Barbara Fuchs's Latest Posts
PIECE OF PAPER
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! […]
“MUNCH!”
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. […]
Buckets of Feeling!
Dancers enchant, perform magic, conjure up friends and foes out of objects which tremble with rage, stomp out of spite and jump for joy. With lots of humor and accompanied by live-produced Asian soundscapes (from Kabuki and Beijing opera to Japanese pop), the trio takes the audience playfully into an emotional world full of magic, dance, music and clownery. The premiere of “Buckets of Feeling!” took place on 14. September 2014 at Barnes Crossing in Cologne.
TEAM
Artistic Direction: Barbara Fuchs
Concept and Idea: Barbara Fuchs+ Emily Welther
Composition: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Dance and Music: Emily Welther + Odile Foehl
Light, Sound and Music: Barbara Fuchs
Photo: MEYER ORIGINALS
Buckets of Feeling! is an Ensemble-Production of tanzfuchs PRODUKTION/Barbara Fuchs, coproduced by tanzhaus nrw – Düsseldorf, Festival Cultura Nova – Heerlen (NL), Theater Baden-Baden and BARNES CROSSING Freiraum for TanzPerformanceKunst – Cologne.
Supported by: Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW; RheinEnergieStiftung.
Press quotes:
Choices (Thomas Linden)
Buckets Full of Gold
Barbara Fuchs presents a minimalist masterpiece – Dance in NRW 11/14
“…When nothing else can be done, we say “throw it in the bucket!”. But in Barbara Fuch’s new dance production, everything revolves around two buckets filled with ideas and brimming with emotion.
So begins the opening sequence, a stroke of genius as both dancers stick their heads into the buckets and blindly draw faces on their backs. Two creatures suddenly appear and express everything from joy to rage with simple gestures and wild beating of the floor with hands and feet. Violin and flute music is played from within the buckets too, supporting the happy, friendly play of the performers. A masterful choreography presents both dancers (Emily Welther and Odile Foehl). Barbara Fuchs adds her own acoustic talents to the electronic sound collage. A friendly, poetic spectacle develops around the two buckets enthralling the audience both young and old. “Buckets of Feelings!” succeeds with its expertise, nonchalance and charm….”
Tanzweb-Krefeld (Jean-Luc Larquet)
Buckets of Feeling!
13th Krefeld Festival for modern dance “MOVE!”- Dance for Children
Night critic from Jean-Luc Larquet (translated from the French by TANZwebKrefeld.de)
“…Right from the beginning Emily Welther and Odile Foehl rein the children in, charming them with their music, acrobatics and dance, keeping the fine thread between themselves and their young audience quivering, so that sooner or later the children itch to get up and dance too! The musical score by Jörg Ritzenhoff underscores the fantasy on stage, gliding through the space like a magic carpet….”
Pffhhh… – A rubber dance play
Bicycle tube snails, tyre-furniture, air pump-kisses and in the midst of all is a dancer who moves as if made of rubber. Seemingly boneless and rather flexible the rubber girl moves through her own world. Here everything can be twisted, squashed, blown up and formed. Everything squeals, gnarls and pipes. Pffhhh… The choreographer and dancer Barbara Fuchs likes to twist the common view on objects and their material qualities. Leaning on anarchy, with affection for the absurd and for humour she engages in her artistic composition. Together with composer Jörg Ritzenhoff she developed Pffhhh…, a solo where not only rubber in various manifestations but also dancer Odile Foehl are tested for their elastic potential. The tanzfuchs team breathes a new life to bicycle tubes and rubber tyres, creates new spaces for experience beyond the known and changes things to companions of the dancer. Everything is object to change, yet never for long.
Pffhhh… is part of the performance project RESPACE on the relations between space, memory, sound and performance by the label tanzfuchs PRODUKTION, headed by Barbara Fuchs.
The premiere of Pfffhh… took place on 30 June 2016 at tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf.
DATES
24 & 25 November 2022 | 10 am
26 & 27 November 2022 | 4 pm
TEAM
Artistic direction: Barbara Fuchs
Dance: Odile Foehl
Music: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Choreographic assistence: Emily Welther
Stage: Barbara Fuchs
PR: Kerstin Rosemann
Photography: cMEYER_ORIGINALS
A tanzfuchs PRODUKTION, co-produced by tanzhaus nrw as part of Take-off: Junger Tanz, supported by Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW. Also co-produced by BARNES CROSSING Freiraum für TanzPerformanceKunst. The production is further supported by Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW and NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste. Supported also by the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. tanzfuchs PRODUKTION is endorsed by RheinEnergie Stiftung Kultur.
Press quotes
Neue Westfälische, Paderborn 23.11.2017
Queen of the rubber world
“She wakes up in a bed of rubber, starts a poetic performance with rubber tires and bicycle tubes and becomes, among other things, the queen of this freely designable space. In the studio of the theatre it squeaks and whistles, and by means of a loop machine the rubber girl creates the appropriate sound cosmos, which gets along without words.
Westdeutsche Zeitung, Krefeld 21.11.2016
Rubber woman inspires the spectators in the Heeder
[…] The wirily flexible dancer Odile Foehl stretches and stretches, bounces on the floor like a rubber ball and in the next position bends her limbs as if they were also made of rubber. At first, the kids on the benches are breathless excitement, incredulous amazement and then loud laughter.
Click to see all photos
Schlalalalaufen
Street cradle cat’s eye, run sneak loop: Here everything runs on a string, a dancer and a dancer, up and down, criss-cross. They stretch strings, wind and tangle themselves and others, spin patterns and paths and lead the spectators through ever-changing landscapes.
The thread games known in many cultures are the basis of inspiration for this mobile dance piece. From the hands they are transferred to other parts of the body and the audience is also included to play the whole space. Patterns are given and received, something falls, something works, everything transforms and everyone is connected to everyone else.
It is a fun, collaborative piece that encourages complex movement and collective thinking.
DATES
21.5.22 I 4 pm
23. & 24.5.22 I 10 am
at the ehrenfeldstudios, Cologne
TEAM
Dancers: Minju Kim and Moonjoo Kim
Regie / Choreographie: Barbara Fuchs
Music / Composition: Jörg Ritzenhoff
Singing: Antonia Ritzenhoff
Equipment: Barbara Fuchs
Dramaturgy: Andrea Kramer
A production of Consol Theatre Gelsenkirchen
Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
