The idea for this work came up in 2018, when the artist Dalibor Šandor asked the critical question of why Pina Bausch never made a version of her most famous work Kontakthof with disabled artists. Pina Bausch, perhaps the most famous German choreographer and co-founder of dance theatre, developed the original version in 1978 with her ensemble of non-disabled dancers and later re- staged a version with non-disabled senior citizens in 2000 and with teenagers in 2008.
Dis Contact is neither a reinterpretation nor a reconstruction of Kontakthof, but a work that creates new places of contact between artists belonging to communities and cultures that are systematically oppressed in the world where Pina Bausch's Kontakthof has a prominent status.
Each of the invited artists for Dis Contact had their own observations about Kontakthof, out of which different non-normative perspectives to choreography, body and language were developed. The work is based on ethics and aesthetics of care, solidarity and accessibility.
Concept: Saša Asentić
Artistic direction & performance: Alexandre Achour, Saša Asentić
Artistic collaboration & performance: Angela Alves, Diana Anselmo, Marko Bašica, Rita Mazza, Auro Orso, Dalibor Šandor
Costume design: Julia von Leliwa
Music arrangment: Gregorio Rodriguez Orozco
Light design: Anja Sekulić
Technical direction, sound, captions: Rastko Ilić
German sign language interpretation: Oya Ataman, Mathias Schäfer
Audio description: Emmilou Rössling, Silja Korn
Reading of German captions: Sophie Thomas
Personal assistance: Olivera Kovačević Crnjanski
Participation in rehearsals: Perel
Participation in the research: Heike Bröckerhoff, Laila Regner
Production management: Miriam Glöckler, Stephan Wagner
A production by Saša Asentić & Collaborators in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE, Kampnagel Hamburg, HELLERAU - European Centre for the Arts Dresden, Théâtre de la Ville de Paris. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK Coproduction Funding Dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The project TanZugang - Breaking Down Barriers in Contemporary Dance is funded by Fonds Soziokultur e.V. Special thanks to Tanzerei, Per.Art, Festival Theaterformen. Media partner: taz.
Sophiensaele - Berlin, Germany
15 - 19/02/2023