Barking and singing, fur-covered stones and furry flowers, here a breeze blows, a smell comes from there – in Karla’s, Ändi’s and Arthur’s world there is much to see, hear and feel – each of the three does this in his/her own way: Karla sees with her knee, Ändi preferably with her nose. Arthur prefers to look good. Besides, Karla is older than Ändi and Arthur, Ändi has four legs instead of two, and Arthur is the only one with dark hair. On the other hand, Ändi can drum with his tail, Karla knows how to dress, and Arthur knows how to move. In this world dogs and humans are equal: no matter wether they are quadrupeds or bipeds, old or young, fury or not – cuddling, kissing, chatting, rubbing, dancing or looking at the stars is most beautiful in a when done with the three of them.

Choreographer Barbara Fuchs, composer Jörg Ritzenhoff and the dancer Arthur Schopa have let Karla Faßbender and her guide dog Ändi show them a new world. It is not the world as we know it through which Ändi leads Karla, but a realm in which all of the senses are equal. Follow, Karla, Ändi and Arthur into this unique world.

Dates

Sun. 2 October 2022 | 3 pm
Mon. 3 October 2022 | 10.30 am

Past dates:

1st October 2021 I PREMIERE | ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne

29 & 30 January 2022 I 4pm
31 January & 1st February 2022 I 10am
ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne

For people with visual impairments, we offer a touch tour on stage half an hour before the performance. Please register for this with us in advance.

Team

Idea, artistic direction: Barbara Fuchs
Music and lyrics: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Performance: Karla Faßbender, Ändi, Arthur Schopa
Choreography Arthur Schopa & Barbara Fuchs
Narrator Gisela Nohl
Stage Odile Foehl
Costume design: Stefanie Bold
Lighting: Wolfgang Pütz
Mediation and dramaturgy Vivica Bocks
Production management: Carina Graf
Press relations: Kerstin Rosemann
Photos: Sabine Grosse-Wortmann

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

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

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.

DATES

23 January 2022 I 4 pm
24 January & 25 January 2022 I 10 am

Guest performance at the Baden-Baden Theatre

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. […]

The chin sits on the knee; the fingers are becoming entangled in the toes. The fingers lift one foot in the air after another. The folded woman is unsteady and her bottom is swaying over the stage. Next to her, a similar creature tries as much as it can to reproduce the same movement. They roll on their backs, they sometimes shove one another and they climb on each other.

In the dance performance “Headwalker”, a fantasy world is created thanks to an interaction of music, movement, dance and technical contacts specifically adapted to modelling clay. This word has its own period of time, its own sounds and its own form.  The actions continuously dissolve themselves in order to create a musical and colourful whirl. There is always something happening, but the tempo overpowers nothing…

“Headwalker” is a mix between dance movements, pictures and music, all of it being in the perspective of discovery and pleasure. At the end of the play, the audience is invited to come on stage and play as they wish with the modelling clay!

The premiere of “Headwalker” took place on 26 September 2010 at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf.

TEAM

Choreography/artistic direction: Barbara Fuchs
Dance: Odile Foehl, Emily Welther
Music, sound: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Live Sound: Barbara Fuchs
Photos: MEYERORIGINALS & Barbara Fuchs
Costumes: Cindy Karkkonen, Barbara Fuchs
Stage Design: Barbara Fuchs

Photo: Anke Schwarzer / Barbara Fuchs

A production by tanzfuchs PRODUKTION/Barbara Fuchs and tanzhaus nrw in the frame of Take-off: Junger Tanz. Tanzplan Düsseldorf, supported by Tanzplan Germany, an initiative by the Federal Cultural Foundation and the City of Düsseldorf, the Prime Minister of North Rhine Westphalia and the Arts Foundation NRW.

Press quotes:

Headwalkers are alive – The Festival MOVE! wants to interest the young audience to contemporary dance. Yesterday, at Fabrik Heeder it worked out very well. (Westdeutsche Zeitung, 14.11.2012)

Can you make dance theatre for children aged three years? Yes, this can work, and in such a good way that even the adults are amazed. Choreographer Barbara Fuchs brings “headwalkers” on stage. At these first human images, drawn by children, the feet are placed at the head, the body seems to forget. This shows the child’s perception of what is really important, and also reflects the movement repertoire at this age.

Barbara Fuchs and her dancers Odile Foehl and Emily Welther show this condition in the Wachsfabrik, through the development of movements, in which hands and feet are always in dialogue with each other. The head remains in the centre with his facial expressions, and the body gets those cumbersome, as children still have. Brilliant anyone here has embarked on the perception and the reality of the people at the beginning of his life.

This type of dance language gets by without sentimentality and cuteness, and yet its take children as adults. Always in the flow of movements to solve the actions on each other, something always happens, but not overwhelmed by the pace, but stimulate – as well as the subtle sound composition by Jörg Ritzenhoff – a concentrated look. That not only people but also objects legs can be made, the choreography demonstrated in sensual play with balls of dough. This is dance for beautiful feet and clever brains. (Thomas Linden, Kölnische Rundschau)

In the best moments it is a single whirl of color and music … A piece of stimulating the fantasy, about the fact, that the shapes and colors of the childrens world have to create themselves – directly and metaphorically. (Dorothea Marcus, aKT 16, Oktober 2010)