we are co-celebrating the 40th birthday of Tanzfabrik Berlin
with two all-star improvisation lineups
22 July 2018 | 19:30 | Mime Centrum Berlin
set #1
dance improvisation / trio
KIRSTIE SIMSON
MARTIN PILIPONSKY
ADAM BENJAMIN
three renowned international teachers of Sommer Tanz 2018 at Tanzfabrik are united just for this single evening in a dance improvisation
set #2
piano/dance duet A2
AKI TAKASE – PIANO
AYAKO KATO – DANCE
Chicago-based choreographer Ayako Kate is meeting on her European Tour the excellent pianist and composer Aki Takase, recently rewarded “The Jazzpreis Berlin 2018”.
AKI ::: Continuity – Acceleration – Variety – but no Sentimentality
AYAKO ::: Stillness – Gravity – Infinity – with natural Sensibility
combi-ticket for both sets: 15€ / 10€
tickets reservation: team (at) impro-per-arts.de
an event organised in cooperation with Tanzfabrik Berlin
venue:
Studio 2, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Mariannenstr. 2, 10997 Berlin
2nd floor
Adam Benjamin (UK) is an award winning choreographer and a National Teaching Fellow. He was joint founder of CandoCo Dance Company and a pioneer of integrated dance, author of the seminal text Making an Entrance. Theory and practice for disabled and non-disabled dancers (Routledge 2002). He founded Tshwaragano Dance Company, the first South African dance company integrated on both racial and disability lines, more recently helped establish the first professional integrated company in Japan; Company-Kyo. During his time at Plymouth University he helped build the fully accessible theatre The House – now home to the Integrated Dance Summer School. As a performer he was a founder member of 5 Men Dancing and has taught and performed with amongst others Russell Maliphant, Kirstie Simson, Jordi Cortés and Gabriele Reuter. www.adambenjamin.co.uk
Ayako Kato (JAP/USA) is an award-winning Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, improviser, teacher and curator originally from Yokohama, Japan. Influenced by a Japanese view of nature and the philosophy of Tao, Ayako embodies the intangible, the beauty of being as it is, as “The Way” of nature. Since 1998, she has been an artistic director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AUH) and has presented her works in the United States, Japan, and Europe, including performances with over 60 renowned music improvisers. In winter 2018, as the part of the 20th-anniversary projects of her company, she actualized 30 pages (4 hours) of 4000 page score “stück 1998” written by Swiss Wandelweiser composer Manfred Werder through movement and sound through Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellowship 2017. For her fearless and radical experimentation, she was selected for the Players 2018: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago by Newcity Stage 2018, 3Arts Award 2016 in Dance, a Meier Achievement Award 2016.
Her vision of movement is based on somatic awareness mainly through her studies of dance anatomy under Irene Dowd since 2007 and Chinese meridians. Her freestyle dance/movement and choreographic concept have spirally emerged from the training of classical ballet, multiple modern dance techniques/styles, Tai Chi, Noh Theater, and Butoh with master Kazuo Ohno, one of the founders.
www.artunionhumanscape.net
Martin Piliponsky (Argentina) is an architect and urban planner, a dancer and teacher of improvisation. Throughout his growth, Hebrew folk dances and athletic sport training have shaped his character and spirit. For the past several years his passion for architecture is reflected in his guidance as a teacher and curator of spaces both traditional and non-traditional for the practice and performance of dance and improvisation. Blending his background in architecture and dance, Martin teaches about the possibilities of how the spaces in which we live can transform dance and life itself. Sustained by a practice in deep listening to oneself and the environment that contains us, he shares his practice through teaching and performance to students and audiences all over the world.
Kirstie Simson (UK) draws from her knowledge of contact improvisation, dance techniques, the Alexander technique, aikido, meditation and dedicated spiritual inquiry, and her extensive experience of improvisation in performance. She has worked tirelessly over the course of three decades to share with people the joy of exploring the bodys’ primal urge to move. She feels passionately that liberating our often unquestioned and fearful relationship with our physical intelligence will be an important aspect in the creation of new culture. She currently teaches dance improvisation at the University of Illinois, and facilitates workshops all over the world.
The pianist and composer Aki Takase (JAP/DEU) has been recently awarded “The Jazzpreis Berlin 2018”.
Aki Takase, born in Japan in 1948, experienced her international breakthrough in 1981 at the Jazzfest Berlin. In 1987, the musician moved to Berlin, where she has been significantly co-shaping the music scene ever since with a pronounced international impact.
From the jury statement: “The freedom of the artistic means and tools was and is an essential feature of the many different bands and projects in which Aki Takase is involved. Freedom and form are not opposites for Aki Takase, but interconnected levels of her music, which also captivates with its own sense of humor – beyond any showmanship.”
Some of her recent projects are:
„Klang und Texte “ („Reading and Music“ performance) w/ Yoko Tawada
“CADENZA“ Duo Performance w / Yui Kawaguchi (dance)
„Ensemble Sonne“ Contemporary Dance Company w / Toshiko Oka “Das fliegende Klassenzimmer“
CD „Cherry-Sakura“ with David Murray / „The German Record Critics Award” (2017/2)
„Japanic“ with Daniel Erdmann, DJlllvibe, Johannes Fink, Dag Magnus Naversen
„Da Capo“ Music and Dance Project with Louis Sclavis, DJlllvibe, Yui Kawaguchi, Kofie de Vibe