Dancing plates, a hiccup that moves down to the feet, chewing bodies, talkative dishes, a singing spoon, a delicate egg dance; our tummies are melting with delight. After the huge success of the play “Headwalker”, Barbara Fuchs and her team study now the theme “the meal and its rituals”. The actors invite us around the table: everything that is presented on the table will be swallowed, savoured, consumed, chewed on, listened to and digested by the actors and their audience. During this eating concert, live-produced sounds will be flown from some microphones and will be mixed with pre-recorded sounds. An experimental and respectful way of treating food and drinks allows a sensory experience of a particular genre. At the end of the play, the children are invited to discover the stage and will be tested on their ability to recognize different tastes. The premiere of “MUNCH!” took place on 16. September 2012 at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf.

TEAM

Artistic direction/Choreography/Concept: Barbara Fuchs
Dance/Choreography: Emily Welther, Odile Foehl
Sound/Music: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Costumes: Sabine Kreiter
Photo: MEYER ORIGINALS

Co-produced by: tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf, BARNES CROSSING – Freiraum für TanzPerformanceKunst
Supported by: Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, NRW Landesbüro freie Kultur, Landschaftsverband Rheinland

PRESS QUOTES

Melanie Suchy, Rheinische Post (Düsseldorf), 18. 09. 2012

Munch dance for the very youngest

[…] It consists of a huge tablecloth, plates and cutlery on the floor in the middle of two audience rows. At the end of the fake table, the choreographer peels carrots, bakes waffles and controls the volume of Jörg Ritzenhoff’s lively music. Once she smacks into her microphone and gives the dancers a beat and a way of moving: fast and rakishly twitching their bones or banana-like curving. Munch dance.

It is beautiful when things themselves make sound, almost music: the dancers drop spoons, gather them together, spread them out on the floor again. A varied, semi-ordered sound of sounds is created. Dance? The two of them move nimbly in a squatting position, get caught and roll around, push plates and eggs away with their toes without breaking, and swing and slide elegantly on their knees on the finally flour-stained playing surface.

The children look on eagerly, wondering too. That is good. […]

Dorothea Marcus, akT, the theatre newspaper – October 2012

Sweet egg dance

Barbara Fuchs premiered “Munch!” a dance and sound performance for children aged 0-4 years – and captivates with a beautiful basic idea, which could become even more exuberant in terms of dance and music.

[…] The half-hour performance has an extremely sensual and charming basic idea. It picks up toddlers directly in their living environment, takes up their perceptions and movements, their facial expressions and gestures, alienated through dance, so that they recognize themselves in them. Nevertheless, many scenes are too long (such as the clinking spoon scene), too contemplative, and the attention of the little ones quickly fades. More could easily happen on stage – the potential for this lies in both the choreography and the two dancers. […]

It crackles and rustles, folds, crumples and tears, it is flexible, malleable and can also cut. There are many colours, sizes and thicknesses. Usually they write and print on it, and they also like to paint or do handicrafts: Paper. Cologne based choreographer Barbara Fuchs ventures into the paper jungle with dancer Sonia Mota and composer Jörg Ritzenhoff. With the help of paper, they make changes, external influences and temporal processes visible: paper “remembers” every wrinkle, every tear and every cut. And just as traces and external influences inscribe themselves in paper, experiences and impressions are inscribed in our bodies – through scars, quirks, wrinkles. Hardly anyone can embody this reminiscent body better than Sonia Mota, who turns 70 this year; she is an “archivist” of movements and dance. Together with the musician Jörg Ritzenhoff they roam the paper jungle and tell their experiences and stories with live sound and movements.

The premiere of PIECE OF PAPER took place on 27 September 2018 at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf.

TEAM

Artistic director: Barbara Fuchs
Dance: Sonia Mota
Music: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Stage: Odile Foehl
Light: Wolfgang Pütz
Dramaturgy: Henrike Kollmar
Assistance: Emily Welther
PR: Kerstin Rosemann
Photography: cMEYER_ORIGINALS

PIECE OF PAPER is co-produced by tanzhaus nrw as part of Take-off, the Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, the Fonds Darstellende Künste, the Kunststiftung NRW and the Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur des Landes NRW. tanzfuchs PRODUKTION is supported by the RheinEnergie Stiftung Kultur.

Press quotes

O-Ton | Kulturmagazin mit Charakter

by Michael S. Zerban

The deeper meaning of the paper

[…] And the fact that you can create interesting music with paper and cardboard also causes a lot of amazement. On the other hand, the Magic Flute for children is really old hat. […] An all-round beautiful afternoon for the children comes to an end – and one wishes that many more children would enjoy such an imaginative, varied and original performance. […]

Tanzende Säcke (choices.de) / Laudatio for the Cologne Children’s and Youth Theatre Prize

by Thomas Linden

[…] In hardly any other production this year was there so much laughter as in the wordless “PIECE OF PAPER”. The poetry of the material lies in its analogy to skin, which also casts wrinkles and on which time and memory also inscribe themselves. […]

Stadtrevue

by Melanie Suchy

New in the theater – PIECE OF PAPER

[…] The paper is paired with music, all the rustling, tearing, crackling, splashing becomes rhythm. A great game! […]

Laudation of the WESTWIND jury

[…] Barbara Fuchs has choreographed a scenic concert with the “PIECE OF PAPER” and the performance has an unbelievably affectionate atmosphere, turned towards the audience. It works for the youngest and for any other age as well. Here the pure play, shimmering creativity, cheerfulness, nonsense, freedom reigns. Highest art! […]