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 Papierstück took place on 27 September 2018 at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf.

DATES

22 – 24 March I 6 guest performances as part of augenauf! Theaterfrühling

at the Theater am Gleis, in Winterthur, Switzerland

2 April I 4 pm
3 April I 10 am as part of Von klein AUF Festival 2022

at the franz.K, in Reutlingen

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! […]

They shine, rattle, are cold, they don’t even move – and yet these things exude a great fascination. Everyday kitchen helpers are often just as exciting for children to discover as their colourful toys. What could it look like if this world of things came to life, danced and sounded? In „DOOHICKEY („DINGSBUMS“)“, tanzfuchs PRODUKTION turns its attention to the metal everyday helpers in the kitchen and transforms them into a clattering orchestra: it rattles and sounds, clatters and jumps, gyrates and dances. Familiar objects suddenly develop a life of their own, become fellow dancers, mirror images. The three performers explore, feel and experience this world of things – and connect with them: they become extensions of their bodies, disappear under their clothes. Things, people and movements magically merge with each other, giving rise to entirely new hybrid beings.

Dates

PREMIERE: 29 April 2022 | 6 pm

Further dates:

30 April & 1 May 2022 | 4 pm
at the ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne | Tickets: karten@ehrenfeldstudios.de

7 May 8 May 2022 | 3 pm
10 May | 10 am
at tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf

Team

Idea, artistic direction Barbara Fuchs // Music Jörg Ritzenhoff // Performance Minju Kim, Arthur Schopa, Michael Zier // Stage Design Odile Foehl // Costume Stefanie Bold // Lighting Wolfgang Pütz // Maschine construction Marc Brodeur // NRW scholarship children & youth theater Isabel Bernhard // Dramaturgy Vivica Bocks // Production Carina Graf // Production assistance Paula Cuellar // Press Kerstin Rosemann // Photo Anna Rehkämper Photography // Graphics: Caroline Simon

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the RheinEnergie Stiftung Kultur.

Co-produced by tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf

Side by side, behind each other, around in a circle – hands held out, shoulders clasped, elbows hooked underneath – six dancers move through the room like one unit. Together they create the rhythm that guides them. Who leads the group? Is there a master of ceremonies? Through the complexity of movement, rhythm and song, the performers merge into a unity, a chain: like the links of a chain, they are interwoven, connected, sometimes open, sometimes closed – without beginning – without end, sometimes as a circle, sometimes as a row. With their movements they interweave, tie themselves to each other and thus create a human web, a body chain. They negotiate with each other, each is responsible – each chain is as strong as its weakest link. The performers engage in an increasingly frenzied game, breathing new energy and fun into the time-honored dances and chants. This creates a dynamic and rhythm that is also transferred to the audience and breathes new life into the tradition of the round dance. With her new production, choreographer Barbara Fuchs immerses herself in the tradition of the REIG – in this oldest cultural asset of the Occident, dance and song become a community-building ritual. All movements – no matter from which culture they originate – become a ceremonial act and the dance a magical ceremony of movement. The bodies of the performers are central to the ritual acts as well as to the collective embodiment. After the round dance was replaced by the couple dance in Europe, this collective kind of embodiment still shows up in everyday ritual actions: from playing and storytelling together in kindergarten, to spiritual body communities in yoga and tai chi, to collectively ecstatic bodies in la ola waves and communal chants in soccer stadiums FATTY CHAIN is a production of tanzfuchs PRODUKTION in cooperation with ehrenfeldstudios e.V., supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Fonds Darstellende Künste. tanzfuchs PRODUKTION receives top funding from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

DATES

Sat. August 21 I 6pm I PREMIERE

Sun. August 22 I 4pm

Mon. 23 & Tue. August 24 I 10am

Sat. 16 & Sun. October 17 I 4pm

at ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne

*Sat. & Sun. before the performance: “ONE MOMENT, PLEASE” – a 10-minute improvisation performance by Caroline Simon

TEAM

Direction, Stage, Light: Barbara Fuchs

Music: Jörg Ritzenhoff

Performance: Odile Foehl, Katharina Sim, Alina Feske, Arthur Schopa, Michael Zier, Philine Herrlein

Costume: Stefanie Bold Lighting: Wolfgang Pütz

Press Work: Kerstin Rosemann

Production Management: Olivia Bott

NRW Scholarship holder for children’s and youth theater: Ronja Nadler