What certainties do we need to leave behind to dream versions of a new future? Can the communal experience of the suspended state brought on by a changed awareness create a new consciousness that enables a different form of encounter and community?
The questions for a (re)positioning of human in nature as but one of many creatures, for a new community and reciprocated care, pervade multiple award-winning Düsseldorf choreographer Ben J. Riepe’s most current productions and projects as a recurring theme. Riepe guested at tanzhaus NRW most recently with GESCHÖPFE, in 2020, an earlier stage of this artistic exploration. In congenial collaboration with the internationally in-demand Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir, with whom he cooperated not long ago at the Hanover Staatsoper, Ben J. Riepe again moves into musical theatre territory. In EVER|RÊVE, they, together with nine singers and performers, create an uncertain yet auspicious terrain set between daydream and nightmare, between creation myths and primal fears, in which our main sense, sight, seems to turn unreliable, with us becoming increasingly unable to trust our visual perception. In its stead, hearing comes to the fore, a shared auditive experience, from which a new sort of future community might emerge – on stage, as well as beyond.
In fog and light, with a proprietary composition of sound and vocalisations, in movement, words and text fragments from a variety of languages, Riepe, in his choreography, interweaves real, digital, and surreal moments into a dreamy inkling of a new world.
For more information about the performance, visit here.
Choreography by Ben J. Riepe
Collaborated as Performer
05. – 06.05.2023 | tanzhausnrw Düsseldorf
13.05.2023 | TanzFaktur Cologne as part of the festival tanz nrw 23
Photos by Alexander Basile & Ursula Kaufmann
Paula Pau 