Art stations fundation - by Grażyna Kulczyk

In her dance performance, Cologne-based choreographer Silke Z. explores the idea of the private sphere. A male and female dancer create an emotional landscape shaped by the dynamic interplay between closeness and distance, control and powerlessness. Private spheres emerge from which the audience cannot escape. The traditional stage is replaced by a space in which everyone shares in a common experience.

“The line between discomfort and pain has long been crossed as the incredible performer Antonio Cabrita repeatedly hurls himself onto the floor in an attempt to finally illicit a reaction from his self-composed Caroline Simon with his self destruction. For the audience, there is nothing in space separating them from the performers; they are together in the same black enclosure. There is no longer an external world, only mercilessly exposed inner worlds. They want to run. They want to stay.

The audience personally experiences the dualism of society's need for discretion and curiosity about other people's private spheres. At what point is our search for authenticity shameful, when is it truly courageous?

In her outstanding production, Silke Z. probes the terror and beauty of intimacy. She has once again succeeded in succinctly capturing a current and indeterminate phenomenon that defies general explanation.

Reality, for Silke Z., is bouquet of splinters. Beautiful to behold – but with dangerously sharp edges.”
Nicole Strecker, Kölner Tanzpreis award speech

Silke Z. lives and works as a choreographer in Cologne. She studied dance and skiing at the German Higher Sports School in Cologne and learned at the European Dance Development Center (EDDC) in Arnheim / Düsseldorf. Co-founder of Studio 11, a production company in Cologne.

www.resistdance.de