CoFestival: Isabelle Schad: Studies on Infinity #2 – Nudity and Landscape
You can use the HEARING LOOP at the event. Please switch your hearing aid to T-coil.
German choreographer Isabelle Schad is well-known to the local audience thanks to her previous performances at CoFestival. In 2016 and 2021, she presented the group works Collective Jumps (2014) and Reflection (2019), and in 2023, the duet Solo for Claudia and Josephine / Bodies of Light (2022). The intrigue of her choreographic work lies in how the somatic-kinetic issues she addresses never negate the implicit sociality of dance bodies, while simultaneously, the sociality within her choreographies never escalates to mere theatrical representation. Studies on Infinity #2 – Nudity and Landscape is her latest work, where skin assumes the role of real and potential sociality and interpersonal relationships. In her choreographic art, dance bodies form relational organisms for which skin is never a boundary, but rather an entryway into a timeless space where relations know no end.
In this work, Isabelle Schad continues her long-term research into movement materials and their potential for boundless variation. This exploration of nudity and landscape, conceived as relationships between self and community, between skin and environment, began with the work Pieces and Elements (2016). That work, along with the group choreographies Collective Jumps and Reflection, formed a trilogy where the artist dealt with the sociality of bodies through highly elementary compositions of kinetic actions and movements. Schad explains: “The continuation of skin from one body to another corresponds to an understanding of the self as extending/mirroring infinitely through others and the environment. It is an energetic principle which follows the law of attraction: a mirror reflects back, vibrates and attracts what is sent out. We are all infinitely reflecting and being reflected. Drawing on principles anchored in Zen, somatics, qi gong, aikido and breathing techniques, the choreographic material is detached from a classical stage context and unfolds its power as a durational installation performance.” This sculptural choreography engages the spectator’s perception with its inherent sensuality and is crafted from existing and new materials. Spectators inhabit a space beyond the conventional theatre experience, where they are invited to surrender to this looped time.
Concept and choreography: Isabelle Schad
Co-choreography and dance: Johanna Ackva, Viviana Defazio, F. F., David Kummer, Yen Lee, Manuel Lindner, Jan Lorys, Lea Pischke, Aya Torawa, Maja Zimmerlin
Composition and sound: Damir Simunovic
Light design: Bruno Pocheron
Voice work: Ignacio Jarquin
Communication: Elena Basteri
Production management: Heiko Schramm
Production: Isabelle Schad
Funded by: Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin
Supported by Wiesen55 e.v.
Isabelle Schad will lead a short sensory tune-in as an introduction to the performance at 7:00 p.m.
* This performance features nudity.
Organised by: Kino Šiška and NDA Slovenia in collaboration with Bunker