Sometimes we move around historical places completely unconsciously – strolling, thinking unthought thoughts, aligning ourselves – without guessing the significance of these places in a larger context that we so carelessly grasp for ourselves. In the choreographic audio walk TURN – Cartography of a Movement – Nora Tormann explores the possibilities of not forgetting history, of integrating it – but above all of transforming it meaningfully for an open society. In the process, the audience becomes flâneuses, strolling between the inscribed paths and forgotten trails of Hasenheide.
Image above: Nora Tormann, Turn, credit Oliver Look
“I am interested in a queer and anti-fascist reappraisal of the German nationalist gymnastics movement that originated in Hasenheide at the beginning of the 19th century”. (translated from German)
– NORA TORMANN
In 1811, the first gymnastics court was built in Hasenheide, the park that we nowadays experience more as a queer, migrant place known for one drug business or another. Here, first hundreds, then thousands of young gymnasts gathered to shape body and mind in public. The gymnastics movement became a political issue, as it was a violation of established forms, but it soon attracted thousands of spectators to Hasenheide to watch the boys and men perform their exercises and group choreographies. Initially intended as a playground for the entire population, gymnastics quickly became ideological and contributed to the nationalisation of the masses by shaping a national body.
TURN – Cartography of a Movement superimposes the past and present of Hasenheide from a queer and anti-fascist perspective and searches for the possibilities of a common dis-orientation and reformulation.
“For TURN, I want to revisit the history of the park, but also look at it with the question of how we can align ourselves as individual bodies and especially as a group in public space. Moving large and together quickly leaves a militaristic and fascistoid taste. I am interested in what forms a critical, solidary and caring counter-design of moving together can find – in a dance and political sense.” (translated from German)
NORA TORMANN.
For the choreographic audio walk, Tormann has elaborated the voice of the flâneuse – as a feminist counterpart to the flâneur. She observes, thinks and comments while strolling and refers to the history of Hasenheide. Without knowing the path of the thoughts or the guides, the audience moves through the park in small groups and repeatedly encounters choreographic sequences by the performers. A choreography emerges from the smallest denominator of a common movement – walking – on squiggly and seemingly errant paths.
Nora Tormann works with performance, choreography and text. The focus of Nora’s choreographic work is the investigation of bodies as settings for political and philosophical treatises: How do ideological regimes and bodies shape each other? Nora’s practice thereby moves at the interface of artistic and theoretical research and questions the paradigms that constitute the respective fields of knowledge.
Nora’s current work TURN – Kartographie einer Bewegung will premiere as a choreographic audio walk in April 2022. Previously, physical prospects (ACUD Theatre Berlin, 2021 – and to be seen in the programme of the Performing Arts Festival scene in 2022) and the solo what remains washes away (Celestial Bodies Performing Arts Festival Reykjavík, 2019) were created.
As a dance dramaturge, Nora has worked with the dance collective “Grupo Oito”, the performance company for young audiences “in back” and solo artists since 2019. Nora is co-founder of CELESTIAL BODIES, a Europe-wide platform for artists.
Nora has completed a Master’s degree in Performing Arts (2019 in Reykjavík) and a Bachelor’s degree with a focus on political theory, gender studies and sociology (2016 in Maastricht and Guadalajara). In 2021, Nora received scholarships from the Fonds Darstellende Künste as well as the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and has also been supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe with a cultural exchange scholarship since 2022. In 2022, Nora will also be working in residence at the tanzhaus nrw.
About the Tatwerk
TATWERK sees itself as a laboratory for exploring aesthetic potentials and forms a diverse community as an incubator of new ideas, perspectives and practices. The focus is on political and poetic projects, visionary concepts that reflect and question social dynamics and introduce new ways of working and formats into the scene based on their questions.
At TATWERK, artists perform in different formats: there are premieres and guest performances, but also analogue and digital work shows and work-in-progress. At our events, we welcome a diverse audience that wants to go on a voyage of discovery into the depths of contemporary performing arts.
With the choreographic audio walk “TURN – Cartography of a Movement”, TATWERK opens up to the public space for the first time and, together with the artists, explores the potential impact of its own work beyond its own premises.
Production by Nora Tormann in co-production with TATWERK | Performative Forschung.
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
Direction & Choreography: Nora Tormann
Dramaturgy: Judith Hesselmann
Performance: Sasha Amaya, Soroa Lear, Ottoline Calmeijer Meijburg, Areli Moran, Hannah Sampé, Cinzia Schincariol, Milena Stein, Dominique Tegho
Sound design: Manuela Schininà
Costume design: Cintia Rangel
Speakers: Virginia V. Hartmann, Mira Sanjana Sharma
Sound design: Lola Tseytlin Production management: Chris Wohlrab
Public relations: Aurora Kellermann
Press work: Anita Goß
Photos: Oliver Look
Video documentation: Svenja Simone Schulte
Graphics: Cécile Kobel (Graphic Design Office Karankobel)
Assistance: Mareike Jung
Technology: Lola Tseytli
Media partners: DINAMIX Medien GmbH and Plakatkultur
WHEN?
Thu 21.04.22 6:00 pm – Premiere
Fri 22.04.22 6:00 pm
Sat 23.04.22 2:00pm and 6:00pm
Sun 24.04.22 6:00 pm
Following the performance on 23.04.2022, a mediation format in cooperation with Theaterscoutings Berlin will take place at 6 pm.
WHERE?
Hasenheide
10967 Berlin-Neukölln
Meeting point / Admission: Hasenheide, entrance to the open-air cinema.
Admission starts 45 minutes before the performance begins
COST?
Tickets: 15,00€ / reduced 10,00€ (plus booking fee)
Hygienemaßnahmen: Aktuell geltende Regelungen werden beim Ticketkauf kommuniziert.
