Silke Z. und die metabolisten:
WE. The Empathetic Body Vol. 1

Wed 15.3.2023 at 19.00
Thu 16.3.2023 at 19.00

Duration ca. 1 hour
Performed in English

Cirko – Center for New Circus, Maneesi stage
Kaasutehtaankatu 1, Helsinki

Tickets 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 eur
Combo ticket for WE. and Spaceparticles #23: 18 eur

Book tickets online via Fienta

Wheelchair user space bookings to performances via email: info@liisapentti.com.
Free entry for personal assistants and interpreters.
The venue is accessible with an elevator.

Venue box office will open 1 hour prior to the performances if tickets available.

We are emotional.
We are resilient.
We are dependent.
We are loving.
We are uncertain.
We are jealous, assaulting, grateful.
We are strange, tender, ignorant, freaky.
We are online.
We are diverse.

Humans as social beings have the ability to empathise with others, to put themselves in their place, to take the place of the other. “WE” transfers the natural forms of emotional contagion into dance-choreographic settings. The performers walk tightrope between attraction and aversion, affection and assault.

In “WE”, Silke Z.’s ensemble die metabolisten negotiates empathy and faces the invasive, encroaching side of empathy. This first production of the project “Der empathische Körper” lays the foundation for a perennial examination of the topic of empathy. The intergenerational company is looking for new performative perspectives to approach the complexity of themes and cultivate feelings of “WE”.

Watch trailer on Vimeo!

About the Ensemble

die metabolisten are a free, intercultural and intergenerational dance-performance ensemble committed to an interdisciplinary exploratory way of working at the intersections of socio- cultural phenomena and their somatic manifestations. In doing so, they pursue the approach of an absolutely contemporary and contemporary artistic work. The 15 members of the metabolists have a total age difference of 44 years. They thus follow the ideal of the so-called real bodies concept, an attitude in contemporary dance that consciously opposes normative-aestheticizing attributions of physical beauty. As a non- institutional and free ensemble, the metabolists are willing to take up their artistic work in a flat-hierarchical manner under conditions that are free of the constraints of an audience taste to be fulfilled. The metabolists come from a wide variety of socio-cultural backgrounds and socializations, and as an ensemble have at their disposal a high diversity and density of mental and organismic resources. The metabolists work on the background of an enormous pool of artistic origins with the basic claim of an interdisciplinary approach to all projects, which they transform into artistic products. In this way they develop a contemporary dance theater that reflects and transcends life and its conditions at the beginning of the 21st century in a unique way.

Bios

Silke Z. is artistic director of the company Silke Z. resistdance and the transgenerative ensemble die metabolisten in Cologne. She develops and programs dance and performance art in Germany and abroad. Silke Z. directs the ehrenfeldstudios, a transgenerative and interdisciplinary production and work space for independent dance in Cologne.
Silke Z.'s work is a constantly changing, transdisciplinary space of thought and action - with a focus on dance and performance, she observes people, society(s) and their movement processes and shifts. The collaboration of different artists, dancers, thinkers, producers, acquisition and office staff allows to examine social and individual movements heterogeneously, looking at them from different perspectives.
In 2020 she started the multi-year project "The Empathic Body" which includes stage productions, instal-lative and participatory performance projects, dance films, research and mediation formats for all generations.

Bettina Muckenhaupt trained as an actress and studied pedagogy in Cologne and was engaged for many years at the Schlossstheater Moers, the Landestheater Neuwied, the Stadttheater Krefeld- Mönchengladbach and the Wuppertaler Bühnen. Since the early 1990s she has worked as a freelance actress and is a founding member of the Cologne Rose-Theegarten Ensemble.

Caroline Simon studied stage dance in Belgium at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and finished her studies in June 2001 in the Netherlands, at the University of Music and Dance (Rotterdam). Until 2009 she produced her own pieces and since then she is a permanent ensemble member of the company Silke Z. resistdance.

Daniela Riebesam is a dancer and performer in the independent scene in Cologne. After a pre-professional ballet education at the Bühnentanzschule Kult, she studied contemporary dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse in Lyon, France. She has worked with Cie. Willi Dorner, Marie-Lena Kaiser and Bibiana Jimenez, among others, and has been part of the ensemble die metabolisten since March 2020.

Dennis Alexander Schmitz studied at the Tanzfabrik Berlin, the MUK Vienna and at DOCH Stockholm. As a performer Dennis has worked with various choreographers throughout Europe including Jolika Sudermann, Britta Pudelko, Annelie Andre (Berlin), Nikolaus Selimov, Samuel Bartussek (Vienna), Karolien Verlinden (Antwerp), Am Ertl (Stockholm) and Silke Z. (Cologne).

Jimin Seo started ballet training at the age of 14. In January 2015, she moved to Berlin and discovered her passion for contemporary dance. In 2016, she began her studies in Contemporary Dance and Improvisation at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne.

David Winking has been an actor and dancer in the ensemble of the Junges Schauspielhaus Bochum since September 2018. Since March 2020 he is a member of the ensemble die metabolisten in Cologne.

Credits

Artistic direction and choreography
Silke Z.

Performance
Daniela Riebesam, Caroline Simon, Dennis Schmitz, Bettina Muckenhaupt, Jimin Seo, David Winking

Lighting design
Wolfgang Pütz

Costume and stage
Claudia Grünig, Silke Z. and team

Dramaturgical advice
Barbara Fuchs, André Zimmermann

Sound advice
André Zimmermann

Dance education
Caroline Simon, Dennis Schmitz, Andrea Marton, Hanna Held

Administration/Management
Hanna Held

Public Relations
Vinya Cameron

Press work
Kerstin Rosemann

Photo documentation
Claudia Grünig

Video documentation
Barbara Schröer

The overall concept is supported by the following partners:
Coproduction
Fokus Tanz e.V. Munich, Junges Schauspielhaus Bochum
Cooperation
Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium Cologne, ehrenfeldstudios e.V.
Funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the 3-year conceptual funding and the city of Cologne as part of the multi-year project funding.

The performances in Helsinki are supported by Exportförderung Land NRW and Finnland-Institut in Deutschland / TelepArt Mobility Support.

Photos: Claudia Grünig

Silke Z. und die metabolisten: WE. The Empathetic Body Vol. 1

Wed 15.3.2023 at 19.00Thu 16.3.2023 at 19.00 Duration ca. 1 hour Performed in English Cirko – Center for New Circus, Maneesi stage Kaasutehtaankatu 1, Helsinki

Tickets 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 eur Combo ticket for WE. and Spaceparticles #23: 18 eur

Book tickets online via Fienta Wheelchair user space bookings to performances via email: info@liisapentti.com. Free entry for personal assistants and interpreters. The venue is accessible with an elevator. Venue box office will open 1 hour prior to the performances if tickets available.

We are emotional. We are resilient. We are dependent. We are loving. We are uncertain. We are jealous, assaulting, grateful. We are strange, tender, ignorant, freaky. We are online.We are diverse.