Seriously Amusing

To Tchaikovsky’s „Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy“, a dancer moves on the stage with an accordingly elegant look. Her feet stick inside a pair of oversized yellow clogs shaped like Crocs. They strike the floor with a sound exactly mimicing pointe shoes tapping through „Nutcracker“, only wrong in every direction: She wears a rudimentary „costume“ of knotted rope and a long braided wig trailing down the back with a red ribbon at the end. For a second, the cartoon scene of Jerry stealing cheese pops up in my head. What is happening in my brain? Extremely funny, this is without question my biggest surprise of the closing week at Tanz im August, „Masterwork for Six Dancers“, choreographed by Hungary's Emese Cuhorka and Csaba Molnár, danced by En–Knap Group from Slovenia.

Serious entertainers

In HAU1, the curtain splits from the centre. Under the lights, there are six bodies in underpants only, their bodies adorned with geometric shapes. They begin by moving heads, shoulders and arms with synthesised beats, little facial expressions. The high tension in both muscles and tempo invite to objectify each body part and imagine another way of moving. Like vectors in mathematics, they are accurate in moving but constantly add up familiar movements like gym exercises, Graham floor positions and unexpected break in unison. 

Once you get used to embodied shapes, the props arrive. Once you get used to the body shapes with extended props, the physical parody joins. As the audience cannot help laughing about one dancer losing his balance with a rush and making a 
series of noises from backstage, the piece has managed half its success.

A century ago, Oskar Schlemmer's „Triadic Ballet“ turned body into architecture and made costume into spatial structure. „Masterwork for Six Dancers“, tracing back as a duo piece in 2019, tries to dismantle the symbols tangled into our bodies. Using nudity as a canvas, they turn ordinary objects like yoga mats into a baby, a jacket, a mountain, a gun barrel or horses. Yes, even horses. Who would anticipate a troop leader suddenly flinging toy torpedos on stage, those little „fire“ crackers for children? 

After the performance, people did not want to leave the theatre for a long time. Neither did I. And I want to see more from Budapest. 

Flying vision and echolocation

„Les Oiseaux“ by Lenio Kaklea at HAU2 brings a view through a form that is neither human nor bird. The percussion music sounds like clear water but is synthsised. The dancers are dressed with feathers but mixed with trendy fabrics in human’s world like jeans, leather and mesh. In the collective choreography, it brings you back to Rosas in 2000‘s time, to pieces like „Drumming“ and „Rain“. Here, the group canon weaving time and space with classic movement languages: a genuinely beautiful work structured by plié, chassé and small jumps. 

Stand against the wind

Two and half weeks filled with afterwork drinks in front of the box office, ongoing dialogue after the performances via text and voice messages with my friends and dance battles at Tempelhofer feld. With its 38th edition of Tanz im August, Berlin again celebrates dance as art, social practice and neighborhood exchange. 

Around 17,200 seats sold out, 150 participants in workshops, 510 dance professionals travelling to Berlin for the festival. By the last few days my phone was still receiving heartful recommendations from friends on Mélissa Guex's „DOWN“. 

Facing the headwind, Berlin’s contemporary scene knows that it has never been the best-funded space of the city. What generations of freelancers have passed down,  is the clear conviction that with a small space, a modest budget and a bit of time the creative work can continue. But how far can a small budget really stretch? What comes after September’s election, will be legible quickly. Regard the dance seen as fueled by innocence, stubbornness, or resilience. Whatever it might be, it deserves more than admiration. It deserves a budget.