Tilman O'Donnell and an Eschenbach porcelain cup

Over the past three years, Frankfurt choreographer Fabrice Mazliah and his colleague Marialena Marouda have invited six fellow choreographers to enter into dialogue with a handmade object of their choice. Each duet unfolds the encounter between the two bodies and their consecutive intertwinement.

In the second duet in the series, Tilman O’Donnell is collaborating with an Eschenbach porcelain cup produced in Germany in the mid 20th century. The cup, as a container, can be said to mirror the container that is the human body. However, it has to be transported rather delicately – the fragility of its material having been used historically to signify social refinement and sophistication. This is a dance of reciprocal moulding and being moulded, pouring and being poured, during which, possibly, slowly, form appears and re-appears.