A contre corps

The dance project à contre corps was an international co-production between the toula limnaios company and the Senegalese Jant-Bi/Germaine Acogny company. It examined the physical and psychological borderline experiences in our dealings with nature and the environment. When do humans lose their self-control and what borders are crossed when they do? In a month-long working phase at the École des Sables, an international centre for traditional and contemporary African dance, the dancers choreographically explored the experience of foreignness. Particular focus was placed on the mask which is an important element of African rituals. What does the mask conceal, what does it obscure and what does it reveal?
The results of this artistic research were integrated into a performance, in which non-verbal elements from African trance rituals were translated into contemporary dance language, characterized by both ecstatic action and drastic, obsessive expression.

Artistic director / choreography: Toula Limnaios
Assistant choreographer: Patrick Acogny (SN)
Music: Ralf R. Ollertz
Light design: Jan Langebartels
Costume design: Antonia Limnaios (GR) /Toula Limnaios
Set design: Pascale Arndtz, Assistant: Felipe Luck
Public Relation: Silke Wiethe
Dance/Creation: Mercedes Appugliese, Fleur Conlon, Adelinou Dasylva, Kayoko Minami, Ibrahima Ndoye Ndiaye, Maguette Ndione, Clebio Oliveira, Ute Pliestermann, Ramatoulaye Sarr, Hironori Sugata

Venues and schedule:
Halle Tanzbühne, Berlin, 12 – 27 Jun. 2010, premiere on 12 Jun. 2010
Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main, 2 – 3 Jul. 2010