June 2025
Libken has just celebrated its 10th anniversary with a lot of old and new friends, the baptism of a lot of new fruit trees for the garden, a concert that happened exactly the same way as now also ten years ago and a performative lecture by Anne Kulbatski, which I have accompanied with a harmonium.
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Research trip in Stuttgart!
Together with Judith Milz and Cécile Kobel, I have been invited to this year’s festival CURRENT – Kunst und Urbaner Raum. Next to eight flags, moved by the – allegedly highly polluted – air in Stuttgart, our work ~4E8A∞~ consists of four performances tied together by the phenomenon of breath. These days, we have visited the premises of Abfallwirtschaft Stuttgart, where the street cleaning cars and machines are repaired, washed and sleep when they don’t work. We were in Café Weiß, a smokers’ bar with long tradition, in the beautifully sunshine-lit Versöhnungskirche church in Stuttgart Degerloch, as well as in the so-called Hustenburg, a housing complex originally built for people with tuberculosis. Whoever is curious to know more about what will happen there between June 27th and July 26th, check the programme and see you there!
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May 2025
Tired and happy! We’ve just finished the third show of Outside Inside, a choreographic master piece (graduation work) by Tim Winter with dancers Aya Toraiwa and Crispin Lord, and musicians Edith Steyer and Wieland Möller. So much magic in and outside of the house! It was lovely to perform with the doves, the audience and the technology alike!
Photo: Lea Greub
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April 2025
Save the date: I’m performing for my two composer friends Evelyn Saylor and Dina Maccabee!
On April, 4th, we sing at KM28 in Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin and on May 3rd in Libken, accompanied by a workshop on the next day. If Only Patterns Make Us gathers pieces for two, a capella and accompanied voices, as well as for a mixed vocal ensemble. The new works of Evelyn and Dina reflect their multi-faceted engagement across contemporary and folk singing practices.
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March 2025
It’s been almost one month of into the fields, a residency programme at Libken Denk- und Produktionsort that I am currently hosting and accompanying together with Anna Bartholdy and Judith Milz. Thanks to the Goethe Culture Moves Europe funding, we could invite seven artists from Poland, Czech Republic and Germany to spend two months together, developing old and new interdisciplinary practices together and exchanging over the conditions of art making in rural areas. I’ve already learned so much with and by Markéta Fagan, Jitka Králová, Belia Brückner, Sophie Innmann, Gabriela Piwar, Lenka Holíková, and Katarzyna Łyszkowska aka Łyszka and I’m looking forward to another month together!
Photos: Sophie Innmann, Johanna Ackva
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Just back from my residency at 4fT – Tanzplattform Leipzig, where I could spend two weeks of work, exchange and research with Pernille Sonne and with her assistant dog Thaja. Besides a lot of fun, this time was also a deep learning experience for me on many, many levels. It was the first time I have been able to experience from so close by what it means to navigate through everyday life as a Blind person, to work, to communicate, to use public transport, to study, to dance, to discover a new place, to survive in the motorized traffic, to buy something, to do so many more things – without being able to use your eyes, those sense organs for which most of our infrastructure is designed. I’ve enjoyed this time a lot: playing with tuning voices, moving informed by sensory perception of ears, nose and skin, describing inner images, dream visions and other phenomena beyond sight.
Pernille and I both would love to continue this collaboration and to develop the materials presented in the frame of a first public sharing in Leipzig. If you are interested or know of opportunities, I’m grateful for any hints!
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February 2025
Merci beaucoup aux ami.e.x de l’amicale mille feux!
Thank you so much, sweet team of amicable mille feux!
Together with Philipp Enders, we were hosted by this wonderful project in Lacelle, in the French region of Plateau de Millevaches in order to continue working on Zweitlandschaften, a project between amateur-singing and choreography. Besides a showing at amicable mille feux, to our own surprise, we ended our residency with a full album!
The EP Singalongs contains five compositions for five to eight voices and explores ways to transpose the surrealist writing method Exquisite corpse (cadavre exquis) to music composition. The songs were made by following a protocol of singing along with an existing piece of music first, then layering and arranging the thereby created voices.
Singalongs can be listened to here.
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Moreover, I can announce another residency, this time in Germany at 4fT – Tanzplattform Leipzig. Thanks to their generous invitation, I will have the opportunity to work there together with Leipzig-based artist Pernille Sonne, actress, author and dramaturge for integrated audio description.
In our research clairvoyants, we will explore the figure of the so-called clairvoyant seer, a figure historically mostly referred to as a woman, sometimes as a Blind person.
Join us for an informal sharing on March 14th, 5pm in the studio of Tanzplattform Leipzig, Erich-Zeigner-Allee!
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January 2025
Some days ago, I saw a truly impressive, uplifting and energizing dance performance. And I had the honour to write about it.
I’m happy to share my impressions on “We Are (Nothing) Everything” by Anya Cloud and Makisig Akin, aka The Love Makers Company on the platform www.tanzschreiber.com, where I regularly publish reviews on dance and performance. The article was originally written in German and translated to English by Melissa Maldonando.
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November 2024
tiny ruins*. performance with Forough Fami @ St.-Pauls-Kirche Wedding, November 15th 2024, 7 pm / free entrance, no registration needed
After its destruction in World War II, St.-Pauls-Kirche was renovated from 1952 to 1957. While the exterior of the antique-inspired church, designed by Karl-Friedrich-Schinkel, was restored to its original state, the decision was made to remove the classical pillars and plaster ornaments from the interior. Today, the tiny ruins which remain of these decorations sit in a corner, quietly collecting dust. Besides that, speaking of tiny ruins also relates to human beings going through moments of crisis: lost loves, broken ties, shattered hopes, … We, too, break, over and over again, become “tiny ruins”. Tiny in comparison to the whole of this city, this country, this planet, and beyond. Our wounds and losses do not matter so much in the bigger picture, despite how tragic they feel to us. Just as ruins open a space to rebuild, our personal falls make room for renewal, for the change we may not even know we need.
*tiny ruins is the name of a band. and we don’t want to steal it. just borrow it for one night.
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October 2024
Since 2021, I am part of Denk- und Produktionsort Libken, a residency for artists, researchers and activists in Böckenberg (Uckermark). For a while now, we have been organizing the place and curating the cultural program consisting of a.o. exhibitions, workshops, and residency programs as a small team of four people. This year, a funding by Fonds Darstellende Künste and Bundesnetzwerk flausen+ gave me the opportunity to invite and accompany two performing artists, Christian Limber and Victoria Schulz, who are both interested in rural working class identity during and after the GDR. Another weekend of this year’s Libken season that will stay in my mind, combined an inspiring workshop on embodying and understanding dreams (with choreographer Anna Nowicka) and an evening of discussion about current right wing tendencies in the region around Libken (organized by Anna Bartholdy and others). It was great to see so many people who politically fight against the racist, sexist and ableist voices that are getting louder! Last weekend, we celebrated the season and its end with FOOD & SHELTER. In collaboration with ACRE studios, Berlin, the artist Jonas Klock set up his mobile shelter on the field that begins right at the edge of our grounds and Cécile Kobel cooked a delicious bean-based meal for the guests of the inauguration.
Photo: Jonas Klock
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Save the date!
On the 15th of November, Forough Fami and I will perform at St. Paul Kirche in Wedding. This will be our first collaboration and a work that we develop in dialogue with the spacial givens of the renovated Schinkel building. The performance is part of the church’s open doors weekend under the headline PLAYGROUND_Wandel. I’m excited to play with Forough!
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September 2024
Past Saturday, we brought the participatory performance Zu Tisch, into the garden around the famous Mäusebunker, a former research laboratory in the south of Berlin that looks like a mix between a spaceship, a tank and a pyramid. Thank you to Urbane Praxis for inviting us and to everyone who took part in the experimental dialogue format around the topic of urban co-habition and wellbeing!
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August 2024
I’m leaving Vienna after five intensive weeks of classes, workshops, performances, artistic exchange, sweaty dance floors, laughter and love. I’m bringing back with me so many great memories, insights and inspirations that will continue to unravel. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to meet some amazing dancers, artists and teachers from a generation that has shaped the field of performance before I was even born. Amongst them, I would like to mention especially Ishmael Houston-Jones, Sara Shelton Mann and Glenna Batson. Thank you so much for passing on your wisdoms and tricks, developed over many years of work! It was a great gift to be mentored by Isabel Lewis, who is a master of listening and trusting the senses, including the sense of pleasure. And I’m happy to have 50 new friends and colleagues to be in conversation with all over the world! The pictures below were taken in a workshop with Isabel Lewis and in one with the wonderful Zagreb-based artist Sonja Pregrad.
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One more note on my Impulstanz summer: Deva Schubert’s Glitch Choir, in which I have performed mid July was chosen as a winner of the 8:TENSION price that is given each year to one of the young and upcoming choreographers presenting their work in the frame of the festival. I’m proud of my friend and happy that I was part of this beautiful project!
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July 2024
Goodbye Berlin and see you soon, Vienna! I have been invited to take part in this year’s Impulstanz festival as a danceWEB resident. And I am very, very happy about this unique opportunity to take part in so many different workshops, see a lot of performances and meet new colleagues from all over the world! Thanks to Tanja-Liedtke-Stiftung my stay in Vienna is completely covered and I would like to express my gratitude to Gerlinde and Kurt Liedtke for their generous support. The two have started to fund contemporary dance projects all over the world after their daughter, dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, passed away in an accident. I’m deeply touched by how two parents who have gone through such a tragic experience, keep their child’s memory alive by nourishing and supporting what has once been her big passion in life.
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On July, 12th, 13th and 14th, I will perform in Deva Schuberts Glitch Choir @mumok Museum moderner Kunst in Vienna. The performance is part of Impulstanz’ 8:tension program, which features found and upcoming choreographers. Having seen the piece, I can promise pleasures for both, eyes and ears. Find more info and tickets here and maybe see you in Vienna!
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Finally, I’d like to share some visual impressions from Studies on Infinity @ Sommerfest.ival Wiesenburg. Thank you Isabelle, Forough, Manuel, Melika, Veronika, Arantxa, Jan, Aya, Maja, Yen, Heiko, Bruno, Nancy, and everyone who has been a part of those beautiful three days!
Photographs taken by Dieter Hartwig
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June 2024
This is info after the fact. I’m still happy to share this poster of last weekend’s open Shape Note Singing in Libken, organized together with Evelyn Saylor and Marco Weßnigk. The poster was designed by Joachim Bartsch.
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And here comes a very short notice invitation to KM28 in Neukölln, on Tuesday, June 4th! I will perform in some songs and pieces by composers and friends Dina Maccabee and Evelyn Saylor. Doors open at 8pm, the concert starts at 8:30pm. More info through KM28.
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A longer notice invitation: There will be a continuation of Isabelle Schads Studies on infinity. This time, she looks at nudity and landscape. The durational performance is part of the Summerfest.ival at Wiesenburg from June 28th to 30st.
Studies on Infinity#2: Nudity and Landscape will happen Friday and Saturday from 6 to 8pm. On Sunday, 2pm, I will present the lecture performance High Fidelity (in German) once more. Infos about tickets and the rest of the program can be found through Wiesenburg.
“J. erzählt, dass sie keine Bücher und keine Schallplatten im Regal stehen habe. Sie wolle sich an nichts festhalten. Wenn man sich an nichts festhält, dann könne man selbst auch nicht verloren gehen, wenn die Dinge verloren gehen. Ich erinnere mich daran, wie mein Herz klopfte, als ich mir zum ersten Mal eine Waschmaschine kaufen wollte. Natürlich hatte ich keine Angst davor, die Waschmaschine ausversehen zu verlieren. Vielmehr plagte mich die Vorstellung, sie könne in der Wohnung oder sogar an mir festwachsen und wasserspuckend alles überschwemmen. Nicht nur die Wohnung – das ganze Haus, mein ganzes Leben! Kein Wunder, dass ich mich heute hauptsächlich mit Dingen beschäftige, die sich nicht festhalten lassen. Die, wie meine Stimme, jetzt da sind und gleich nicht mehr.”
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May 2024
Together with visual artist Ana Halina Ringleb and actress Carla-Frieda Nettelnbreker, in the past weeks, I have been further developing a playful conversation format and participatory performance around a table. Zu Tisch was now invited as an open proposal to engage in a discussion about solidarity in the frame of the BURNING ISSUES conference at Deutsches Theater Berlin. In a fluid form, our talk will meander around the conditions, tools and potentials of solidarity. When and how do we practice solidarity? How do we profit from it? Who is granted solidarity and who not? We start at 7:30 pm with a warm-up in front of the theatre. Sign up or just come by!
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Thank you to the organizers of BURNING ISSUES and to everyone who participated in last weeks permeable performance format ZU TISCH!
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While I’m mostly hosting other residents in Libken, at the moment, I am on a small residency there myself. With Philipp Enders, we are working on a vocal project that explores the amateuresque activity of “singing along”. Zweitlandschaften are for now four small pieces, in which we layered our own as well as some friends’ voices, singing along to existing musical pieces. Thank you to Mattia Colucci for tuning in and to Jolle, the cat, for being one of our first audiences!
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March 2024
If on Sunday, March 17th you happen to be in Worpswede, which – I am aware – does not just happen, please come to the Große Kunstschau Worpswede. Together with performers, Josephine Brinkmann, Sylvie Viain and Alexander Groß, I’ll be performing VIOLINS. VIOLENCE. SILENCE, a sound piece based on Bruce Nauman’s installation of the same name. The performance happens in the frame of Julia Kielmann’s exhibition Licht und Schatten. We start at 3pm.
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Save the date for LIBKEN WERKSCHAU! This year’s Werkschau presents works by artists who are active in Libken or have close ties to it: Jonas Johannes, Bettina Mileta, Andreas Steffen and myself. Paintings, installations and textile artworks can be seen Saturday and Sunday, May 4th and 5th! My performative reading, High Fidelity, happens Sunday at 2pm in the garden. Check our website for more info!
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January 2024
Beginnings of the year feel always difficult to me, so I’m trying to focus not on the new but on the things that continue. It gives me a sense of stability that can eventually get me into the mood of a new year, new round. In that sense: Already since autumn last year, as part of Tanzbüro Berlin’s tanzschreiber project, I am writing and publishing reviews on dance and performance works in Berlin. You can find my texts in German as well as the English translations on the website of tanzschreiber. Being a performance maker myself, writing about other people’s work is a really interesting process that helps me reflect not only upon the role of dance and other body-based practices, but also on my very personal preferences and the values they are rooted in.
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December 2023
I’m happy to share some images from the recent reading of High Fidelity at sophiensaele! Many warm thanks to Judith Milz, Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell, Roman Widder, Hannes Becker and Gabriel Becak for the talks and your practical support!
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Sophiensaele’s reopening under a new team of curators will be celebrated in December with the festival Trust the process. During the festival, Isabel Lewis and Dirk Bell will be entertaining a hosting space at the former canteen of sophiensaele. There is free soup every day and a diverse program of artists showing and sharing music, tastes, words, and much more. On the 12th of December at 5pm, you can be my guest for High Fidelity, a performative reading in German language that circulates around ears, voices and the sense of hearing.
“Für Johanna war die Existenz ihrer Stimmen natürlich nicht fraglich. Zum ersten Mal hörte sie diese am Abend, wahrscheinlich bei Sonnenuntergang. Sie erwähnt die Kirchenglocken, die die Nacht einläuten. Sie ist auf dem Feld, um die Schafe ihres Vaters nach Hause zu holen.”
Photo: AI and I
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October 2023
Save the date: We’re showing Grandmothers again in a new version on November 4th and 5th! More information and tickets available via Vierte Welt.
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There is a beautiful photo article about Isabelle Schad’s The Shift Of Focus, in which I have performed, on Dieter Hartwig’s dance blog. Have a look! Also, the performance’s booklet is a beautiful trace of the work and contains my text On shipping and other in-between movements.
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September 2023
On the last meters for Isabelle Schads The Shift Of Focus, we’re singing, catching kites and practicing to lean on each other, making the space turn. Don’t miss the shows in the wonderful old theatre of HAU1!
Photo: Dieter Hartwig
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July 2023
Thank you so much, Uferstudios GmbH and Berliner Senat, for offering us the great opportunity to rethink, explore and rediscover new aspects of an already performed work! Together with Nagao Akemi, Bettina Mileta and Evelyn Saylor, I had the pleasure to pull the performance Grandmothers out of its box and spend three weeks attempting to come closer to our departed grandmothers, using not only movement and voice, but this time also an array of exciting media, amongst them a sewing machine. Now, we are looking forward to another rehearsal phase in October and two showings in November at Vierte Welt. Stay tuned!
Photos: Roman Hagenbrock
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June 2023
We’re performing a durational performance by Isabelle Schad in the frame of Sommerfest.ival at Tanzhalle Wiesenburg. Studies On Infinity#1 explores some of the materials for Isabelle’s upcoming group piece at HAU1 in depth and chains them into a hypnotizing loop.
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May 2023
We’re organizing a spring party in Libken! With: Bar Paradieschen, delicious food by Kochsalon /Bus, a performance by the wonderful dance collective In An Instant and DJs Tulip and Pilou Fuzz! Join us for hanging out, chats and dances under our new canopied work space!
When: May 28th, starting from 4:30 pm / performance at 5:30 pm
Where. Denk- und Produktionsort Libken e.V., Ort Böckenberg 15-17, 17268 Gerswalde
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I’m back to rehearsals with Isabelle Schad and a group of 15 dancers. It is a lot of fun to dive into movement principles from Aikido and apply them to Isabelle’s choreographic propositions. And I’m very much enjoying the practice-based process that spreads out until October (premiere mid October / HAU1).
In the meantime, I’m also working with choreographer Camilla Féher for a spontaneously upcoming show of hers in Bremen. Her musical choreography/ choreographed concert gives me an opportunity to meet some performers from the inclusive Berlin-based theatre Thikwa and to get to know the international inclusive theater festival Mittenmang.
Details: Konzertperformance by Camilla Féher & Guests | May 20th 2023, 20:30h | Brauhaus Bremen
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In and as part of Denk- und Produktionsort Libken, I’m happy to host and accompany two wonderful collectives for two residencies in May: hooops are going to investigate the potential of weeds to teach us how to survive in a world of changing climate and ecological crisis. Together with conspirative researchers from different fields of arts, they plug into the power of plants to design possible new futures. The seven performers of IN AN INSTANT will further develop their practice of instantly composed dance and poetry and share some insights in the frame of a little spring time celebration on Sunday, May 28th. Come by, it is a lot of fun!
For more information, see Libken’s website or Instagram.
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April 2023
April is a traveling month: Thanks to a research grant by Fons Darstellende Künste, I have the opportunity to read and investigate into breath as a physiological, spiritual and ecological phenomenon. Doing that at Performing Arts Forum (PAF) in France is an extra-pleasure. The former monastery and boarding school invites to roam around in plenty of rooms, halls, libraries and the hidden corners of a great garden. I especially enjoyed the strange (still) life of empty beds, squished cushions and stacked covers. The second half of this month is dedicated to a Body Mind Centering education program and the study of primitive reflexes, the alphabet of the body’s movement vocabulary.
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March 2023
A beautiful text by Michela Filzi on “Physis” (Moritz Macje) in which I performed in the end of February went online! You can read it here.
“As the dancers relate to our presence, we simultaneously relate to theirs. It is a deeply ecological thought to become aware of the fact that we are not solely spectators of our environment, but unquestionably part of it.”
Physis by Moritz Majce, with: Yuri Shimaoka, Cary Shiu, Àgnes Grélinger, Zuki Ringart, Johanna Ackva. Photos by Kata Kwiatkowska
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February 2023
Save the date!
Physis is the title of four evenings of practice development showings, in which I will be performing together with Agí Grelinger, Zuki Ringleb, Cary Shiu, and Yuri Shimaoka. In the past months, we had the pleasure of rehearsing with initiator Moritz Majce exploring and refining principles of Relational Flow. Places are limited, so getting your tickets in advance is recommended!
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January 2023
Healthy and happy New Year!
I’m starting 2023 with good news: Nagao Akemi, Evelyn Saylor, Bettina Mileta and myself will have the opportunity to rework the performance Grandmothers (2021, Ballhaus Ost) in July and August in the frame of Uferstudios’ residency format VERTIEFEN. Originally developed by three of us, Bettina will join us to work on material matters as objects, space, or costumes. Grandmothers will then be performed in fall in a revised version, at Vierte Welt.
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December 2022
After four years, we are reperforming Eine Geschichte der Welt, a dance piece for young audiences, at fabrik Potsdam where it was initially created. Bring your kids or children friends along and come see Lea Martini, Dennis Deter, Filo Krause and myself transforming from stars to dinosaurs and from furry eggs to wind-filled whirling planets! Photo: Élise Schneider
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Helping almost magically to face the gray December days, are rehearsals with the team of Physis, five amazing co-preformers and -improvisers: Cary Shiu, Yuri Shimaoka, Djibril Sall, Zuki Ringart, and Ági Grélinger. The project by Moritz Majce will be presented at the end of February 2023 at Tanzfabrik Berlin and is developing around a research of principles of Relational Flow.
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November 2022
Save the date: Sebastian Blasius’ Schiffbruch mit Zuschauenden will premiere on November 24th at Ballhaus Ost. For me, this is the first time in many years working with a script (by Björn SC Deigner). Also part of the team are: Hauke Heumann, Katharina Shakina, Katja Gaudard (performance), Melina Brinkmann (assistance), Caspar Pichner (set and costumes). Photo: Jerun Vahle
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October 2022
Very happy, thankful and tired after the re-preformance of the series CLOUDS ON CLEAR SKY at Vierte Welt Berlin. This time without Sophie Kuhlmann, or rather, with only her voice and absentual presence in Jan Burkhardts solo. A very sweet and beautiful report of their during that evening was written by Rosina Lui, a student of Bard college Berlin. The last of the four nights with Nagao Akemi was documented by tanzforumberlin and discussed in an article by Micha Tsouloukidse. Photo: Uta Neumann
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August 2022
Save the date / August 24, 2022, starting at 6 pm: Together with visual artist and author Anna Zett I’m currently preparing an event in the frame of the Berlin Project Space Festival 2022. Postindependent is a live-exhibition in which c
With contributions by: Circaeaa, Irina Gheorghe, Nathan Powless-Lynes, and Susanne Kohler.
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June 2022
I’m very glad to be invited with a performance for the opening of Christina Huber’s solo exhibition ‘Darling You Should Feel Lucky’, curated by Marie DuPasquier and hosted by Display Berlin. In ‘Human Polygraph’, I explore aspects of relationality and resonance in solo dance, tapping into the ghostly and mystical, and borrowing some musical lines from a composition by Hildegard von Bingen. 4th of June 2022, 19h. Mansteinstraße 16, 10783 Berlin.
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The end of June brings a very pleasant new experience on water for me: With choreographer Clément Layes, I spend two weeks in a residency, hosted by fabric Potsdam in order to work on his practice of one-on-one boat tours, ‘floating listening’. While we row our guests down the small river Nuthe, fragments of memories, myths and reflections that are delivered through headphones to our guest, address the experience of loss and the connection of water, transitions, and healing. Together with Jonas Maria Droste, I translated texts originally written in English into a German version of the performance.
Photographs by Angelique Preau
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