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! […]
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.
TRAILER
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
Karla, Ändi, Arthur
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.
