WALZ'R

Here we go again

2011-01-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

WALZ'R presentation

2011-01-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

WALZ'R is a performance project by Jenny Beyer (choregraph) and Jassem Hindi (sound artist)

This project has turned out to be somewhat of a research on conservative entertainment rituals and how to subvert them.

... a performance about HORROR and GRACE, mechanical torture and sex. With rare reenactments of tendentious dances from the 1920's, but also glamorous kisses and harsh noise, the Frankenstein original soundtrack and Liszt. Join us in this swirl of death and fantasy.

4 dancers, 2 musicians, sound, light and costumes.

...with the fantastically tremendous and unique participation (and these are not superlatives) of Rani Nair (aka queen of death) Marko Milic (aka the greek god) Dani Brown (aka glamor girl) and Rosa Wernecke (aka the maker of madness). The piece is proposed to you by your servants, Jenny Beyer and Jassem Hindi (known as the merciless twins).

First initiated in 2009 at the Weimar Kunstfest, under the curation of Nik Hafner and Carsten Seiffarth, the two artists decided to pursue their project, using waltz as a formal and a contextual tool, a raw material for their practice, a background noise to their collaboration. This project travels between performance work, dance, sound installation, musical quotes, cultural critique, social event and visual exhibition.

A 3/4 rythm is based on a natural imbalance, it doesn't stand still, doesn't come back to its initial position, it calls for movement, it calls for its own transformation. Waltz is an attitude, a playground for bodies and sound. Performers in a ballroom, a landscape that is always changing, the reminiscence of something that is never exactly where it seems to be. The cracking of wood instead of a symphony, a football movement instead of a twist. A faint nostalgia of waltz appears, both in music and dance, and suddenly everything becomes 3/4.

3/4: Rehearsal impressions

2010-12-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

What can be done

Theme song for a duo:

Preparative works / surfaces / objects / textiles

Puppet throne - first try. The dancer steps on the rusted metal circle and produces sounds by stroking, stepping and scratching. Wood, metal and foam.

Puppet throne test. slow, subtle, a little scary
Sound will come soon

My three little 3/4 machines

Burning a vinyl to produce silence

Performance pictures & sound excerpts

2010-12-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

≈

Concept / Projects

2010-12-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

WALZ'R
“Everything is waltz”
PERFORMANCE / INSTALLATION / ART BALL / WORKSHOP

I. CONCEPT
Walzer is a project by Jenny Beyer and Jassem Hindi, choreograph and sound artist, both interested in abstract objects and forms for what they are: a set of rules to play with, to distort and rebuild, to forget and to recreate, to learn from, to share with others.

Our collaboration was born under the common gesture of using a fixed art form and injecting it into our own practice, to see what it would change, what it would provoke. We wanted to experiment with the form of waltz as a material for our common work. By over layering art installation, choreography, performance, sound, music and bodies, we were able to consider and experience waltz as an attitude, a set of forms and rules, a playground for bodies and sound. We also discovered new ways to collaborate across art fields. The matter of waltz itself, just like any physical object, holds within its own structure, its own properties, some points of resistance and some frailties - an intrinsic ability to transform into something else, something new.

Walzer is a pool from which we can create and propose various forms. It is a performance for 5 dancers or more and one sound artist. It is an installation/performance project (presented at the Weimar Kunstfest in August 2009). It is a ball, considered as social art experiment (performed on several occasions during 2009 - 2010). It is an open research/workshop project in which we can invite public and artists to practice this matter with us.

We discovered and focused on several aspects we could use and integrate into our own practice. These elements include a set of various methods for artistic collaborations, the offering of a social and public space, the research on an “attitude”, a “spirit”, the behavior of a formal structure when dived into an experimental art pool. Waltz holds within its formal aspect something that calls for an opening between art fields, between periods of history, between bodies, between the public and the performers, between spaces.

A. 3/4 is an attitude
The organization of waltz itself offered us an entry point: its surface. A 3/4 structure is based on a natural imbalance, the third movement being always open, always on the verge of falling. It doesn't stand still, it doesn't come back to its initial position, it calls for movement, it calls for its own transformation. It allows us to introduce waltz to our contemporary practice, and to introduce new movements we recognize as waltz. The cracking of wood instead of a symphony, a football movement instead of a twist. A faint nostalgia of waltz appears, both in music and dance, and suddenly everything becomes 3/4. We use the very spirit of waltz, this movement of control and release, this third movement which opens to everything. We use the attitude of waltz to feed our contemporary practice, not its rigid cliche. We use the etiquette of a ballroom to create a landscape that is always changing, the reminiscence of something that is never exactly where it seems to be.

B. One word, several art forms
Because the word waltz defines at the same time music and dance, this allows us to research side by side, for sound and bodies, and project on each others art “field” some of our own methods. A sound piece transforms into an installation, the installation opens the dancer to other movements, these movements allow another space for the music. Side by side we can define a common space to share and practice.

C. Waltz is a social event
Waltz has been conceived as a social event, as an entertaining art. This very aspect gives us a space to produce, offers us the possibility to link it to a public event. The fact that it is entertainment points to us to the idea that it is also a public practice, an entry point into a social art performance. We can use it to inject contemporary art into society, by using the codes of waltz (balls) to play with our public, to make them practice for themselves some of the formats of contemporary art, or to question the physical place of people during a performance. It is also about how to reintroduce contemporary art experiences to a broader audience.

II. Projects
In this project, the kind of activity, the number of people and the type of space in which it can be displayed may vary a lot.

A. Performances / Installations
The performance itself is site specific dependent, and most of how we will implement our project will depend on the space, the social environment and time frame. It can be for one dancer and a musician. It can be for 9 dancers and a whole installation set.

B. The Ball
The ball is a social art event, involving all types of social and artistic interactions. It holds on to costumes, music, dance, videos, consumables (champagne and drinks). It is a play with codes and etiquette. A way to practice this ball attitude and to get introduced and be able to practice some of our own material, in sounds, choreography, set design... A question is asked: how can we try other forms of art and public interactions, how can we play with this, by breaking the rule and making the public the guest, and us the hosts. By letting the public dance and use the space, in a simple and direct manner. What is a ball, how does it help to acquaint with contemporary art? Every event will hold its own answer.

C.Workshops
Workshops are linked to our own personal craft, and to the number of artists involved at the time of our participation to any event, residency, festival. They will involve as much as a general introduction to our “world” and how we use art to feed our art, or very practical aspects. Such as dance courses, building an installation or a self made instrument, body practices, costume making, or a direct involvement in our performance.

Here we go again

2009-12-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

WALZ'R sets foot in Hamburg, for a 2 months residency.

Preparative works / surfaces / objects / textiles

The Ball

2009-09-29T02:36:00.000-07:00

On a regular basis, the public is invited to our ball series. Those balls are both an autonomous project and a material source for our research. The display of those balls is always simple and playful. We host a one hour and a half event, where people are invited to dance on ¾ music.

Here we can play with etiquette, costumes, and social relations. Our experience in this series is that people easily slip into a character, or imitate by analogy what they think a waltz ball should be like. Confusion, ecstasy, humor, fragments of clichés, little scenes, dance movements, body language, approach to space and to music are all aspects we can learn from.
A ball is always different from the other, in its frame and its content. We change the spacing, the type of sounds, the dress code, what we provide to t
he public (costumes, videos, champagne, seating, etiquette…).

6C Kampnagel Ball

TREFFEN TOTAL BALL

3/4: Movements and Bodies

2009-08-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Coming soon !

Everything in this space is Waltz

2009-08-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Opening Day and the two following

Jassem Hindi

Jenny Beyer

Anja Müller

First steps

Waltz dance material

Preparing surfaces

Testing 3/4

Jenny and Anja

Alcove

Curators: Nik Haffner - Carsten Seiffarth
Weimar Kunstfest artistic director: Nike Wagner

Main corridor

Alcove

Opening day public

Rhythm adjustment

2009-04-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Preparative works / surfaces / objects / textiles

Performances

2009-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

Kampnagel, Hamburg, K2
Première: 8th of April 2011
Performances: 9 / 10 / 14 / 15 / 16 April 2011

PRESS REVIEWS

2009-01-14T05:47:00.000-08:00

Thüringer Allgemeine 09/09/09

Dani Brown

2007-02-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

D.O.B 03/02/80

Dani Brown was born and raised in Rochester, NY, a place of cultural, social, and economic, curiosity / crisis / conflict / and hope. Upon completing high school Dani drove cross-country to live in the dessert above Albuquerque, NM, there she was an initiator of the sidewalk performance group known notoriously by the local police as SHHHHH! She completed her freshman and sophomore years at Virginia Commonwealth University (located in the bible belt, Richmond, VA “capital of the south”) in the dept. of Dance and Choreography. Bush was elected and she moved to the mountains of Virginia with a bunch of close friends where she was a guest artist with the Zen Monkey Project. Life was good and simple in the mountains, she had a big white house with a porch swing, and the weather was great… Too great, she decided to move to Europe to be cold and poor. After various, shall we say, cultural exchanges Dani finished her BDa, specialization Dance Maker at the ArtEZ, College of Art in Arnhem, NL (former European Dance Development Centre).
Dani helped to co-found FINGERSIX, a network of five artists, HYPERLINK "http://www.fingersix.com" www.fingersix.com. She is busy promoting her latest productions, The Invitation and IT’S GONNA BLOW (co-directed with f6 partner Marta Navaridas) and Body Swap (co-directed with Singaporian choreographer Joavien Ng). Each premiered at Kampnagel respectively 2008, 2010, and 2009! As well Dani is busy teaching (K3- Zentrum für Choreographie, Hamburg), working in Europe as dramaturg, and performing internationally for Magga Bjarnadottir (IS) + Antje Pfundter (DE) + the Japanese clothing label COSMIC WONDER.

Rosa Wernecke

2007-02-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

Rosa Wernecke studied applied theatre studies in Giessen. She works on the borders of performance, dance and installation. Her main focus lies on light-design for performance and arts. Since a few years she is experimenting with different ways to use light as a central element in space settings.

As a co-organizer of Treffen Total at K3 - Zentrum für Coreographie Hamburg in 2010 she met the artists from Sweet&Tender Collaborations and continued working in different constellations.

She is founding member of SWOOSH LIEU, realizing performances and installations in various contexts (lately in Bremen, Istanbul, Aarhus). www.swooshlieu.com
Further she is creator of "Projekt Spielfeldschnitte", the first blog for womens-soccer-culture. The blog tends to strengthen, reflect and criticise the discourse around female soccer in foreseeing the Womens-World-Cup 2011 in Germany. www.spielfeldschnitte.de

Rani Nair

2007-01-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

Rani works as dancer and choreographer focusing around the ideas of post colonial conflicts and social bindings.

She got her dance education at the London Studio Centre 1993-1996 and has studied art and dance history at the Universities of Stockholm and Lund.

She has worked, performed and made reserch in countries such as Denmark. Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Madagascar, India, Mongolia, France and Estiona.

She has participated in workshops by Mark Tompkins, Ori Flomin, Martin Kilvady, Ong Keng Sen, Wendy Houstoun, Jonathan Burrows, Andrew Harwood, Jan Ritsema, Mårten Spångberg. She has worked with various different companies and projects such as Julie Nioche/A.I.M.E. (F), Shobana Jeyasingh (UK), Roger Sinha (C), Attakalari (I), Annika B Lewis/Kassandra production (D).

In 2004 she was supported by House of Dance Stockholm in their residency for young female artists, 2006 she was the first Swedish choreographer performing at CND Paris and in 2007 she was presented by the IDEE-network duing Carte Blanche at Tanzquartier Wien. In 2008 she was resident artist at the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg.

She is a member of the artist driven network Sweet and Tender Collaborations and founding member of the co-operative Rörelsen - koreografer i Skåne. Her latest project is a collaboration with WE INSIST, together with dance artist Mia Habib (NO) and sound artist Jassem Hindi (FR).

Jenny Beyer

2007-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

(1981, GER) studied ballet and modern dance at the Hamburg Ballet School and the Rotterdam Danceacademy. In the Netherlands she performed for Jaakko Toivonen/Company Koorts and realized her first choreographical works at Dansateliers Rotterdam. Since 2007 she is based in Hamburg/Germany where she was choreographer in residence at K3-Zentrum für Choreographie/Tanzplan Hamburg.

One of Jenny Beyer’s strategies is to find a way to combine heterogeneous body materials and see what gestures, postures and intensities can be generated.
Since 2006 she is part of Sweet&Tender Collaborations, an artist-driven initiative that focuses on self-organization of artistic processes and production and emphasizes collaborative forms of working.

Her recent works, "Uniek" (in collaboration with Chris Leuenberger) and “III” (collaboration with Chris Leuenberger and Anja Müller) where shown internationally at festivals such as the Spring Dance Festival / Utrecht /NL 2009 and 8:tension/ Impulstanz Festival Vienna 2010.
2010 she initiated “Treffen Total”, a cooperation of Sweet&Tender Collaborations and K3-Center for Choreography/Tanzplan Hamburg, dedicated to the exploration of self-education and alternative working and communication models within the performing arts.

2006 stipend of danceWEB, Vienna
2007 Choreographer in residence at K3/Zentrum für Choreographie Tanzplan Hamburg
DJ Mindy
www.sweetandtender.org

Jassem Hindi

2007-01-14T05:24:00.000-08:00

(FRA/LB) Born in 81 in Saudi Arabia, currently lives in France.  Usually works with sound. Lo-fi electro-acoustic material: diverted machines (walkmans, rotors, recorders), amplified objects (metal scraps, Plexiglas, Vinyl), contact microphones, magnetic tapes, field recordings, no input mixing board, radio frequencies. Very much influenced by noise rock, field recordings, musique concrète, editing techniques.

 What attracts me is the plasticity of matter. Its fragility. How it can stretch, how it can be porous to other things. Sound as a matter can be contaminated by body gestures, images, sketches of choreography, videos, texts, persons. This leads me to produce other things than concerts, recordings or soundtracks. Could be a video, a writing, a performance, a dance workshop... It's just that the method, or the practice that i have with sound molds my way to encounter other activities and other performers.  This "method" or unlimited series of action grow within two sorts of tensions: tension between performing live and editing - and tension between raw matters and some kind of "musicality", or rather, some invisible, secret, fragile and necessary relations in between those blunt, inhuman objects; whether they are sounds, images, persons, texts or body movements. This activity can produce "music", "movies", "performances", "texts" that will cross me and be crossed by me and others.

Some collaborators: Jakob Riis Annette Krebs Axel Dorner Christine Sehnaoui Mathias Forge Frederic Le Junter Sharif Sehnaoui Liz Allbee Basile Ferriot Pascal Battus Mia Habib Rani Nair Jenny Beyer Anja Müller Ludger Hennig

www.myspace.com/hindij
http://weinsist.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/zerokelvinzero

Marko Milic

2007-01-14T02:07:00.000-08:00

Born in Yugoslavia, Belgrade. Studied Andragogy on Philosophical faculty. After making photography in the 90s, he started his own performance works in 2002. For 5 years he was teacher assistant in a series of workshops for children with special needs, in Center for culture "Stari Grad" in Belgrade. He was Danceweb scholarship recipient in 2006 and after involved in sweet and tender collaborations.