BodyLand
Concept & Choreography: Oded Graf & Yossi Berg
Creating Performers: Soren Linding Urup, Pierre Enaux, Robin Rohrmann, Oded Graf and Yossi Berg
Dramaturgy: Carmen Mehnert Costumes & Set: Sille Dons Heltoft Costumes Assistant: Camilla Lind
Lighting Design: Andreas Buhl Music: Julia Giertz
Co-production: Yossi Berg & Oded Graf; Dansehallerne & Bora Bora Theaters. With the support of the Danish Arts Council, the Israeli Ministry of Culture & foreign affairs, the Augustinus Fonden, Jubilee Fonden, Knud Hojgaards Fonden & Nordea Fonden.
Five international male dancers enter the stage in Bodyland. The audience is invited on a physical, poetic and humorous journey into the body and the cultural layers, that each day shape our thoughts and actions. The nature of the fragile body whispers in one direction, while culture raises its voice the other: “Do this, do that, feel that, feel this”.
A constant hectic stream of thoughts flowing between the brain and the heart, Constantly. Neurotic. Hectic. Consciously and unconsciously. Bodyland wishes to bring the audience into themselves and to connect us with the body’s wisdom, with our natural resources.
From the press:
“Juxtaposing the physical with the philosophical, the tender with the tantalizing and the political with the profane, Bodyland is a performance with bounce and balls. Yossi Berg and Oded Graf delve deep into the body, without neglecting any of its surfaces or connotations, including the body politic. Yossi and Oded prove time and again that you can be entertaining without compromising art, funny without cliché and intelligent without being didactic. Their texts and timing are as tight as their bodies, all used to full advantage here…Playful, sensual, defiant, sincere, comic, anxious – a world of thought and emotions condensed into poetic movement” Ayelet Dekel, Midnight East
“The artistic freedom to dare and bring together the dancers and their insane physical ambitions and the intelligent text, which illuminates and awakens reality, all as part of a fantasy about to swallow everything, creates a different kind of work from the one we are led to expect. The piece is performed by five wonderful male dancers…” Ruth Eshel, Haaretz
“So skillfully is it made that I sucked deep into myself… This is a study of the body…Choreographer’s approach makes it so refreshing and clear in its expression….and they have placed this recognizable humanity on stage… Everything made so easy and effortless. We are invited to a party. The show can not be accused of being weighed down by too much content, but what is needed is there – and it leaves me as a spectator with a different and new – and much more interesting – perception of my best friend: the body. Thank you for the invitation to listen for the things that the body whispers to me” Michael Svennevig, Orkendromme
“An explosive performance with great sensuality and talent…great imagination, playfulness and courage…Bodyland is original and entertaining, and reach out to far more than the usual dance audience”
Anne Aumayr, Magasinet KBH
Tech: 5 dancers Duration: 60 min Premiere: 2013
