that happened with your piece, so, thank you :) Dorota Lecka
we have certainly not had enough of art. If art makes a statement and artists take a position on their
powerlessness and desperation as well as their dreams and longings, then this is exactly the right way to lead us
to new ideas, which we all badly need. Bernhard Jenny
«Abseits», 2009
Status display of fear
„Editta Braun has commentend about an attitude of life, which is consise and mellow, brutal and bluntly comical the same time. The closeness and directness, embodied through the dancers' strong performance, has immediate power. Seen this way „Off-side“ is right in the middle – and therefore a witty and sensual birhtday present (for 20 years editta braun company), which is showing onwards." Karl Harb in Salzburger Nachrichten, 25. September 2009
Where feare is walking on six legs: "Closely, arrogating , yes, it is. But althoug fear is the topic, it is everything else than a depressing evening. There are scenes, in which three performers bash themselves bluntly to the walls with adventurous movements. But nevertheless the handwriting of this evening is all in all loosely, and the self mockery as well a s a lightly poetry are not missed out. Fear: often it is something quintessentially unreal. Or something, which is produced by ones own, intentional
or unintentional, an „extra“ or something in answer to airy foreshadows. One can enjoy truly about the thrill, which is emerging from different movement languages and different approaches to the topic. And about the way all this is brought into one another.“
Reinhard Kriechbaum in Drehpunkt Kultur, 24. September 2009
Danced anxiety states
„Two man bash their female partner to the wall. Right after they „strip“ in a TV show, in which fear is the discussed topic. Later on one must jump on the others head – it is about torture and repression. Then the bodies seem to be into each other. People come closer, because bombs are falling. Tomaz Simatovic, Anna Maria Müller and Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla are the performers of this evening. All the three of them play, dance, talk, fight and tremble on a high artistical as well as athletic level.
Editta Braun`s piece is no personal version of excited dislike. It is a group work, a collective conception of threat. Each of the three dancers and further choreographers, who are associated with the company, played „Children`s whisper“ and connected different asprects of fear. It speaks for the familiarity and closeness of the editta braun company, that individual ideas come together to a hommogenous piece in the end. A mischievous wink builds the bridge between them. Humour crosses most of the pieces of this choreographer, who is one of the most international renowned performers of Austria.“
Christoph Lindenbauer für APA (Austrian Press Agency), 25. September 2009
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«Luvos, vol. 2», 2001
Precise, razor-sharp choreography provides a sense of purpose, every twitch or jerk driving the evolution of these „creatures“ from crawling, slimy monsters to free-standing animals. Ther’s a hypnotic, almost pendulum-like absorption to it which sucks you into the world of intriguing movement, bestriding somewhere between dance and physical theatre. (...) Editta Braun should continue to be celebrated as a visionary in the fields of dance and movement; this venture offering a refreshingly intricate meditation of the versatility of the body. TV Bomb, 6. February 2012
Austria's currently most interesting choreographer lures us with "Luvos. Vol 2" into a truly "brave new world". As if driven by invisible waves, five naked dancers lie and roll upon glowing red sand, new beings growing out of their legs. (Absolutely outstanding in technique and expression: Barbara Motschiunik, Lisa Hinterreithner, Ulrike Hager, Sabile Rositi and Mata Sakka.) Pale, crab-like creatures strive sideways through the room, find one another, mate and bear new worms from which new creatures emerge...a vision of a beautiful and erotic, yet dangerous, artificial world; a sinister (gen) manipulating game made even more compelling by the beguiling music (Thierry Zaboitzeff) and ingenius lighting (Thomas Hinterberger).
Andrea Hein in Neue Kronenzeitung, Klagenfurt, Juli 2001
«Coppercity 1001», 2007
REACTIONS on «COPPERCITY 1001» in Jordan: "Coppercity 1001 talks in a extraordinary way about the theme of violence, an important piece for the arabic world.”
Prof. Akeel M. Yousif, Theaterdepartment College of Fine Arts, Baghdad
"An excellent work about poetry and violence, tenderness and rawness. We nee these kind of pieces in the arabic world.”
Jawad Al Assadi, director and writer, Babeltheater Beyrut
«Matches of Time», 2006
"With a lot of houmor the four people of the strong, expressive, and theatrical talented ensemble - supported by students from the Bruckner University Linz - interact on stage. Composer Thierry Zaboitzeff created a dense sound envrionment, inspired by the monotonous ticking of a clock. Overall a clear and dense narration about life that is passing way too fast. And - a beautiful metaphor in this production - the age (with mask and trembling body) is always and usually faster present than we (want to) believ".
Silvia Nagl in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, März 2007
„An overall very refreshing position of the genre (dance) that is not only using visual impressions but generates own associations in the public. (...) The performers show and amazing precision in their dance, supported by the music of Thierry Zaboitzeff, they never stay on the surface of the topic...“
Neues Volksblatt, 2006
„A successful evening with the editta braun company!“ The editta braun company, supported by an ensemble of students of the Bruckner University, presents itself with intersting, atmospheric pictures. (...) Editta Braun makes a collage of colorful scenes and impulsiv dance. (...) Dancetheater is often produced for itself and doesnt care about topics that are worth beeing put on stage. Editta Braun and Rebecca Murgi did not hestitate to give their dance a topic“
Kronen Zeitung, 2007
Nebensonnen», 2000
"They are protective, strict, tender, understanding, sometimes the end of one's own world: mothers, the origin of life, focal point of love and hate. This massed universe at the beginning of a one-way street accompanies us our whole life long. Choreographer Editta Braun's title: 'secondary suns'. The premier of 'Nebensonnen' in Salzburg's Stadtkino was greeted by enthusiastic applause. Rightly so, for Braun has achieved a profound declaration of love. Sensitive, touching, attentive of every detail which can make hell out of daughters' lives - if they are too old to withstand heaven. Braun herself appears first on stage. Her long, flowing dress hides a naked bundle of humanity to which she gives birth with powerful, swaying movements. A moving scene, due not only to her wonderful gestures, but also to Thierry Zaboitzeff's powerful music, this time predominantly piano...an especially wonderful evening."
Ilse Retzek in "Oberösterreichische Nachrichten", Linz 2000
10 years editta braun company
" The Liontamer ...This is one of Braun's strengths, to move on, not to stand still. This has often taken her to her limits..."I'm fascinated by the physical, by power, by the intense live experience, also by beauty. When the interpreter is good, dance can be indescribably magical, an ethereal power, many-sided and manifold. Dance is, in short, a means to reach out to people and touch them." This shows in each of her works like the piece of wisdom given to us by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry: "One sees only well through the heart." This is the only real truth."
Ilse Retzek in "tanzaffiche", Juni 2000
"She is the grande dame of contemporary dance theater 'made in Salzburg'. Forty-two year old dancer and choreographer Editta Braun has for the past ten years awed and touched us with her work. Curious peeks behind the facades, the ability to lure the audience into a poetic parallel universe, unbounding fantasy and a dash of wry social criticism here and there... Editta Braun is a captivating, mature artistic personality who allows us with great sensitivity glimpses of intimate moments, and who understands how to turn every short scene into a work of art..."
Heidrun Hofstetter in "tanzaffiche", August/September 2000
«Miniaturen», 1999
"... Gynophobics should duck out of the way, because Editta BraunÕs Miniaturen will make your nightmares come true. She unfairly attacks from all sides in an ironic, energetic, explosive mixture of body comedy and erotic drama. With the support of gripping live music by Thierry Zaboitzeff and his band, nine women and 12 wintercoats go about dissecting different emotional states, cool, hard, beautiful, lusting. The dancers kick it off humorously, arguing, fist fighting, bumping into each other, and showing off their beauty with really no basis for that in reality. ... The images are rich with associations, the atmosphere gradually becoming more authentic, dangerous but never serius. As dancing devils they parade in clouds of sulphure, as model Mafia on high heels bury an ugly duckling. A graveyeard has never been so blasphemically tread upon, and no number of coats really hide the physical energy underneath them. These women are frighteningly comfortable with being so sensual."
Katja Werner in "Dance Europe", London
«India», 1998
A crash combination: For a production that is only three weeks in the making, 'India - a Crash Test'
was higly impressive ... stark images off the Indian streets ... male dominance and consequent suppression of women ...
totally devoid of gestures and expressions ... emotional intensity and unerring focus on human relationships ... a show
that definitely promises to be very different.
And so are the dancers. Suhama Nagarkar in The Times of India, Bangalore
«Heartbeat - concerto for dance & music, op. 1», 1997
The choreographer Editta Braun, usually so spritely, exhibits a totally new facet of herself. She has joined together with the Art Zoyd composer Thierry Zaboitzeff and Carlotta Ikedas director St?phane V?rit? (Paris). Verite works with great precision, focussing in moving, uncanny, scant pictures on a woman who expresses herself first with minimal movements and then with more emphatic, wave-like cascades of motion. Thierry Zaboitzeff creates music with surrealistic motifs, breathtaking, like distant old myths: with electric guitar, electric cello and a deep, archaic-sounding voice. Andrea Amort in Kurier, Vienna
«Titiania. Suchbild in Bewegung zu Sisi, Kaiserin von Österreich, Königin von Ungarn», 1995
Braun and Guillaume go beyond the borders of dance in the direction of elementary forms of movement and bring it back into the realm of of expressive dance, which was at the beginning of all dance theater. Lazlo Molnar in Salzburger Nachrichten
The approach to Titania, as Sisi called herself, is touchingly emotional. From the flowing, blissful waltz to the neurotic stripping before the mirror, into which the queen refused to look too closely into. Ilse Retzek in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Linz
An intensive hour characterized by deep feminimity: (Not only) Sisi's inner conflict between compulsion, self-doubt and self-assertion is widespread.
Frieda Stank in Neue Kronenzeitung, Wien
«Voyage à Napoli», 1994
A loving and powerful potpourri of the physical with wonderful, panoptical moments." Ilse Retzek in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Linz
«La vie, c’est contagieux», 1993
I t takes an enormous amount of courage and also innocence to engage a deity like Jean B. to dance.
And she's made a wonderful success, the young choreographer E.B., sure of herself...she is full of fire, in flames,
embraces life with both arms...a subtle, deeply-felt work which honors both the interpretation and the
choreographer. " J.M. Gourreau in Les Saisons de La Danse , Paris
Le credo de Jean Babilée ... Editta Braun ... practices a form of expressionalistic dance which is unique in it's power
and softness, a passionate dance ... " Gilberte Cournand in Les Saisons de la Danse, Paris, Juni 1994
A declaration of love, romantic, emotional, full of honest openess. Simply wonderful. Ilse Retzek in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Linz
Monsieur Jean Babilée! ... How he sits on the sofa speaks volumes about theater history...About getting old and older, about the relationship between man and woman. The choreographer from Salzburg has slaved for five creating this moving, one-hour piece...With her athletically-powerful and explosive style of dance she appears so immediate. Respectfully interwoven: Babilee the great, in repose.
Andrea Amort in Kurier, 2. Juni 1994, Wien
«Collision», 1991
... Object woman, child-woman, mother woman, femme fatale, object man, child-man...etc. "Collision" is the speechless meeting of two people of our times, in a bizarre world of potted plants which surround the stage. He, pale, expressionless face, mostly with an inward stare, reminiscient of a Pierrot. She, cigarette constantly dangling from her lips, high heels, blue minidress and screaming red hair reminds one more of a Yvonne Printemps, sketched by Toulouse-Lautrec. They dance fantastically.... wonderfully danced, full of new ideas of movement and expression Gilles Kraemer in Progrès Dimanche du Caire, Egypt, 2. - 8. September 1991
"Although quite intense, Collision is still extremely emotional. "Tenderness plays the greatest role
in the love between two people" quotes Marguerite Duras. And it is a deep tenderness which holds
these two, so often far apart, together. Pictures of unbelieveable power in which longing mixes with
fear, concentrated in a strength only possible through gesture, the honesty of feeling lets the audience
become voyeurs. J.M. Gourreau in Les Saisons de La Danse , Paris
«Materialien für Tanz & Musik», 1990
"The really worthy choreographers are not always to be found in the big theaters. E.B. of Salzburg, little known in France, has just proved this claim, and brilliantly... The geniality of the choreographer lies in her ability to precisely dose the relationship between music and dance and to surround herself with a pianist and a drummer who is, frankly, demonic... the second strong point of the piece: the intelligent composition. Third positive element of the work; its modernity. E.B. has the devil in her and has that certain amount of impertinence which arouses sympathy. Her dance is based upon longing, upon liveliness and energy as well as drollery and wit. She is quick-witted without breaking into laughter. She incorporates the esprit of youth, spontaneity and joy in communication without taking herself too seriously.
Jean-Marie Gourreau in Les saisons de la danse , Paris
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS, REACTIONS