LISTEN!
A dance concert by Moving Borders & BartolomeyBittmann
This isn't the first time Ceren Oran has explored the connection between dance and music. Beyond collaborating closely with musicians in her pieces, often integrating them into the performance, the choreographer has already transformed music into an accessible performance language and part of the choreography.
With LISTEN!, she continues and expands upon this approach. She has not only brought on board the awarded Austrian string duo BartolomeyBittmann, but also breaks new ground choreographically by inviting her creative dancers as the co-choreographers of the individual dance pieces/tracks.
In the end Listen! becomes a vibrating and cinematic DanceConcert night of 9 short pieces, in which dancers celebrate, protest, inspire each other, manifest their existence through their art.
Concept & Artistic Direction: Ceren Oran
Choreography & Dance: Sofia Casprini, Jadwiga Mordarska, Jihun Choi, Jovana Zelenovic, Jaro Ondruš, Karolína Hejnová, Ceren Oran
Creative Production: Karolína Hejnová
Dramaturgy: Jean-Baptiste Charlot
Music & Performance: BartolomeyBittmann – progressive strings (Matthias Bartolomey – Cello/Klemens Bittmann – Violine & Mandola)
Light Design: Ramona Lehnert
Sound Design: Olaf Schuberth
Costumes: Ragna Heiny
Production Management: Michael „Beli“ Hennig
PR: Simone Lutz
PRESS
(...) Now she has once again achieved an award-winning creative coup. “Listen!” is the simple title of their current, great premiere at the Schwer Reiter. And on this evening you will enjoy listening to the eloquent instruments and singing - the voices of two musicians at least as much as you will enjoy watching the ridiculously complex and impressively silent gesture dialogue between the dancers. (...) Overall, “Listen!” has become a veritable dance concert that you don’t want to miss as a sensual experience. Dance and dancers merge with the music of the duo BortholomeyBittmann to create a completely convincing overall impression. Everything seems to be cast from a single mold, even though eight parts have been assembled into favorite album tracks. The respective scenes, from solo to ensemble pieces, differ in terms of cast, choice of steps, temperament, style, length or mood. Ceran Oran and her colleagues succeeded fantastically in the feat of integrating the musicians into the process as physically active counterparts. (...). Abendzeitung
(...) This evening is filled with anger and abstract rebellion, but also with beauty and Oran's characteristic generosity. She'll tackle politically sensitive topics again another time. For the moment, the dominant theme seems to be the will not to be dragged down by reality. Thus, the ending of "Listen!" is particularly cheerful and embracing: a welcome relief in the otherwise gray and oppressive November. Süddeutsche Zeitung