- 03.11.2023, 08.00 pm / Small Talk afterwards25 € / red. 12 €
- 04.11.2023, 08.00 pm / artist talk afterwards25 € / red. 12 €
- 05.11.2023, 06.00 pm25 € / red. 12 €
The choreographer Wen Hui has changed the way we look at Chinese society with artworks that combine dance and documentary film footage. One of the pieces that brought her international recognition was ‘Report on Giving Birth’ from 1999. This was based on interviews with female factory workers, doctors, journalists, midwives and her own mother about their experiences of pregnancy and birth. Now, 24 years after its world premiere, in “New Report on Giving Birth” we will see four dancers reveal new perspectives on the female-connoted body. They come together as mothers, non-mothers and women with migrant backgrounds from China, Thailand, Iran, Italy and Germany. They translate the realities and ascriptions associated with this status into choreographies that are powerful, playful, poetic and intimate. Together with the dancers, Wen Hui investigates how structural violence and control become codified in the body. Here dance serves both as a means of communication and a moving archive; their communal process is a route to both empathy and resistance.
Duration: 80 minutes
Language: English
03.11. Small Talk after the show
04.11. Meet the Artists after the show
World Premiere
Mousonturm-Production within the frame of Tanzplattform Rhein-Main.
Cast & Credits
Concept & Choreography: Wen Hui /Living Dance Studio;
Dance and Performance: Alessandra Corti, Patscharaporn Distakul, Parvin Saljoughi, Wen Hui
Dramaturgy: Alexandra Hennig
Music: Matthias Engelke
Video: Rémi Crépeau
Light Design: Matthias Rieker
Sound: Willi Bopp
Dramaturgical and Research Advice: Zhang Zhen
Producer: Katja Armknecht
Operational Production Management: Nadine Branca
Outside Eye and Consultation: Julia Alsdorf
Distribution: Damien Valette
„New Report on Giving Birth” by Wen Hui – living dance studio is a production by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main within the frame of the Tanzplattform Rhein-Main, in coproduction with Hellerau – Dresden, PACT Zollverein – Essen, Théâtre de la Ville – Paris and Festival d’Automne – Paris and HAU Hebbel am Ufer -Berlin. Funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses and by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ Coproduction Fund for Dance supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by Freunde und Förderer des Mousonturms e.V., the Goethe Institut and DRAC Ile-de-France.
The Tanzplattform Rhein-Main, a project of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Hessian State Ballet, made possible by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art and the Foundation Alliance [Aventis Foundation, Crespo Foundation, Hans Erich und Marie Elfriede Dotter Foundation, Dr. Marschner Foundation, ODDO BHF Foundation, Foundation Polytechnic Society Frankfurt am Main]. Supported by Freunde und Förderer des Mousonturms e.V., the Goethe Institut and DRAC Ile-de-France.
Biography
Wen Hui
Wen Hui ist Pionierin des chinesischen zeitgenössischen Tanztheaters. Sie ist Choreografin, Tänzerin und Dokumentarfilmmacherin. 1989 schloss sie ihr Studium der Choreografie an der Beijing Dance Academy ab und studierte 1994 Modern Dance in New York. Zusammen mit dem Filmemacher Wu Wenguang gründete sie Chinas erste unabhängige Tanztheatergruppe »Living Dance Studio«. Wen Huis Arbeiten experimentieren, wie körperliche Erinnerungen die Kollision zwischen Geschichte und Realität katalysieren. Die Arbeit von Wen Hui hat international viel Aufmerksamkeit erregt. 2021 erhielt sie den offiziellen Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, die Goethe-Medaille.
Biography
Living Dance Studio, Beijing
The Living Dance Studio was founded in 1994 by filmmaker Wu Wenguang and choreographer and former Pina Bausch dancer Wen Hui as the first independent contemporary company in the People’s Republic of China. Until recently, they were able to work in the Caochangdi Work Station in Beijing, designed specially for them by artist Ai Weiwei. Their productions, in which dance, text and film are often combined into total works of art, document social and historical events from China’s past and present.
