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| Danse radicale |
26.02.2024 |
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Film-Festivals |
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The final results of our 2022 project "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries" are a total of four short documentary films, two of which were produced in 2023 in collaboration with students from the "Film&Sound" programme at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
One of these films, the artist portrait of Franco-Belgian dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels entitled "Danse radicale", was recently awarded an "Honourable Mention" at the "Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival".
"Danse radicale" is currently still screening at the Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival in the "New Voice Shorts" section. As this festival is also taking place online, "Danse radicale" can still be viewed until 11 March at the link below. A ticket is available for $12, which gives you access to over 100 short films. Purchasing this ticket also gives you the opportunity to vote, as there will also be an audience award. We would be very happy if one or the other would vote for "Danse radicale".
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Berlin Lift-Off Filmfestival |
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| West-Land-Dances |
25.02.2024 |
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Videos |
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Our most recent dance piece "West-Land-Tänze" received excellent reviews and was celebrated by the audience. This was in the truest sense of the word, as most of the audience gratefully received the second part of our programme, a "Bal modern", and danced exuberantly together in the foyer of the Forum Freies Theater.
Michael Zerban wrote online in "O-Ton": "Rarely have visitors left a performance of contemporary dance with so many happy hormones as on this evening." And the newspaper Rheinische Post added: "The result is a rousing performance that has earworm potential due to its melodies alone. Because that is also part of this elevated cultural treasure. As complicated as some of the steps and movements in folk dances may be, they often follow a simple, catchy melody."
We are currently working on the video recording of the complete performance and hope that this can be added to the bookable programme of our "virtual theatre" by the end of March at the latest.
Until then, the short video of our stage design video, which we showed at the coda of our performance and which shows the uncovering of a Rubens painting from a pop overpainting, will suffice...
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Palimpsest-Video |
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| Palimpsest |
24.02.2024 |
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E-Book and Video |
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In the run-up to the development of the dance production "West-Land-Tänze", we researched the subject of folk dance and music in the Rhineland and Westphalia. Among other things, this research also included two workshops to which we invited dance teachers specialising in folk dance and bal folk.
For the first workshop, which was part of our project "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries" funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf in 2022, we also hosted film & sound students from Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts with cameras and microphones in our rehearsal studio for two days. Sound design student Till Bellinghausen edited the short film "Palimpsest" from this material in autumn 2023.
Under the same title, we published an e-book for the premiere of "West-Land-Tänze", which summarises the scientific results on the subject of "Folk dance and music in the Rhineland and Westphalia".
The e-book is available at the following link. The link to the film can also be found on page 84 of the e-book.
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E-Book Palimpsest |
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| The boards that mean the city |
23.02.2024 |
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The boards that mean the city |
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| In 2022/23, the authors and editors Jens Prüss and J.U. Lensing compiled a 340-page book on the subject of "50 years of independent performing arts in Düsseldorf". The book is compiled from transcribed texts of a total of 40 audio interviews with protagonists of Düsseldorf's independent performing arts scene. The oldest interviewees were over 90 years old, the youngest in their mid-30s, resulting in a dazzling mosaic that depicts the beginnings of Düsseldorf's independent performing arts community around 1973, as well as the latest developments and debates on the subject of creating theatre from independent pieces in a big city like Düsseldorf. The book is currently in the final layout and design phase. It is due to be published by Droste-Verlag in mid-April 2024 to coincide with Bücherbummel 2024. |
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| Let us sing and dance together |
13.01.2024 |
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"West-Land-Dances" in the FFT-Dusseldorf |
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The premiere of our "West-Land-Tänze" was a great success and is also praised in the reviews published today.
https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/kultur/duesseldorfer-theater-der-klaenge-hebt-den-schatz-vergessener-volkstaenze_aid-104968621?utm_source=mail&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share?utm_source=mail&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share
https://o-ton.online/aktuelle_auffuehrung/o-ton-duesseldorf-west-land-taenze-zerban-240111/
The opportunity to see and hear our performance of "West-Land-Tänze", but also to sing in the coda and then dance in the second part of the programme in the foyer, is still available tonight at 8pm and tomorrow, Sunday 14 January at 5pm at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf.
There are still tickets left online and at the box office!
A comprehensive programme booklet is available online free of charge (see below). |
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Article in the Rheinische Post |
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| Invitation to the party |
07.01.2024 |
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West-Land-Dances |
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The last rehearsals have brought our piece "West-Land-Tänze" into its final performance form in terms of dance, music and costume design. On Monday, we will go to the FFT Düsseldorf to decorate and light up the space and hold our final main rehearsals there before we can welcome our audience to the party-performance on Thursday, 11 January 2024.
Because these are the "West-Land-Dances":
- a dance and music-reflection in the theatre about dancing together to celebrate
- an invitation to sing with us and for the dancers
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- an invitation to celebrate with us and dance along in the second part of the evening
We hope to see our audience on 11/13 and 14 January at the FFT-Düsseldorf and are looking forward to the party! |
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Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf |
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| West-Land-Dances |
11.12.2023 |
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Premiere 11th, 13th and 14th of january 2024 in the FFT-Dusseldorf |
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The current ensemble of the Theater der Klange has been working on a new dance theatre piece entitled "West-Land-Tänze" (West-Land-Dances) since mid-October.
Folk dances and folk music are increasingly being forgotten. There were once many dances and songs in Westphalia and the Rhineland too. In West-Land-Tänze, THEATER DER KLÄNGE embarks on a journey of rediscovery into this now almost forgotten cultural heritage.
We revive the historical material in a stage dance piece - and link and expand it with current music and contemporary dance. In this way, we try to uncover connections between identity, integration, the past and historical oblivion and we take a critical and curious look at customs and their history.
The time has come in a month!
For Thursday, 11 January 2024, we are planning the premiere of this piece at the Forum Freies Theater in Düsseldorf, which deals with traditional dances and music from the Rhineland and Westphalia. As such dances are usually performed with live music as part of festivals, we will show the first artistic part on the stage of the FFT, while in the second part we will invite the audience to a bal modern in the foyer, where they can learn two community dances, which can then be danced to live music in the foyer.
We are currently planning three performances for Thursday 11, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 January 2024 at the FFT. (Thu+Fri at 8pm and Sun at 5pm)
Tickets
Advance booking + box office 19 EUR / reduced 11 EUR
Telephone: 02 11- 87 67 87 250 |
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Tickets (FFT) |
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| Film premieres on Sunday, 26 November in Düsseldorf |
22.11.2023 |
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Documentary films: "Understanding the art of contemporaries" |
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Last year, instead of a new stage production of our own, we planned two workshops with French artists from the dance and theatre scene who are associated with us:
Pedro Pauwels - dancer and choreographer
danced in renowned ensembles led by Odile Duboc and Dominique Bagouet in the 1980s/90s before becoming active as a solo artist and choreographer. He follows a radically minimalist approach to his choreographies and is now part of the French dance heritage. The film portrait tells us a lot about him, the development of French dance since the 1980s, but also about his research on dance legends such as Anna Pavlova and Mary Wigman.
and
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre - theatre musician at the Theatre du Soleil
has worked as a theatre musician in almost all the plays of the world-famous Theatre du Soleil in Paris since the late 1970s. Lemêtre is an instrument maker, composer and multi-instrumentalist in equal measure. His portrait leads from Gregorian chant, via early music to the free jazz of the 1970s, his teacher "Moondog" and his beginnings as a music teacher, later as a musician at the Theatre du Soleil. He explores themes such as cultural heritage, world music, theatre and politics, as well as humour, banter and simply playing together musically.
Both workshops were documented as video recordings by a student film- and sounddesign-team from the Dortmund University of applied sciences and arts. As part of two film seminars at the FH Dortmund, these recordings were used to create the artist documentaries
"Danse radicale - The dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels"
and
"SunDog - The theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre".
These two cinematic artist documentaries will premiere next Sunday, 26 November 2023 at 6 pm in the Düsseldorf Filmwerkstatt cinema:
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf
Birkenstr. 47 - In the courtyard
40233 Düsseldorf
0211 / 40 80 701
Sunday, 26 November - 18h:
Danse radicale - The dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels (29min)
SunDog - The theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre (44min)
Supported by the Kulturamt Düsseldorf
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Trailer zu "Danse radicale" |
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| Costume auction |
20.10.2023 |
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in our rehearsal studio |
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Since 1988 our costume collection has grown so much that we will have to part with some of our theatre costumes (with a heavy heart). These costumes are of high quality, mostly made in our own production and are based on different style epochs. Since these high-quality works are to go into good hands and, if possible, to help finance our current dance production through proceeds, we will offer the costumes in the form of an auction.
This will take place on Saturday, 4 November 2023 from 11 am to 1:30 pm in our rehearsal studio Winkelsfelder Straße 21 (backyard). Please come on foot, by bike or by public transport, as parking spaces in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort are rare and we have no parking spaces in front of our studio. If you are planning a large purchase, please use the multi-storey car park in the Dietrich-Karree, which can be reached via Marschallstraße.
...We will not auction any figurines from our Bauhaus productions... |
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| Premiere of our newest Documentary-Films |
18.10.2023 |
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Our 2022 activities on the project "Understanding Contemporary Art", funded by the City of Düsseldorf, resulted in a total of six workshops held in our rehearsal studio between October 2022 and February 2023. The two 2022 workshops by choreographer Pedro Pauwels and theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre were documented on film by a Dortmund student team, as were the February workshops in 2023 by THEATER DER KLÄNGE on the topics of "Bauhaus Ballets" and "Cultural Heritage".
As part of a film seminar at the FH-Dortmund, these recordings were used to create the artist documentaries "Danse radicale - The dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels" and "SunDog - The theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre". The two documentary films "Theater der Klange - Bauhaus Stage" and "Palimpsest - Dance and Music Heritage" were made from recordings of individual workshop days of the TdK February workshops. All four films, each between 29 and 45 minutes long, are scheduled to premiere at the "Düsseldorf Filmwerkstatt" cinema on 12 and 26 November 2023 at 6pm each day:
Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf
Birkenstr. 47 · Im Hof
40233 Düsseldorf
0211 / 40 80 701
Sunday, 12 November - 18h:
Theater der Klange - Bauhaus Ballets (45min).
Palimpsest - Cultural Heritage (40min)
Sunday, 26 November - 18h:
Danse radicale - The dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels (29min)
SunDog - The theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre (44min) |
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Trailer to the documentary "Palimpsest" |
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| West-Land-Dances |
17.10.2023 |
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After we - once again supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste within the framework of "Neustart Kultur" - spent the entire first half of 2023 researching folk dance and music primarily from the Rhineland and Westphalia under the title "Palimpsest Research", we concluded this research phase with two results.
On 24 June 2023, with an open-air short performance of three contemporary interpreted dance and music pieces on the concert stage in Düsseldorf's Hofgarten, followed by a "Bal modern" for the dancing audience, and an e-book that compiles texts, sheet music, dance descriptions and images from our research into an 80-page compendium. The book will probably be published in its final form in January 2024 for the premiere of our new programme.
Since 17 October, on the basis of this research and with current support from the Cultural Office Düsseldorf, the State of NRW, the Stadtsparkassen and the Kultur- und Sozialstiftung Provinzial Rheinland, the van Meeteren Foundation and our support association "Klangtheater e.V.", we have now begun our development and rehearsal work for our new piece West-Land-Tänze (Palimpsest), which will deal with this special cultural heritage in a reflective and reinterpretative way.
The premiere series is planned from 11 to 14 January 2024 at the Forum Freies Theater (KAP1) in Düsseldorf. |
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Program of the FFT-Duesseldorf (Tickets) |
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| Norway |
01.08.2023 |
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From 7 to 18 August 2023, the Norwegian organisation Davvi - Senter for scenekunst has invited us to Hammerfest for 12 days as part of a residency programme. Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer, our artistic director J.U. Lensing and the dancer Sophia Otto will meet the Norwegian dancer and choreographer Karianne Andreassen in Hammerfest.
During the 12 days, these four creative Europeans will deal with the coast of Norway, the (sound) landscape shaped by the Arctic water and the question of how to use this environment as scenography for a short dance film to be made there during the 12 days. This residency programme emerged from the 2021/22 Erasmus+ programme "Dance Highways" in which Davvi was the Norwegian partner out of a total of 5 European partners involved. In April 2023, Karianne Andreassen was a guest of the Theater der Klänge in Düsseldorf for a week as Davvi's "envoy". During the week, the concept for the Norway residency was developed and the first ideas for a dance film were sketched out. |
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DAVVI Norway |
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| The Mechanical Ballet |
31.07.2023 |
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100 years ago, the first performance exhibition of the Bauhaus took place in Weimar with the so-called "Bauhaus Weeks". As part of this exhibition, the Bauhaus students also performed a programme entitled "The Mechanical Cabaret" in the Stadtheater Jena, which was rebuilt by Walter Gropius. Part of the programme included "The Mechanical Ballet" by the students Schmidt, Bogler and Teltscher.
To mark the occasion, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation are inviting THEATER DER KLÄNGE to the (historic) stage at the Bauhaus Dessau on 24 August 2023 as part of its Kultursommer programme. In a double performance on Thursday, 24 August at 6 and 8 p.m., we will once again perform in Walter Gropius Bühne our 1987 re-creation of the "Mechanical Ballet", which is based on sketches and photos of a "mechanical ballet" by the Bauhaus students from the year 1923.
The performances, each lasting 40 minutes, will be performed by our touring ensemble (4 dancers + 1 dancer) and 3 live musicians. The Bauhaus Dessau is worth a day visit, even more so if you then conclude it with a live performance of a Bauhaus ballet on stage. |
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Programme Bauhaus Dessau |
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| Lecture |
30.07.2023 |
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The Heinrich Heine Kreis Düsseldorf spontaneously supported the Theater der Klänge in autumn 2020 with funds from a Corona aid fund and was thus one of the first aid organisations specifically for artists before the federal programme "Neustart Kultur" was then established in 2021.
For a long time, we had wanted to thank the Heinrich Heine Kreis Düsseldorf for their help at that time, which we distributed completely to our ensemble members in 2020 as compensation for guest performances that were cancelled in 2020 without replacement.
Now the Heinrich Heine Kreis offered us a meeting date of the circle on Monday, 4 September 2023 at 6 pm in the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf. Since it is a conference room, we will report on the past 36 years of theatre work in the form of an audio-visual presentation, with a focus on our Bauhaus work, on our current project "Palimpsest - West-Land Dances" and ideas for future projects, one of which should definitely also deal with Heinrich Heine … |
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Programme Heinrich Heine Kreis |
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| West-Land-Dances |
25.07.2023 |
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After we - once again supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste within the framework of "Neustart Kultur" - spent the entire first half of 2023 researching folk dance and music primarily from the Rhineland and Westphalia under the title "Palimpsest Research", we concluded this research phase with two results:
On 24 June 2023, with an open-air short performance of three contemporary interpreted dance and music pieces on the concert stage in Düsseldorf's Hofgarten, followed by a "Bal modern" for the dancing audience.
Also: an e-book that compiles texts, sheet music, dance descriptions and images from our research into a 180-page compendium. The book will be published in its final form in January 2024 for the premiere of our new programme.
From mid-October onwards, on the basis of this research, we will begin our development and rehearsal work for our new production (working title: West-Land Dances), which will deal with this special cultural heritage in a new interpretative way.
The premiere series is planned from 11 to 14 January 2024 at the Forum Freies Theater (KAP1) in Düsseldorf. |
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Article about our presentation in june 2023 (Foto Michael Zerban O-Ton) |
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| The boards that mean the city |
24.07.2023 |
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In the period from August 2022 to April 2023, 36 interviews were conducted with a total of 39 protagonists of the Düsseldorf independent scene (performing arts). The resulting 29 hours of interview material (430 pages of text) currently form the basis for the compilation into a 240-page book entitled "Die Bretter, die die Stadt bedeuten - 50 Jahre freie darstellende Künste in Düsseldorf" (The boards that mean the city - 50 years of the independent performing arts in Düsseldorf), which is to be published by Droste Verlag in Düsseldorf on the occasion of Bücherbummel 2024.
Editors and publishers are Jens Prüss and J.U. Lensing, who conducted and edited the lion's share of the interviews, in addition to some interviews conducted by sound-design-students.
Players of the 1970s, 80s and 90s are represented with their statements as well as current protagonists of the independent scene who only became active in Düsseldorf after 2000. The book documents in various original tones a good 50 years of the independent Düsseldorf scene from its beginnings in 1973 (founding of the "Werkstatt" in Grafenberger Allee, a few ensembles and a few individual artists) to today with its three houses FFT, tanzhaus nrw and zakk and numerous ensembles and soloists active in the city. |
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| Palimpsest Workshop + Bal modern |
04.06.2023 |
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Starting next Tuesday, we will spend three weeks researching the extent to which regional folk dance and music material can be the basis for contemporary creations in dance and music. Eight dancers, guests, musicians, our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and our composer/director J.U. Lensing, as well as dance teachers from the folk scene on two days, will first teach the research ensemble traditional dances and music from the Rhineland and Westphalia region. In the second week of rehearsals, they will then improvise and create collectively on the basis of this material. In the third week, the results of these reactions to the material will be choreographed into small studies and danced to new music in the form of electro-folk. In the third week, three short choreographies will also be developed, which will be rehearsed and danced with the audience as "Bal modern".
The presentation of the workshop results and the subsequent "Bal modern" will take place on Saturday, 24 June 2023 at 4 pm in front of the stage in Düsseldorf's Hofgarten. |
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Homepage Theater der Klänge in english |
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| Video "oops, we are still playing" |
03.06.2023 |
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The edited 3-camera video recording of our performance of the 2022 revue "hoppla, wir spielen noch" will soon be available in our Virtual Theatre as a visitable performance. This 93-minute documentary adds to our repertoire of 28 complete performance videos available in the Virtual Theatre.
https://render.theaterderklaenge.de
(please go to the box office in the foyer, click on it and click on the ticket "Eintrittskarte – Theatersaal mit Video")
A short video trailer for this is now visible at: |
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Trailer "oops, we are still playing" |
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| Video documentaries |
02.06.2023 |
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Initiated by our EU project "Viral Visions", we focused - mainly funded by the City of Düsseldorf - on workshops and portraying and presenting working processes on the work of contemporary artists last year. We held 2022 workshops for contemporary dance (Pedro Pauwels, Jacqueline Fischer) and contemporary theatre music (Jean-Jacques Lemetre, J.U. Lensing) in our rehearsal studio. The four workshops were each accompanied by a student camera team (FH-Dortmund). Interviews with the workshop leaders, participants and filming in France supplemented the video material. Currently, two of the resulting artist documentaries have been edited and are in the final sound design stage. Two more video documentaries are currently in the editing stage and should also be ready by September 2023.
We are planning a cinema premiere in one of Düsseldorf's art house cinemas in autumn 2023 and will then gradually publish the four films on our video portal. |
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Trailer on "Theater der Klaenge - Bauhausbuehne" |
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| Viral Visions Podcast |
01.06.2023 |
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| THEATER DER KLÄNGE hosted the last trans-national meeting for the project "Viral Visions - Deconstructing Arts Immunity" on 25/26 May. During this meeting, the Austrian partner Hygin Delimat from "Body Architects" conducted an interview with our two artistic directors Jacqueline Fischer and J.U. Lensing in the form of a podcast (in English), which is now published: |
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Mind Culture Podcast |
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| Viral Visions Multiplier Event |
31.05.2023 |
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| On Wednesday, 24 May 2023, our partner "Arbeit und Leben NRW" organised a so-called Multiplier Event at the Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf. It was the last public live presentation in the framework of the EU project "Viral Visions", in which we have been working together with six other European partners since 2021 on offers for a "deconstruction of artistic immunity". Our contribution to this event was a short lecture on the Bauhaus stage, two short videos on the topic and a live danced scene from our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet". There is a very good review of it in the online cultural magazine, "O-Ton": |
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O-Ton Online © Michael Zerban |
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| Short presentation on our Bauhaus stage work at Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf |
13.05.2023 |
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Viral Visions |
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The EU project "Viral Visions", in which we have been working together with six other European partners since 2021 on a "deconstruction of art immunity", will be concluded this summer. The EU project will present itself with results at the invitation of the leading partner organisation "Arbeit und Leben NRW" in a so-called Mulitiplier event with exemplary mediation projects on Wednesday, 24 May from 18:00 at the Junges Schauspiel, Münsterstraße 446 in Düsseldorf.
Our contribution is a 15-minute presentation on our Bauhaus stage work, consisting of a short lecture, a video and a live danced scene from our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet".
Following two further programme contributions by the Polish and French project partners, there will be the opportunity for an audience discussion and a subsequent "get together" in the foyer of the Junges Schauspiel. Admission is free. The entrance is open from 5:30 pm on. |
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Website "Viral Visions" |
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| Bal Folk |
12.05.2023 |
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We are currently working intensively on researching folk dances and songs from our region of Rhineland and Westphalia, which are largely forgotten and thus unknown. The project "Palimpsest Research", supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste (Performing Arts Fund), serves on the one hand as preparation for our upcoming production, which is scheduled to premiere in Düsseldorf in January 2024, and on the other hand for the development of an e-book, which is to publish the research results on this topic in summer.
The research phase, which has been running since March, will be concluded in June with a three-week workshop rehearsal phase in which the dance and music material found will be made available to contemporary dancers. They should react to it with contemporary improvisational approaches. The result will be first compositional-choreographic sketches, which we will document on video. These recordings will then form the basis for the development and rehearsal process for the new piece this autumn.
We will conclude both, the research project and the workshop rehearsals, on Saturday, 24 June at 4 pm with a so-called "Bal Folk" in the Hofgarten Düsseldorf. On the stage of the music pavilion in the Hofgarten we will present results of the workshop rehearsals, but above all we will present to the audience one or two choreographies that they can dance themselves as a group. So at the end of our research we will have a first Bal Folk event for Düsseldorf; a format that has been practised very successfully in France, Belgium but also in Cologne for quite some time.
Saturday, 24 June from 4 p.m. in front of the Hofgarten stage (best reached on foot or by bicycle from Jacobistraße/Goltsteinstraße or from Jägerhofstraße). |
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| German-Norwegian artist exchange |
31.03.2023 |
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Artist in residence |
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Next week we have the dancer Karianne Andreassen as a resident guest of the Norwegian organisation DAVVI in our rehearsal studio. In a small group, our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer, our director and composer J.U. Lensing, the dancer Sophia Otto and Karianne Andreassen will work together on the dance-sound theme "Water Worlds".
The project will be continued in Hammerfest (NOR) in August 2023 and will ultimately culminate in a dance film that translates the theme audio-visually in form of a screen-dance. This exchange in the form of residencies in Germany and Norway is a result of the EU project "Dance Highways" in which Theater der Klänge participated from 2020 to 22. |
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DAVVI-Norway |
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| Viral Visions |
30.03.2023 |
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EU-project |
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The current EU-project in which we are involved as German partners is called "Viral Visions". After an organisational transnational meeting in France in mid-March, we are going to Carcassonne (F) again for a workshop series from 21 to 27 April. Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer will be there, together with a small group of dancers, to offer a workshop format that we developed as a train-the-trainer-programme for teaching contemporary improvisation methods to teachers and group leaders who in turn work with students or amateurs in dance.
From 24 to 26 May, the European partners of "Viral Visions" will then be guests in Düsseldorf for three days for a final meeting and a so-called public multiplier event. We will provide more detailed information in a forthcoming newsletter. |
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Viral-Visons Website |
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| Palimpsest research |
28.03.2023 |
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our current project |
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Our artistic director, the composer J.U. Lensing was involved as a musician in a pilot project of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf called "Musik-Werkstatt". This participation was indirectly part of our current research project "Palimpsest-Recherche", which is funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste. In addition to the Tonhallen Music-Workshop on the theme of "Heimatlieder", our two artistic directors visited several open dance evenings of various folklore groups in Northrhine-Westfalia in the past weeks and invited a pair of dancers to give a one-day workshop for contemporary dancers. From the traditional dance material taught, we developed a presentable mini-performance at the end of February as part of our last Dance Sprint.
The content of this research is to discover traditional dance forms, steps and music, mainly from the Rhineland and Westphalia region, as material for contemporary dance and new music. The aim is to eventually produce several publications on the subject:
A scientific brochure,
a short documentary film
and in June a longer workshop in our rehearsal studio with the aim of a public performance/action in public space in Düsseldorf.
Prof. J.U. Lensing and our former ensemble member Dr. Katharina Kleinschmidt will be responsible for the scientific development of the brochure. The documentary film is currently being developed by J.U. Lensing and the Film&Sound student of the Dortmund University of applied sciences and arts Till Schillinger. The practical research and the workshop in June will be conducted by Jacqueline Fischer and J.U. Lensing. |
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text about "Musik-Werkstatt" (in german) |
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| 50 Years of the Free Dance and Theatre Scene in Düsseldorf |
27.03.2023 |
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A book |
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In 1973, a first tender seedling for a free creative scene developed around an association called "Die Werkstatt" (The Workshop) in a former industrial site on Grafenberger Allee (now the Labour Office!). At that time, this place quickly developed into a hotspot for all - mainly young - people who wanted to realise themselves creatively in the course of the post-Sixties development and no longer just wanted to be an audience, but to be individually visible themselves. Almost at the same time, an idea developed for a socio-cultural centre, which was to become an institution in Dusseldorf-Oberbilk a few years later under the name ZAKK. These two initiatives sprouted and provided structure and personnel for the Junges Theater in the Altstadt (young theatre in the old-town), among others. ZAKK and JuTA provided rehearsal and performance facilities for the Theater der Klänge, among others, in its founding phase. The so-called independent dance and theatre scene exploded in the 1980s to 1990s and developed a wealth of forms, locations and plays, so that today the established houses tanzhaus nrw, Forum Freies Theater and still ZAKK stand for the houses of the independent scene in Düsseldorf.
For the most part, the first generation of independent ensembles and artists can no longer be seen in these houses. Some of the protagonists who appeared on stage in Düsseldorf in the 1980s are still active. At the end of the 1990s, with the establishment of the above-mentioned production houses, new ensembles were formed and artists were lured to Düsseldorf and have been active here ever since.
For the author Jens Prüss and our artistic director J.U. Lensing, who has directly experienced the development since the early/mid 1980s, this astonishing development of creative explosion in Düsseldorf was worth conducting 36 interviews with protagonists of the independent scene to date. Further interviews are scheduled until the end of April and will be material for a book that gives the makers of the independent scene their say. This book is to be published by Droste-Verlag at the end of 2023! |
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Wikipedia on german free theatre |
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| Exhibition "Man and Art Figure in the Spherical Theatre" |
11.03.2023 |
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Online |
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As one of our reactions to Corona, we already invited people to the vernissage of an exhibition of pictures from our "Lacquer Ballet" in our online gallery in spring 2021, which has been part of our "Virtual Total Theatre of Sounds" since October 2021.
However, the gallery remains an interactive space of its own, which can also be visited directly - independently of a visit to our virtual theatre.
As a second exhibition, we are now opening a collection of digital prints and photos of our production "Man and Art Figure in the Sphere Theatre" in this online gallery. This immersive dance project for a planetarium had its premiere at the Planetarium Bochum in autumn 2021. As part of the development work for this basic project, photographs worth seeing were taken - as always - by photographer Oliver Eltinger, who has been working with us for years. But high-quality digital-graphic artworks were also created from a collaged mixture of drawing motifs by the Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer, from graphic spatial lineatures and from digitally transformed video images of the dancers recorded live in the full dome space. These square (actually round dome-shaped) image mixtures have their own aesthetic image value and are the result of a collaboration between the video artist Yoann Trellu, the two artistic directors of the Theater der Klänge Jacqueline Fischer and J.U. Lensing and the dances of the four participating dancers Juliette Adrover and Sophia Otto and the dancers Christian Paul and Etienne Sarti.
The exhibition opens online next Wednesday, 15 March 2023 at 12pm and is expected to be viewable online both directly and via our virtual theatre until the end of Year 23. The exhibition includes a total of 42 purchasable images, as well as a poster that can also be purchased and a video trailer integrated into the exhibition. If you turn on the sound, you will hear an audio guide in the form of a mini radio play. It's worth it! |
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Online galery via our virtual theatre |
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| Understanding the art of contemporaries |
10.03.2023 |
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Video-Documentaries |
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In 2022, the Theater der Klänge took a creative break and did not work on a new production. On the one hand, this was due to the uncertainty of the working conditions under Corona, but on the other hand it was also a reaction to the new audience reticence in all theatres after Corona. Instead of a new production, we invited artists to high-quality workshops with concluding salon presentations in our rehearsal studio in autumn/winter 2022 (see below) and held two workshops ourselves in February.
The first workshop was dedicated in three parts to our Bauhaus dances "The Mechanical Ballet", "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" and "The Lacquer Ballet". In addition, we worked practically with professional dancers on the dance of exemplary figurines from the three dance pieces.
At the end of February, we then organised a Dance Sprint for a larger workshop group with professional dancers on the topic of "Adaptation of Cultural Heritage". The aim of this sprint was to develop three prototypical contemporary group choreographies using step and movement material from the Rhenish-Westphalian folklore. This sprint workshop was also concluded with a presentation of the three short model choreographies and a subsequent spontaneously initiated "Bal Modern" with the participation of all dancers and the audience in our rehearsal studio (see photo). We are currently also dealing with this topic theoretically and, in June, practically in a research project funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste entitled "Palimpsest-Recherche".
The two Theater der Klänge workshops were also audio-visually recorded and are currently in the process of film montage. Together with the two video artist portraits produced by students of the FH-Dortmund (see below), two videos of the Theater der Klänge will be produced, which will also be released in the summer of 2023 in the cinema and then available online. |
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Trailer to the Video-documentary on Pedro Pauwels |
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| Viral Visions: Artist Documentaries |
09.03.2023 |
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EU-Project |
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Our artistic director Jacqueline Fischer and the head of our artistic operations office Julia Roth are currently in Carcassonne (F) for a transnational meeting of the EU project "Viral Visions". Seven organisations - including the Theater der Klaenge - from six countries have been working on mediation formats for the "deconstruction of art immunity" since 2021. What is meant by this? Creating an understanding approach to exemplary models of contemporary arts. The results are workshop formats, videos, podcasts and multiplier events, such as the symposium on the Bauhaus stage we organised in Viersen in September 2022.
The sprint workshops and salon presentations we organised in autumn in our Düsseldorf rehearsal studio with the choreographer Pedro Pauwels and the theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemetre were audio-visually recorded by a student film team from the University of applied sciences and arts Dortmund and are both currently being edited as documentary videos. In summer 2023, this material will be used to create 45-minute artist documentaries, which will first be released in cinemas and then online on the Viral Visions website. |
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Website Viral Visions |
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| Sprints & Salons |
17.02.2023 |
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Understanding the art of the contemporaries |
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We are currently holding a short sprint workshop on our Bauhaus dances every week in our rehearsal studio. After working with selected figurines and scenes from our pieces "The Mechanical Ballet" and "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" with a selection of dancers over the past two weeks, this Bauhaus workshop-series will conclude on 22 and 23 February with a workshop on our "Lacquer Ballet". All Bauhaus dance-workshops have been documented on film, so that a video documentary on our approach to dealing with this cultural heritage will be produced for the first time from this material in the next few weeks.
From 24 to 28 February, a final dance-sprint-workshop will take place in our rehearsal studio to deal with a completely different kind of traditional material on folklore from the Rhineland and Westphalia. Under the direction of our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and our director J.U. Lensing, the participating contemporary dancers will use the material as source material for collective creations that interpret this "historical" material with contemporary dance approaches. One result of this experimental workshop is to be presented as a "Meet the artist" event on Tuesday 28 February at 6pm in our rehearsal studio. This four-day sprint-workshop will also be documented on film, as will the final presentation, in order to assemble a second video documentary on this approach to cultural heritage. These two video documentaries will be completed in the course of spring/summer so that they can be presented to the public presumably in summer 2023. At the same time, we are currently working with film- and sound-students from the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts on editing further video documentaries on the choreographer Pedro Pauwels and the theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemetre, who were guests in our rehearsal studio as part of our workshop-series in October and December 2022.
The project "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries" is supported by the City of Düsseldorf from the Culture Budget 2022. |
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Presentation-Event |
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| 2022 - 2023 |
30.12.2022 |
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At the end of 2022, a new normality seems to be slowly setting in with regard to the performing arts. Fewer audiences than before 2020, but increasingly interested again.
The enthusiasm among the protagonists, on the other hand - which was still gratefully noticeable in 2021 when work could be done anywhere on stage - has given way to a generally high level of busyness again.
We were still struggling directly with Corona in the ensemble in December 2021, which forced us to postpone the premiere of our latest production "oops, we're still playing" to April 2022. Instead of the "Malkasten" as the original performance venue in Düsseldorf, we were offered the "Komödie an der Steinstraße", which has also become history in the meantime. For us, before 2020, winning back an audience only became a problem in exceptional cases, which we only managed to do in full in cooperation with the Kulturbüro Viersen with the double guest performance of "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" in November in the Festhalle Viersen.
Otherwise, in 2022 we focused a lot on mediation projects in the form of events in the framework of the Erasmus+ project "Dance Highways" (workshop + presentation) in September, the Erasmus+ project "Viral Visions" (multiplier event in the framework of our guest performance in Viersen) and the German-Greek youth project "Living Labs" (workshops + presentations in July in Monemvassia in GR and in December in Düsseldorf).
Our own series "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries", gratefully supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf, brought workshop sprints and presentations with the French dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels (October) and the likewise French musician and composer Jean-Jacques Lemetre (December) to Düsseldorf. The series will be finally continued and concluded with a series of two-day workshops and a 4-day sprint, led by Jacqueline Fischer and J.U. Lensing in February 2023. All workshops in this framework have been and will be documented on film by students of the FH-Dortmund. From this material, a total of three 45-minute artist documentaries will be created as videos in 2023, which will also be published in 2023.
Our first comprehensive exhibition in our online gallery, which is dedicated to "Lackballett", will end on 31 December. In 2023, an exhibition in the online gallery on our 2021 production "The Ball Theatre" will follow.
Also in 2023, we are planning the production of a new dance piece, which will be launched in March 2023 with the support of the Fonds Darstellende Künste (Performing Arts Fund). Part of the research phase will be a one-month workshop in our rehearsal studio in June, in which a newly composed ensemble will experiment with "historical" dance material. From autumn 23 onwards, regular rehearsals will then take place in order to develop a new dance evening, which will probably be premiered at the end of 2023 / beginning of 2024.
Parallel to all these activities, the author Jens Prüss and our artistic director J.U. Lensing, but also students from the FH-Dortmund have been on the road since autumn 22 to conduct interviews with protagonists of the Düsseldorf independent scene. These interviews are to provide the material for a book publication, which is planned for December 2023 at the Droste publishing house in Düsseldorf.
The new year promises no fewer activities on our part than in 2022. We hope that our work will again find an interested audience in 2023/24 and wish them above all the return of the desire to go to the theatre again and enjoy culture live! |
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Online-Exposition "Das Lackballett" |
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| Living Labs: I am an Other |
12.12.2022 |
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Final presentation on Saturday, 17th of december at 6pm in Dusseldorf |
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In the summer, our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer was the initiator of a creative German-Greek youth exchange in Monemvassia (GR), together with the Greek choreographer and filmmaker Antonis Bertos. At the end of the one-week workshop in Greece, there was an open-air presentation in Monemvassia in which both, a dance film shot there and three short performances on questions of identity today developed in mixed teams during the workshop, were presented.
The hybrid project "I am another" aims at two groups of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 from Greece and Germany, who meet and work together online and in person. Under the guidance of theatre and dance professionals, they developed new works whose main components are movement, language and the art of video dance storytelling. The project focuses on the concepts of "identity", "difference" and "racism", both theoretically and empirically.
The Greek team, with a total of 10 people, is a guest in our rehearsal studio as of today to continue the cooperation between Greek and German young people and adolescents that began in the summer. The results of the past and especially the current workshop will be presented on Saturday, 17 December 2022 at 6 pm in the auditorium of the Humboldt-Gymnasium Düsseldorf - Pempelforter Straße 40.
Programme: Dance Performance + Videodance Screening + German-Greek Live Music
The first phase of the project was financed by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and supported by the German-Greek Youth Association EGIN and the project "Living Labs: International Places of Tolerance" by iJAB (Internationales Jugendwerk Bonn/Germany) and JFF (Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis).
The second phase is fully funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
Organisers: Antonis Bertos, Jacqueline Fischer, Fenna Godhoff, Natali Petala
Organisers: Theater der Klänge (Düsseldorf) / Dare.Dance.Digitalize (Athens) / Arbeit und Leben (Düsseldorf) / Thoi (Monemvassia) / EveWent ( Bonn) |
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Video on the workshop in Monemvassia (GR) |
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| Jean-Jacques Lemetre in Düsseldorf |
11.12.2022 |
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Understanding the Art of Contemporaries |
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In 1987 the last concerts of the music series "Neue Töne" ("New Tones") took place in Düsseldorf, which had been organised by the Düsseldorf composer J.U.Lensing since 1982 at the Auxilium, the ZAKK, the Tonhalle and finally at the Werkstatt.
The French theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemetre was a guest of this concert series in September 1987 and played a duo concert in the Werkstatt on Börnestraße with over 50 instruments at that time. Musicians from the Theater der Klänge played with the two French musicians at the end of the concert evening in the form of an improvised jam session.
35 years later, Jean-Jacques Lemetre was again a guest in Düsseldorf, this time as a workshop leader and performing musician in the rehearsal studio of the Theater der Klänge. The participants of the workshop learned a lot about theatre, music and theatre music in numerous exercises and tasks, but also about body language, speech rhythm and melody and above all about the alternating effect of sound and stage action. Last Saturday, Jean-Jacques Lemetre once again gave a concert in front of an audience in our rehearsal studio, which was didactic in that the numerous instruments he had brought with him were not only played, but also explained, the audience practically reproduced rhythm exercises from the workshop and the workshop participants played together with him both theatrically and musically. A completely different and, in the truest sense of the word, touching concert approach.
This workshop and the final concert - as well as the previous workshop with the choreographer Pedro Pauwels - were recorded as videos. The release of these videos, developed in collaboration with Film&Sound students from FH-Dortmund, is planned for 2023 as part of our project "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries", funded this year by the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf, and as part of the Erasmus+ project "Viral Visions - Deconstructing Art Immunity". |
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| Lacquer Ballet Exhibition only until 31 December 2022 |
10.12.2022 |
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Kunstmatrix Exhibition |
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Last year we opened a virtual exhibition of our production "Das Lackballett" in our online gallery Kunst-Matrix. 40 exhibits on this piece show original designs, lacquer paintings and photos of Oskar Schlemmer's work from the 1940s, as well as photos of our production and high-quality screenshots from the video realisation of the "lacquer paintings" painted by our dancers and a short dance film.
This exhibition will now definitely end on 31 December 2022 and will no longer be visitable online after that date. In 2023 we will open a new exhibition on our production "Man and Art Figure in the Sphere Theatre" in the Art Matrix Gallery.
A last opportunity to visit our "Lackballett" exhibition is here: |
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Online Gallery |
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| Jean-Jacques Lemetre in Düsseldorf |
07.12.2022 |
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Workshop and Conzert |
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From today - Wednesday, 7 December 2022 - until next Saturday, 10 December, the theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemetre from the Theatre du Soleil in Paris will be a guest in our rehearsal studio and will lead a sprint workshop for musicians, dancers and actors.
On Saturday, 10 December at 6 p.m., we invite you to an approximately one-hour salon concert in our rehearsal studio, Winkelsfelder Str. 21 in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort, in which Jean-Jacques Lemetre will introduce himself as a musician and the participants will also perform the results of a music-theatre workshop. After the concert, there will be the opportunity for an audience discussion with the artist. (Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer will be available as an interpreter).
Admission is free, but donations are welcome!
If you are planning to attend the concert, please register in advance by e-mail: info@theater-der-klaenge.de |
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JEAN-JACQUES LEMÊTRE AU FIL DE L’AUTRE/HÉLÈNE CIXOUS |
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| Sprint & Salon in December 2022 |
05.11.2022 |
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Jean-Jacques Lemetre |
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As the second of our events under the title "Sprints & Salons", we invite the musician and composer Jean-Jacques Lemetre, who has worked for the famous Theatre du Soleil in Paris for many years, to Düsseldorf. From 7 to 10 December 2022, Lemetre will lead a 4-day sprint workshop for professional musicians, actors and dancers.
On the evening of 10 December at 6pm, the salon event entitled "Meet the Artist" will take place in our rehearsal studio.
Those interested in the workshop can still register by e-mail until 26 November 2022: info@theater-der-klaenge.de
The workshop aims to enhance the skills of all stage artists who want to seek, discover and explore their rhythmic, melodic and harmonic possibilities in their creative work.
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre draws on his experience as a music composer at the world-famous Théâtre du Soleil in Paris to question the theatrical act in its relationship to its environment. His approach calls for re-learning the rhythms of the body, the metrics of language and the mastery of space, alone or in a group, through a series of physical and vocal exercises and theatrical and musical improvisations.
Through the use of gait, movement, punctuation, breath, speed of speech, timbre, etc., everyone will first explore his/her own language in its particularity, not only through the voice but through the whole body.
The conception and deepening of the relationship between rhythm and theatre music will take place through collective and individual exercises that lead to a musical process of elaboration that is the motor for dramaturgies that link the empirical questions that arise during the work on stage with the big questions about the state of the world and its developments.
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre thus encourages us to go beyond technique by asserting, for example, the analogy between the problems of dissociation and the disharmony of the human being. This course is aimed at performers on stage, actors, dancers, singers or musicians and requires the development of dynamics, agility and depth.
In the public evening event on the concluding Saturday, 10.12., Jean-Jacques Lemetre will present himself to the audience as a multi-instrumentalist in concert. Following the approx. 30-minute solo concert, a work result from the previous workshop will be performed with all participants. Following these two performances, the artist as well as the workshop participants will be available for audience questioning/discussion. |
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Website of Theater der Klaenge in english |
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| Meet the artist Pedro Pauwels |
11.10.2022 |
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Presentation on Saturday, 15 October 2022 at 5 pm in the rehearsal studio |
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From Wednesday, 12.10. to Saturday 15.10.2022 we have the Belgian/French choreographer Pedro Pauwels as a guest in our Theater der Klänge rehearsal studio. He will be conducting a workshop on his method of developing choreographies in our rehearsal studio in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort. Ten contemporary dancers will take part.
On Saturday, 15.10. at 5 pm we invite you to our rehearsal studio - Winkelsfelder Str. 21 in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort. Pedro Pauwels will first introduce himself in a short solo programme. Afterwards, participants from the four-day Dance Sprint will present a short group choreography developed in the Workshop Sprint. Following these two presentations, there will be an opportunity for audience discussion.
Admission is free of charge.
However, pre-registration is requested by e-mail: info@theater-der-klaenge.de |
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| Dance Sprint with the French/Belgian choreographer Pedro Pauwels |
28.09.2022 |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE Rehearsal Studio Düsseldorf 12.-15.10.2022 |
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Under the title "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries", the Düsseldorf THEATER DER KLÄNGE invites renowned international artists to Düsseldorf.
In public workshops. The invited artists initially teach contemporary theatre, music and dance concepts to professionals from different disciplines for four days each, and both the workshop results and the artists themselves are presented to the Düsseldorf audience in "Meet-the-Artists" salons on the last evening. In October 2022, the choreographer Pedro Pauwels will be a guest in Düsseldorf.
From Wednesday, 12 to Saturday, 15 October 2022, the dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels will be a guest at the THEATER DER KLÄNGE rehearsal studio in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort (Winkelsfelder Str. 21).
Trained at Rosela Hightower's school in Cannes, Pedro Pauwels began his career as a performer in Karine Saporta's company and worked with Odile Duboc to found the "Projet de la matière". He loves to mix the arts and does not hesitate to bring together theatre, hip-hop dance, improvised music and circus. He currently leads an ensemble in Montauban (F), but is also present on stages as a solo performer. His four-day workshop aims to develop dance-performative short solos using specific techniques and approaches. This course is primarily aimed at contemporary dancers, but may also be suitable for physically well-trained performers.
On Saturday, 15 October at 7 pm, both the results of this workshop and a solo dance performance of his work will be presented to the public in a concluding salon in the rehearsal studio.
Please send information and registrations for the workshops by e-mail to info@theater-der-klange.de. |
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Stage-Video Pedro Pauwels |
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| International networking and outreach work |
27.09.2022 |
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Living Labs, Dance Highways, Bauhaus Symposium, Viral Visions |
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Particularly through Corona, but also because it is a concern of ours, we have been increasingly active in networking at European level since 2020. A project on German-Greek youth exchange entitled "Living Labs" is currently completed. The final 5-day workshop took place in July 2022 in Monemvassia (GR) and led to the presentation of three workshop results in dance and media as well as a screen dance video created by the Athens partner group "Daredance" on Saturday, 16 July 22. A short video documentation is available on our Vimeo channel (see link below). The project was considered so positive by the participants and especially by the German-Greek Youth Office that there will be another workshop in Düsseldorf at the end of 2022.
Also completed is the two-year project "Dance Highways" in which producers and ensembles from five European countries met regularly (despite Corona) in the respective participating countries under French leadership to discuss strategies for the mediation of contemporary dance and develop concrete projects. Our result was a Music and Dance Sprint in Düsseldorf, which took place in our rehearsal studio from 27 to 30 August with 20 participants from the five countries and led to a public final presentation in our rehearsal studio on 30 August. This presentation is also documented as a video and can also be seen on our Vimeo channel.
Another European project "Viral Visions" is currently running until 2023 and has already presented a format we developed for a so-called "Multiplier Event", which took place as a combination of symposium, presentation and audience discussion, with us on the theme of "Bauhaus Stage", on 16 September 2022 in the Festhalle Viersen. This format was also a complete success, as the symposium was shaped by three really top-class lectures, accompanied by media, by Bauhaus specialists Dr. Andreas Bossmann (Dessau Bauhaus stage), Michael Siebenbrodt (stage class at the Bauhaus Weimar) and Prof. J.U. Lensing (Bauhaus stage adaptations from 1968 to today). The subsequent performance of our play "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" was attended, as it had been the day before, by more than 700 spectators, of whom a good 40 remained for a subsequent lively audience discussion on 16 September. There will also be a short video documentation of this symposium, which we will publish on our Vimeo channel in the next few weeks.
"Living Labs" may lead to a follow-up workshop in Düsseldorf in December.
"Dance Highways" is currently resulting in a concrete further collaboration with the French choreographer Pedro Pauwels (see the announcement for Dance Sprint in October 22).
"Viral Visions" will be continued in Vienna in November.
Further EU projects are being planned! |
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Vimeo Channel of the Theater der Klänge |
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| New publications |
26.09.2022 |
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#Take Part Dokumentation / Art&Style / Book project |
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Funded by the german Fonds Darstellende Künste, we realised our "Virtual Total Theatre" last year as part of the #Take Part funding programme. The virtual theatre has been accessible online since October 2021 and, for us, is above all our digital archive in addition to the virtual realisation of a theatre design by Walter Gropius. The #takepart projects were documented in the publication "Fonds Darstellende Künste #takepart" (Performing Arts Fund #takepart) as a catalogue by staff of the Hamburg theatre community, among others, and recently published. Our virtual theatre is documented in the publication under the title "Ins szenische Geschehen hinein reißen (Tearing into the scenic action)" by Sören Ingwersen on pages 20/21.
https://www.fonds-daku.de/aktivitaeten/publikationen-2/
Another publication is the extensive article "The Performing Human Being in a Media Interaction Space" by our artistic director J.U. Lensing in the online magazine "Art&Style". The 28-page article in English gives a complete overview of the Theatre of Sounds' multi- and especially inter-modal pieces, starting with the first production "Die mechanische Bauhausbühne" (1987), "Figur und Klang im Raum" (1993), "HOEReographien" (2005) and "SUITE intermediale" (2010) up to "Lackballett" (2019) and "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" (2021).
https://artstyle-editions.org/10-no-1/
An exhibition about the director and theatre manager Ernest Martin, which was a topic at the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf a few years ago, gave the laudator Jens Prüss and J.U. Lensing the idea of presenting the fringe theatre scene in the city of Düsseldorf in a book similar to the one recently published by the musician Rüdiger Esch with his book "Electri_City" about the pop music scene in the city of Düsseldorf. Starting with individual initiatives in the 1970s, establishing itself in the 1980s/90s and professionalising itself since the end of the 1990s. The Düsseldorf Droste-Verlag is interested in publishing the book in 2023/24, and the city of Düsseldorf supports this idea with a small grant. Interviews are currently being held with protagonists of the Düsseldorf theatre and dance scene, which are to become podcast episodes as well as a compiled book in the coming year. |
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Art&Style Edition No 10 |
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| 100 Years of the Triadic Ballet - Symposium on the Bauhaus Stage |
07.09.2022 |
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16 September 2022 at 1 p.m. in the Festhalle Viersen |
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On the occasion of 100 years of Triadic Ballet, the Düsseldorf THEATER DER KLÄNGE offers a multiplier event in three parts (symposium, performance, audience discussion) in cooperation with the Festhalle Viersen and in the framework of the Erasmus+ project "Viral Visions":
Friday, 16 September 2022
- 1pm to 4pm Symposium:
Three expert lectures supported by multimedia by
- Michael Siebenbrodt
(former director of the Bauhaus Museum Weimar):
The stage class at the Bauhaus Weimar
- Dr. Andreas Bossmann
(former director of the stage at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation):
The stage at the Bauhaus Dessau
- Prof. J.U. Lensing
(Artistic director of the THEATER DER KLANGE)
Bauhaus stage adaptations from 1968 to today
Ernst Klusen Hall (in the Festhalle building)
- 8 p.m. Performance of "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet
in the Festhalle Viersen
- 9:45p.m. Audience discussion
in the foyer of the Festhalle
The symposium is free of charge:
Pre-registration for participation is requested
at info@theater-der-klaenge.de
Tickets for the evening performance can be purchased at the Festhalle box office or online:
kartenvorverkauf@viersen.de
Festhalle + Ernst Klusen Hall | Heimbachstraße 12 | 41747 Viersen |
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Programme Vierfalt Viersen |
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| EU project "Dance Highways" visits Düsseldorf |
18.08.2022 |
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Presentation on 30.8.2022 at 6 pm in the TdK rehearsal studio |
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Theater der Klänge has been for two years a partner of the EU project "Dance Highways", which will end in August 2022 in Düsseldorf. The focus of this project has been to develop together with partners from France, Italy, Norway, Poland and Spain, mediation formats for contemporary dance.
For the closing of the project, all partners will one last time again meet in the rehearsal studio of the Theater der Klange in Dusseldorf to develop a short international dance and music presentation using the respective traditional songs and dance steps worked out in a four-day "Dance&Music Sprint Research event".
The results of this Dance&Music Sprint will be publicly presented in our rehearsal studio at 6pm of August 30 2022
The event is free of charge.
Pre-registration is requested at info@theater-der-klaenge.de |
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Dance Highways on Facebook |
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| International Dance Fair |
18.08.2022 |
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Bauhaus Stage Repertoire Presentation on 1.9.2022 at 1 pm |
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The " International Dance Fair" in Dusseldorf will start on 31 August 2022 in the building of the NRW Forum in the Ehrenhof in Düsseldorf. Theater der Klange will be represented at the "Dance Highways" booth (No. 18), and also could be found at the booth of NRW Choreographers (No. 44).
We kindly inform you that on Thursday, 1 September 2022, Theater der Klange will showcase a danced solo from "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" and screen Videos of the Bauhaus stage repertoire at 3 pm in the TdK in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort rehearsal studio - Winkelsfelder Str. 21, as well. |
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Trailer to "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" |
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| TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet |
18.08.2022 |
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Performances on 15 and 16 September 2022 in Viersen |
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"TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" can be seen in full length and with the original cast and heard with live music on Thursday, 15 September and on Friday, 16 September - both at 8 pm in the Festhalle Viersen (D).
The Triadic Ballet by Oskar Schlemmer is his most famous stage work and the one most associated with the Bauhaus stage. As little as it was seen in the 1920s, today the reconstructions and new creations of the 1960s and 1970s are associated with this ballet.
In 2014/15, Düsseldorf's Theater der Klänge dared to reinterpret it for the first time in almost 40 years using the dance and musical possibilities of the 21st century.
In 2017 and 2019, the figurines were rebuilt as true to the original as possible.
The performances in Viersen are the first since the interruption by Corona and will take place with the cast of the 2015 premiere. |
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Program Viersen |
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| Jean-Jacques Lemetre (Theatre du Soleil) in Düsseldorf |
19.05.2022 |
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Workshop and concert |
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We have invited theatre musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre to Düsseldorf for the beginning of June (1 to 4.6) to give a four-day workshop for professional actors, dancers and musicians and to give a final concert in our rehearsal studio at the end of the fourth day. Until Saturday, 21 May, a reduced participation fee of 80.- € for the 4 days is still valid, afterwards 125.- €.
Please register at info@theater-der-klaenge.de
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre is a symbolic figure of the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris, for whose musical creations he has been responsible for over thirty years.
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre is a musician, composer, luthier, creator and collector of 2800 instruments from all eras, which he has tracked down in all corners of the world and which he plays, often having "assembled" them in his own way. He has also worked for the circus, cabaret, film, television and dance.
For Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, musical composition finds its place in the dramaturgical elaboration of a play.
He recalls that the origins of theatre lie in music.
For him, theatre, dance and music can no longer be separated when learning the arts. It is a true symbiosis between musician, director and performer on stage (actor or dancer) that must be created. In this complicit live relationship, it should be hard to see who is leading and who is being led: The musician (or composer) goes far beyond illustration or underscoring. The theatre composer avoids "forced tempos", he does not force himself into a corset of bar lines but follows, gives impulses and participates in the action by seeking the music of the bodies. This must always remain in motion, as every day or evening is different for the actors/dancers. And since their bodies are musical keyboards, he must be their "flying carpet". That is, he is on the lookout for the keynote, the matrix, which develops from the "minimal sound" that the bodies produce on stage when they start playing.
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Video-Portrait of Jean-Jacques Lemetre (subtitled in english) |
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| Workshop-Sprints & Salons in Düsseldorf |
09.05.2022 |
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June 2022 |
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Under the title "Understanding the Art of Contemporaries", the Düsseldorf THEATER DER KLÄNGE invites renowned international artists to Düsseldorf.
In public workshops, the invited artists will initially teach contemporary theatre, music and dance concepts to professionals from different disciplines for four days each, and both the workshop results and the artists themselves will be presented to the Düsseldorf audience in "Meet-the-Artists" salons on the last evening. In June 2022, the musicians Jean-Jacques Lemêtre and the choreographer Pedro Pauwels will be guests.
From Wednesday, 1 June to Saturday, 4 June, the all-round musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre will be a guest in the rehearsal studio of THEATER DER KLÄNGE in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort (Winkelsfelder Str. 21). Lemêtre has been working for the world-famous Theatre du Soleil in Paris since 1979 and has developed the live music for all productions of this theatre and played as a multi-instrumentalist. His four-day workshop is aimed at performers, actors, dancers, singers and musicians who want to develop, rediscover and try out their rhythmic, melodic and harmonic skills. It also aims to strengthen the participants' creativity, inventiveness and improvisational skills.
On Saturday, 4 June at 7 pm, both the results of this workshop and a solo concert of his music will be publicly presented in a concluding salon in the rehearsal studio.
From Wednesday 15 to Saturday 18 June, the dancer and choreographer Pedro Pauwels will be a guest at the THEATER DER KLÄNGE rehearsal studio in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort (Winkelsfelder Str. 21). Trained at Rosela Hightower's school in Cannes, Pedro Pauwels began his career as a performer in Karine Saporta's company and worked with Odile Duboc to found the "Projet de la matière". He loves to mix the arts and does not hesitate to bring together theatre, hip-hop dance, improvised music and circus. He currently leads an ensemble in Montauban (F), but is also present on stages as a solo performer. His four-day workshop aims to develop dance-performative short solos using specific techniques and approaches. This course is primarily aimed at contemporary dancers, but may also be suitable for physically well-trained performers.
On Saturday 18 June at 7pm, both the results of this workshop and a solo dance performance of his work will be presented publicly in a closing salon in the rehearsal studio.
"Early bird registrations" until 21 May 2022 at the price of €80 per person per workshop (thereafter €125 per participant:
Please send information and registrations for the workshops by e-mail to info@theater-der-klange.de. |
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Website |
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| CD of "hoppla, wir spielen noch" available |
09.05.2022 |
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Exclusively orderable in our online shop |
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The Düsseldorf Theater der Klänge had to postpone its premiere of the cabaret revue "hoppla, wir spielen noch" in December because of Corona. The ensemble used the forced break until the premiere date in April at the Düsseldorf Komödie to record the songs and dance music composed especially for this revue creation in the recording studio and to press a CD from it. The CD for the revue was released at the same time as the premiere on Thursday, 21 April 2022.
Like the revue, the music on the CD, which is sung and played live in the performances, is based on the style of the cabaret revue songs popular in the 1920s, as they were composed at the time by Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler or Friedrich Hollaender: with cheeky, up-to-date German lyrics, not sung by perfect voices, but often by actors and actresses a capella.
Dance music that is rhythm-determined and provides a fitting foundation for the "dance numbers". But not imitating the time, the genre or the instrumentation of the 1920s, but electronically recorded contemporary backings for the solo, duo or even choral voices of the ensemble.
11 pieces, mostly composed by the Düsseldorf composers Michael Scheibenreiter and J.U. Lensing, but also songs developed, written and sung by the acting ensemble, determine the titles of the revue and the CD.
All the musical pieces could be seen and heard in the live revue from Thursday, 21.4. to Sunday, 24.4. at the Komödie Düsseldorf Steinstraße.
The CD was available at the box office and is currently available via the online shop of the Theater der Klänge. |
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Online-Shop |
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| The best protected public space |
19.04.2022 |
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The Theaters |
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Nowhere is one currently so well protected from infection in public spaces as in theatres!
Although people are currently allowed to meet in restaurants, bars, discotheques, cinemas or sports facilities without protection, only the theatres have used the lockdown periods with the help of the german program "Neustart Kultur" to install air filtration systems, most of which also have so-called sterilisation tunnels.
The Düsseldorf "Komödie" handles the protective measures for the audience as follows:
The obligation to wear a mask has been lifted. However, the wearing of a mouth-nose covering is still recommended.
Every 5 minutes, the air conditioning completely exchanges the air in the theatre hall with fresh air.
Hand sanitiser dispensers are available in the entrance and toilet areas.
It is recommended that you wash your hands regularly and keep at least 1.5 m away from other people.
Coughing/sneezing should still be done into the crook of the arm or into a disposable handkerchief.
The theatre hall is only half-filled and all occupancies are distributed according to the so-called "chequerboard pattern".
If you feel ill or have a cold, you are requested not to attend the performance. If this applies to you, please contact the box office at the Komödie and exchange your tickets for another day.
The restaurant is open before the performance and during the interval. It is recommended that you wear mouth-to-nose coverings there too until you take your seat and when visiting the WC.
We are writing this newsletter to allay any fears you may have of contracting the disease during a visit to the theatre. Nothing can be ruled out 100%. However, we believe that the theatres, and thus also the Komödie Düsseldorf, do everything they can to minimise the likelihood of infection.
In addition, the ensemble is currently in the best of health and is very happy to finally be able to play, dance, sing and celebrate our "Relevanz-Revue", which was developed especially as a reaction to the time of privation behind us.
Be part of it:
This week in six performances from Thursday to Sunday:
THEATRE OF SOUNDS
"oops, we're still playing"
at the Düsseldorf Comedy Steinstraße 23 |
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Access and parking |
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| Treat yourself to a evening |
07.04.2022 |
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in spite of everything |
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We invite you "in spite of everything" to spend a nice evening together with us right after Easter, which you might remember pleasantly for a longer time.
Why?
Art has to hold back when the circumstances require it?
Art has to be political when circumstances demand it?
Art has to disperse when circumstances demand it?
Since the beginning of the 2020s, contemporary artists have been permanently confronted with demands from politics, the media or social groups: we must not, we should, we ought to....
Actors, dancers, musicians usually take up their profession out of passion. In the case of live arts, it is clear that a good to very good income can only be earned in exceptional cases. If you are professionally trained, you dare to go on stage. If you are ambitious, you do this with your own creations. If you have a sense of mission, you advertise for the largest possible audience. If this appears, one is in dialogue with contemporaries about what one does by performing it publicly.
We do not have to carry out orders, refrain from making statements or show our flags on current issues!
The Corona lockdowns have severely hampered us and our work. As observers, we are currently affected by the current war.
But what always connects live artists and audiences is the common ground that can be created in an evening in a room where some say something interesting about a topic while others hear and see it. This does not happen with a time delay, separated by a screen, mediated by cameras and microphones, but directly from the stage ramp into the hall via the air in the room. One sees the others, the others hear the one. Yes, one breathes the same (filtered) air together. You hear and feel the reactions of the others in the audience. That is what is different about the live moment!
The management consultant Christoph Horn describes the following perception in the current issue of the german magazine "brand eins": "Yesterday I drove three hours to Unterammergau, had dinner with a client and then drove three hours back to Stuttgart. (...) We would not have come close to achieving the personal closeness we were able to establish in our conversation by digital means. Body language, moods, all that is largely absent in a video conference. What is really relevant in the end? It's the time you spend together. Later, you can think back on such a meeting. Of a small casual remark made by the other person. The meal. Maybe even an incident during the trip."
Transferred to a theatre visit: you take an evening out, arrange to meet friends or acquaintances. You dress probably differently, drive, have a drink, chat, take your seats, enjoy the anticipation. The light changes in the hall, the performance begins. You whisper from time to time, laugh, look in the playbill to see who is playing, dancing, singing - enjoy the music. At the end, applause together with many other clappers - your form of loud return, after a longer time of listening and watching. You might go out for a bite to eat and discuss there too, laugh, drink and finally head back home.
Treat yourself to such an evening! - "oops, we're still playing" (in spite of everything) |
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Dusseldorf Comedy |
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| oops, we still play |
24.03.2022 |
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at the Düsseldorf Comedy Steinstrasse |
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The posters have been up since today. In addition, we publish now our latest newsletter:
After our Corona-related postponement of the premiere of our latest creation "oops, we're still playing", originally scheduled for December 2021, the result of this creative process will finally be presented with great pleasure at the Düsseldorf Komödie Steinstrasse from 21 to 24 April 2022.
The current twelve-member dance, music and acting ensemble of the Düsseldorf THEATER DER KLÄNGE invites you in a humorous as well as biting, touching and playful-musical way to reflect on the substantial social necessity of art and culture as a sensual as well as necessary component of an enlightened contemporary society. The ensemble's enjoyment of its own work is not neglected either.
The musical theatre revue in the style of a modernised 1920s cabaret revue transforms the stage into a place of poetry, play, dance, song and even magic.
We now finally hope to see our audience in a theatre auditorium where six performances are expected to take place under facilitated Corona conditions.
Instead of a sofa at home, a comfortable armchair awaits you in the theatre, where you can experience what theatre is all about, together with other visitors: people playing for people live in a theatre to create a communal experience that you can reflect on, laugh at, enjoy and applaud.
"hoppla, wir spielen noch - eine Relevanz-Revue" (Oops, we're still playing - a relevance revue) celebrates its premiere on 21 April at 7.30 pm at the Düsseldorf Komödie. |
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english information text on our website |
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| Publications and media presence |
11.02.2022 |
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In spite of Corona |
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Behind the scenes, THEATER DER KLÄNGE is preparing the premiere of our relevance revue directly for the week after Easter. The premiere series is now scheduled for 21-24 April 2022 in Dusseldorf.
Our performer, who fell ill with Corona shortly before our premiere in December, is now in good health again. Despite double vaccination, she was actually ill for four days and was subject to a 10-day quarantine in December. It was all the more gratifying that we were able to record her singing voice in mid-January at the Düsseldorf recording studio "Sprachlabor".
Her recordings, as well as those of other members of the ensemble, will be used for a planned release of another music CD by the Theater der Klänge, which is to be published on our own label for the premiere in April under the revue title "hoppla, wir spielen noch".
In addition to this self-publication, we have received other publications in recent weeks in which the Theater der Klänge or individual works of ours have been documented:
The publishing house Scheidegger & Spiess (author: Gottfried Hattinger) recently published the 632-page "Maschinenbuch" (Book of Machines) in which the extremely interesting chapter "Theatermaschinen" (Theatre Machines) also reports on our production "Das mechanische Ballett" (The Mechanical Ballet).
The Fundacion Goethe, which invited us for our Spanish tour in 2019 with "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" and organized in collaboration with us the "Theatre on Demand - Finissage" in November 2020 with "The Lacquer Ballet", has documented and published both events in a book entitled "Events of the Fundacion Goethe in 2018 - 2020" on several pages in very high quality with numerous pictures.
On behalf of the Fonds Darstellende Künste, the theatre community of Hamburg presented our project "Das virtuelle totale Theater der Klänge" in the magazine "zukunft:publikum". This was preceded by detailed online reports on the kulturserver-nrw and on the website of the NRW Chamber of Architects (aknw.de) as well as german newspaper reports in the NRZ, WAZ, taz, Saarbrücker Zeitung and kunstforum.
In March, an excerpt of our "mechanical ballet" can be seen in the WDR TV-programme "Planet-Wiseen" on the subject of Bauhaus - broadcast dates: 18.03.2022 - WDR+SWR at 10:55; on ARD-alpha at 18:15 + 22.15.
on HR: possibly 06:15.
From 28 February to 6 March 2022 we will once again be guests in Carcassonne, France, as part of the EU project "Dance Highways". On Saturday, 5.2.2022 we will present our dance fugue method at a workshop where we will present selected lessons from our virtual dance workshop in combination with a live performance by our dancers: Jacky Krell and Danilo Cardoso (moderated by Jacqueline Fischer & J.U. Lensing).
In our next newsletter we will inform you of the exact premiere dates for our revue "hoppla, wir spielen noch" and hope to be able to offer you further dates for guest performances with our repertoire productions.
Let us hope that the pandemic waves will finally subside and that you will want to return to the theatre as soon as the coast is clear. |
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The virtual total theatre of sounds |
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| 2022 |
07.01.2022 |
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News at the beginning of the year |
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Do you miss going to the theatre?
Do you miss listening together, laughing, understanding together in a room with like-minded people?
Do you miss the intimate atmosphere of the theatres where you watch and listen in a crowd to the actors on stage?
Then you feel the same way we do:
we miss you, the audience.
we miss the stage,
we miss the stage fright,
we miss the applause...
In 2020 we had no performances. 2021 only three guest performances. Always only in front of too few audiences in venues that were only allowed to be half-filled at most.
For theatre and concerts - especially in smaller houses and theatre-unspecific venues, like for us the Planetarium in 2021 - the situation has been a real misfortune for two years now: we are not allowed or not able to play for you, you are not allowed or do not want to come to the theatre out of caution.
What remains is the virtual theatre and the hope for better times:
Are you interested in our way of working?
Since 1 January 2022, our "virtual total theatre of sounds" can now be used completely online as we conceived it in 2021. Since 1 January, the two Theater der Klänge dance and theatre workshops can also be booked at the box office. In 12 video lessons each, we give a systematic insight into our development methods of dance composition and figure development. (see link below)
Are you interested in high-quality digital visual art?
Currently, you can also access our exhibition of pictures of the "Lacquer Ballet" in our online gallery via the "virtual theatre". At the end of the month, however, we will replace this exhibition with a newer one featuring images from our production "Man and Art Figure in the Sphere Theatre".
Would you like to experience dance as "Dance on Screen"?
Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer is currently working on her first dance film "It feels like Sunday every day". A video teaser has been available since 1 January 2022 (see link above).
You would finally like to see us live in the theatre again in Dusseldorf?
We are now planning our premiere series of the revue "hoppla, wir spielen noch" for the week after Easter, i.e. for the period 21 to 24 April 2022 with a total of six performances in a Düsseldorf theatre.
Further activities are being planned for 2022. We will keep you informed.
Our wish for you for 2022?
Do you want to experience at least a substitute for the live loss, then please use our online-show-games,
But most of all:
Give in to your urge to finally want to experience successful evenings at the theatre live again when the waves of viruses finally subside! |
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virtual total theatre of sounds |
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| The "Lackballett" in Warsaw |
12.12.2021 |
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Dance Highwys |
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Since 2019, THEATER DER KLÄNGE has been a partner in the EU project "Dance Highways", which has already taken the artistic directors of our theatre to Carcassone (F) and Palermo (I) and also enabled us to preview parts of our play "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" in Palermo during our visit there in May this year.
As part of this EU project, THEATER DER KLÄNGE is now a guest at the Transnational Meeting in Warsaw (PL) and will be showing a shortened version of "Lackballett" on Tuesday, 14 December at 7 pm as part of this European meeting at the Centrum Promocji Kultury in Warsaw.
This guest performance was made possible by the invitation of the festival U:New / Dance Highways, funding through Erasmus+ and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW. |
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Festival U:New |
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| we are - actually - not playing live after all |
02.12.2021 |
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but there is something to listen to online |
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It was supposed to take place today:
the THEATER DER KLÄNGE premiere of "hoppla, wir spielen noch".
Unfortunately, we will not be playing after all, as one of our double-vaccinated dancers contracted the virus last weekend after all and is currently hopefully recovering well from her illness.
Our new play had the working title "(not) RELEVANT" for a long time. Only at the end of the first rehearsal phase the entire ensemble voted for the final title "oops, we're still playing - a relevance revue".
Originally, a multi-media production was planned, for which, in addition to the stage production, a podcast format and a video on the situation of performing artists in this crisis were to be produced. The artistic director of THEATER DER KLÄNGE, J.U. Lensing teaches as a professor of sound design at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and made the podcast series the task for two seminars with the sound design students. The result is a series of interesting short radio plays on the topic "(not) relevant?". Starting today, these will be published daily in the media library of the TU Dortmund learning channel nrw-vision. (Link see below)
Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer shot the video footage for a final 45-minute documentary video as part of an artist grant awarded to her in 2021. In addition to interviews with selected artists from the immediate environment of THEATER DER KLÄNGE, the conception of this video is based on a mixture of video dance, associative inserts on the theme and interview passages. This video is currently in the editing phase and will be published online at the beginning of 2022. |
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nrw-vision |
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| Hoppla, wir spielen noch - cancelled |
29.11.2021 |
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Corona is stopping us actually |
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This morning we learned that one of our ensemble members has tested positive for the Corona virus. We will not be able to re-cast the roles played by this ensemble member until the scheduled premiere.
Furthermore, for the protection of all members of THEATER DER KLÄNGE and our valued audience, we take the situation very seriously and have decided with a heavy heart to cancel the premiere and the scheduled follow-up performances for this and next week at the Malkasten Düsseldorf - health clearly comes first!
It is impossible to say at the moment when we will be able to make up for the series of premieres. But we hope for spring 2022... |
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English Website of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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| oops, we |
19.11.2021 |
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In December at the Malkasten Düsseldorf - if it will be possible |
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After almost three years, we, THEATER DER KLÄNGE, are finally planning another premiere in our home town Dusseldorf
On eight dates between 2 and 11 December 2021, the newly assembled ensemble would like to perform its new production "hoppla, wir spielen noch - Eine Relevanz-Revue" in the theatre of the Düsseldorf artists' association Malkasten.
The ensemble, consisting of eight actors and actresses, a director, a choreographer and a musician, wants to perform a modern revue in the style of the cabaret revues of the 1920s - but with performance forms and music from today. For this the ensemble has worked out current themes and issues and makes particular reference to the situation of the performing arts, which have been put into a forced pause by the Corona restrictions.
Now that events - albeit under restrictions - are finally possible again, and hopefully also in December 21, the ensemble would like to prove once again the relevance of art and culture.
For eight evenings, the eleven-member dance, music and acting ensemble wants to transform the stage at the Künstlerverein Malkasten into a place of poetry, play, dance, songs, magic and questions for the audience!
The current Düsseldorf Corona requirements allow events with ID and proof of vaccination status or convalescent status (2G). In addition, we will set up two powerful air purification filter devices in the Malkasten theatre and ask our audience to continue wearing their mouth and nose protection masks in the hall. The play will consist of two parts of about 40 minutes each, so that the auditorium can be aired out during a 20-minute break after the first part.
We are very pleased that we have managed to put together this revue, which is really worth experiencing, and we ask our audience to visit and share the result of this theatre work with us!
The project is supported by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the City of Düsseldorf, the Fonds Darstellende Künste (#takeaction), the DTHG (Neustart Kultur), the van Meeteren Foundation, the Stadtsparkassenstiftung, the Bürgerstiftung Düsseldorf and the Förderverein Klangtheater e.V..
Dates:
Thurs, 2 December, 8 pm
Fri, 3 December, 8 pm
Sat, 4 December, 8 pm
Sun, 5 December, 7 pm
Wed, 8 December, 8 pm
Thu, 9 December, 8pm
Fri, 10 December, 8pm
Sat, 11 December, 8 pm
Venue:
Theatre hall in the Künstlerverein Malkasten, Jacobistr. 6, 40211 Düsseldorf
Further information can be found at www.theaterderklaenge.de
Questions can be answered and tickets can be pre-ordered by phone: +49-211-462746
Ticket prices: 24€/12€ reduced (plus advance booking fee)
Tickets can be ordered online via the link below: |
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Tickets via Eventim |
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| The "Sphere Suite" at the Planetarium Bochum (Dive Festival) |
29.10.2021 |
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5 and 6 November 2021 - 7 p.m. each day |
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Our guest performance with "The Mechanical Ballet" in the Festhaus Viersen last Wednesday was finally an opportunity to play again one of our repertoire pieces in front of an audience. The piece was gratefully received and finally means a return to a normal guest performance activity for us, as we had experienced very intensively before - especially in 2019.
Another opportunity to experience one of our plays as a guest performance will be on Friday, 5 and Saturday, 6 November 2021, both at 7 pm, again at the Planetarium Bochum. As part of the Bochum DIVE Festival, we will be performing a short version of our latest play "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" with a smaller cast and selected scenes. Since we will not be performing the complete play, we will call this short version "Kugel-Suite". However, we will perform this almost 20-minute festival version interactively with full-dome video and a soundtrack compiled especially for it by composer Thomas Neuhaus in Spatial Audio at the Planetarium Bochum. Dancer Sophia Otto and Christian Paul from the original cast will perform the selected scenes in Jacqueline Fischer's choreography.
For the time being, the two performances of the "Kugel-Suite" are the last two guest performance opportunities in NRW before we premiere our latest creation - a relevance revue - in Düsseldorf from 2 to 11 December.
More about that in a next newsletter! |
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DIVE Festival Bochum |
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| The mechanical ballet |
20.10.2021 |
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Finally a performance again |
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In 1987 directly after its founding, the THEATER DER KLÄNGE first dealt with the "mechanical ballet" of the Bauhaus students Schmidt, Teltscher and Bogler. Of the three Weimar Bauhäusler only two black-and-white photos and a coloured reverse glass painting by Kurt Schmidt had survived. From these three pictures we developed the figurines to be recreated, a new choreography and a new music for a small musical ensemble.
Even though the ensemble has changed several times in the course of the 35 years since then, two people from the founding ensemble, J.U. Lensing and Jacqueline Fischer, are still active for THEATER DER KLÄNGE. Both of them also got to know Kurt Schmidt at an advanced age when he authorised the re-enactment of his idea from 1923 in several meetings (in the then GDR).
"The Mechanical Ballet" can be seen and heard once this year in NRW next Wednesday, 27 October at 7 pm in the Festhalle Viersen.
Despite its double history (1923, 1987), this piece has lost nothing of its specialness, its wit and its dancing musicality - it is, so to speak, timeless!
By the way:
Cultural live is possible again:
In Viersen currently under 3G conditions.
If you want culture, art and music to live on - even after such a big crisis - then you just have to go there! |
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The mechanical ballet in Festhalle Viersen |
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| Opening of the "Virtual Total THEATER DER KLANGE" on 3 October 2021 |
01.10.2021 |
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Online |
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After the long Corona break, various projects - developed by us during this time - are finally coming to their premieres.
After the premiere series of our 2020 play "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" at the Planetarium Bochum in early September 2021, another project has now been completed: "The virtual total THEATER DER KLÄNGE".
A developer ensemble of 3D, IT and web design programmers under the project direction of J.U. Lensing developed a virtual 3D-theatre based on the architectural plans of Walter Gropius for a total theatre, which will be "walkable" online from Sunday, 3 October 2021. At 12 o'clock, we invite you to an open day.
Clicking on the button "The virtual total THEATER DER KLÄNGE" next to the information text on our homepage www.theaterderklaenge.de will first take you on a tour to the visualised total theatre. This will direct you in front of the theatre's main entrance. Here you also have the opportunity to activate our sound design.
You can first take a three-dimensional look around in front of the theatre. But you can also click on the main entrance to be taken to the box office foyer. There you can move freely around the ground floor, look at a poster exhibition or move to our gallery, where currently an exhibition of our production "Das Lackballett" is shown. You also have the option of going to the first floor, the gastro-foyer, to look at more posters and enjoy the differently designed interior architecture as well as the different view of the forecourt. At the box office on the ground floor, you have the opportunity to purchase programmes, posters or CDs and DVDs by clicking on the merchandising table.
At the theatre box office you can purchase tickets to visit the premises in the theatre. The ticket to tour the entire house can be purchased free of charge until midnight on 3 October - but it must be booked at the box office. Once you have purchased the ticket at the box office, the other rendered spaces will also open up for you to visit: a media library with an integrated listening lounge, a dance rehearsal studio and a theatre rehearsal studio in the attic, and of course the large, faithfully detailed Total theatre hall.
This tour allows you to visit the virtually realised spaces in the theatre.
If you would also like to view and listen to the media in the media library, or experience a performance in the theatre hall, you will have to book additional tickets at the box office, as the use of these media contents - as in the real theatre - is only possible after the purchase of a ticket. At a later date, we will also make it possible to book 12-part theatre and dance workshops (as videos) in our rehearsal studios, so that all rooms will offer media usage options.
So, from 12pm on Sunday 3 October 2021, these uses of the Total Virtual Theatre will be available online. On 3 October at 2 p.m. we will also offer the opportunity to talk online with members of the development team. To do so, please click on the button "Zoom expert round" on our homepage. You should then be connected to a Zoom Talk, where the experts will be waiting for you as hosts for 40 minutes of live talk.
We are very pleased that the Fonds Darstellende Künste has made this project possible for us within the framework of the Neustart programme with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In addition to the audio-visual interpretation of Walter Gropius' theatre plans, the virtual Theater der Klänge that has now been realised, enables us to create a publicly accessible archive of our work in a sensual form. |
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Links to the Totaltheater via the homepage of the Theatre of Sounds |
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| Rehearsal start & virtual theater |
16.09.2021 |
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On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, a newly assembled ensemble met in our rehearsal studio to develop a new music and dance theater piece which is to premiere in Düsseldorf as early as December 2021.
After several pieces of ours, in which a clear acting or dance weighting played a role both in content and in the ensemble, the new ensemble returns to the founding impulse of the Theater der Klänge: an equally weighted collective creation of dancers, musicians and actors!
Before this creation will be directly experienced live in the theater in December, we will open our "virtual total THEATER DER KLÄNGE" on Sunday, October 3, 2021.
The theater is built, works technically and is cleaned. A large LED-wall has been installed in the theater hall for the projection of the complete recordings of all our productions. The staff is ready, the box office is programmed and our media products are displayed on the counter in the foyer. The shelves in the library and media library are currently being filled and the selection catalogs designed. The rehearsal studios can be used, the workshops planned there will be bookable in the foreseeable future...
We would be very pleased if our virtual theater is visited online on October 3 - an open day! |
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Website (in english) |
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| The virtual total THEATRE OF SOUNDS |
06.09.2021 |
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Gropius design from 1927 built as a VR-theatre in 2021 |
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1927: The theatre-director Erwin Piscator asks the architect and director of the Bauhaus, already known at the time as an icon of modernism, if he could design a new type of total theatre for him to be build in Berlin.
The Bauhaus sets up an ideas-workshop from which, among others, the U-Theatre by Farkus Molnar and the Sphere Theatre by Andor Weininger emerge as designs. Independently of this, Walter Gropius designed a total-theatre that would allow film projections in the entire hall, a main stage and a rotating arena stage and walkways running around and between the rows as playing surfaces. He had these ideas patented!
Piscator pays for the designs, but never builds this theatre...
Sometime later, these plans are animated in a cartoon.
Further on, a Spanish game designer realises a black and white video animation in which you can fly around this theatre and into the theatre hall with a camera.
2021: As part of the programme Neustart Kultur #TakePart, the Fonds Darstellende Künste grants the Düsseldorf THEATER DER KLÄNGE the realisation of this total theatre in a modernised form as a virtual online architectural animation.
The virtual total THEATER DER KLÄNGE, based on the plans of Walter Gropius, can be walked through on screen using VR technology and equipped with media content from the Theater der Klaenge that can be accessed online, will have its online premiere on Sunday, 3 October 2021!
Visitors can expect not only a photographically accurate realisation of these theatre plans, but also the possibility to move around and in this theatre. There, they will not only move through the detailed foyers in Bauhaus design, but will also have the opportunity to enter the theatre hall, which still looks modern today, and watch complete performances of THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE as videos. They can also visit the library and media library or the gallery in the building, or book video-workshops in both a theatre and a dance rehearsal studio. In the library and media library they have access to a large number of written and graphic documents, as well as to sound files and photos of all productions of THEATER DER KLÄNGE.
An online archive of the entire almost 35-year creative output of THEATER DER KLÄNGE in a digitally sensual form. At the same time, however, the first realisation of the total theatre designed by Gropius for a concrete theatre use, even if this can "only" be experienced virtually!
The project is supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for the culture and Media as part of Neustart Kultur. |
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Rendering des virtuellen totalen Theaters der Klänge 2021 |
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| The Planetarium and Corona |
28.08.2021 |
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Corona news: Vaccinated, Recovered, Tested, Online booking, Be on time... |
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We look forward to welcoming you to one of our performances of "Man and Artifice in the Spherical Theatre" in the coming week possible on any evening between Thursday and Sunday at the Planetarium Bochum.
The Planetarium was closed for months and reopened a few weeks ago, renovated. In addition to completely new seating, the Bochum Planetarium has acquired a theatre stage, which is set up for us both frontally and as an oval stage around the planetary launcher at a height of 1.20,m. The latest powerful 4K beamers guarantee a bright projection into the 30m dome. The existing 64 loudspeakers in the dome plus subwoofers in the hall, controlled by the Fraunhofer Spatial Audio System, guarantee a crystal-clear but also powerful sound!
In the coming week, we will equip the full dome with theatre lighting technology so that this dance premiere in a planetarium interacts perfectly both under good theatre conditions and as a planetarium show.
Corona still dictates rules of conduct, however: Planetarium visitors must present a negative Corona rapid test or PCR test, no more than 48 hours old, along with their ID card. A self-test is not sufficient. Vaccinated visitors must present proof of full vaccination protection. At least 14 days must have passed since the last required individual vaccination. You do not need a rapid test. Convalescents need proof of a positive PCR test at least 28 days and a maximum of six months ago. Again, the rapid test is not required.
A minimum distance of 1.5 metres is recommended throughout the planetarium outside the domed hall. From the moment of entering the planetarium, it is compulsory to wear a medical mouth/nose protection (OP or FFP mask or comparable masks). The mask may be removed at the seats in the auditorium. However, it is recommended that the mask be worn throughout.
Ideally, you should book your ticket in advance online, by telephone or at the box office:
- Order tickets online around the clock
- Ordering on the ticket hotline: 0221 / 280214
- Reservation by e-mail to: info@planetarium-bochum.de (please two working days in advance)
- Advance booking at the Planetarium box office (Mon. - Fri. 9:00 - 15:30 + 30 minutes before the start of the event)
- Ticket sales at advance booking offices throughout Germany
- The ticket price includes a VRR ticket (price level D) for the day of the event!
You will receive fixed seats when you book your ticket.
The Planetarium guarantees a free seat between the groups of guests.
Due to certificate checks and to ensure orderly admission, please arrive at the Planetarium Bochum 15-30 minutes before the event begins. (there will be drinks and snacks in the foyer).
Even if you have to drive, be on time, hold certificates and possibly stay in the Planetarium with a mask for the whole performance hour plus before and after - finally there is a premiere series of THEATER DER KLÄNGE to experience live again. This play in particular cannot be shown online at all - and because of the high cost, it seems unlikely at the moment that we will be able to perform this play in particular more often. So take the opportunity next week! |
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Planetarium Bochum (D) |
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| Performances at the Planetarium Bochum |
24.08.2021 |
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Arrival |
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Today the rehearsals for our newest play "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" start. The ensemble is healthy and is finally looking forward to preparing this play for its premiere in front of an audience after 9(!) months.
Because of its conception, this play can only be performed in a larger planetarium, of which we only have one in NRW of the appropriate size and with the necessary technical equipment: in Bochum. We therefore invite our audience to travel to Bochum!
The Bochum Planetarium is located in the north-east of Bochum's city centre, in the immediate vicinity of the Stadtpark. Castroper Straße is one of the main roads leading into the city centre. The planetarium is located on a small hill, next to the synagogue and the Hildegardis School. The main entrance is at the back, at the end of Lorenz-Rebbert-Allee.
By car, take the A 40 exit "Stadion" in the direction of Bochum Zentrum. After about 400 m you will reach a roundabout. From here the way to the Planetarium is signposted. To park, enter Lorenz-Rebbert-Allee. Parking is available in Lorenz-Rebbert-Allee, Kurfürstenstraße or Castroper Straße.
Tickets purchased in advance entitle the holder to free use of the VRR (price level D) on the day of the performance. The destination is the "Planetarium" station on underground lines 316 or 318.
We promise that this travel will be worth. In the almost 80-minute performance, you will experience contemporary dance on a main stage and an oval stage around the planet launcher. In the process, the dancers modulate the electronic sound objects that move around in 3D space and provide the colour and form input for the live video art, which can be experienced interactively with the dance throughout the large dome as a 180-degree projection. The sketches on the theme of "Human being" by Oskar Schlemmer determine the interludes between the individual acts before they each become the source material for dance and video realisations...
We hope to welcome you to one of our four evenings at the Planetarium Bochum for "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" after the almost two-year forced break following our last live performances in 2019 with our "Lackballett"! |
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Video Teaser for "Man and Art Figure in the spherical theatre" |
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| Human and Art Figure in the Spherical Theater |
16.08.2021 |
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World premiere series from September 2 to 5, 2021 at the Planetarium Bochum |
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… Planned for 2019, developed in the lockdown-free times of 2020. Premiere planned for January 2021, then March, then May 2021...
If everything turns out as expected, our new inter-medial dance production " Human and Art Figure in the Spherical Theater" will finally celebrate its premiere on Thursday, the 2nd to Sunday, the 5th of September at the Planetarium in Bochum city. Since January 2019, THEATER DER KLÄNGE has not had any other premiere, as we have created our exhibition "Theater der Klänge Bauhausbühne" and toured it internationally together with our Bauhaus repertoire within in the "Bauhaus Year". Then came the Pandemic!
This latest creation of ours has also an indirect connection with the Bauhaus. In 1927, the Bauhaus student Andor Weininger designed in the context of a creative workshop, related to the "Total Theater", a spherical theater which was never built. At the same time, the Bauhaus master Oskar Schlemmer developed a format for his seminar " The Human Being". Both: the spherical theater and the sketches for the representation of "Arts and the Man" were us, the source materials for creating our new performance "Man and Art Figure in the Spherical Theater".
Today, the Planetarium offers a modern spherical theater when equipped with a stage and theatrical lighting. The human being will be more than just the subject of some dome projections within the planetarium performance; the human being will be the focus of our performance in the spherical theater. Nowadays, modern sensors give us the possibility to film the performing dancers and to transform these images in real time into live video art or into figural abstractions. At the same time, the dancers' movements can modulate and sometimes even control the surround sound of the music.
We have allready used this dance-music-video-interaction in several of our stage works and especially in the pieces such as, "HOEReographien" and "SUITE intermediale" in order to create intermedial Art Works reacting live and with each other. This performance will now be a true immersive spatial experience with the possibility to realize this in a dome construction with 180-degree video dome and 64-channel spatial sound wave on a stage consisting of a podium as well as a stage oval around the planet launcher! Indeed, all these approaches brings us closer to the Utopia of the Bauhaus Total Theater design and represents for us an aesthetic as well as a technical peak in the development of such stage action experiences, as we already did in 1987 with our first realization of Moholy-Nagy's "The Mechanical Eccentricity".
Due to pandemic's limited seat capacity and the fact that we have initially scheduled only four performances at the Planetarium Bochum, it is recommended to make reservations as soon as possible for this unique experience, which unfortunately will no more be performed at other venues. |
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Specials at the Planetarium Bochum |
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| Back on stage from September |
19.06.2021 |
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Human and Artificial Figure in the Globe Theatre |
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Shortly before the recent postponement of our premiere of our new creation "Man and Artificial Figure in the Globe Theatre" in April, we were still hoping for performance opportunities in June. Even though now - especially the big ships - are quickly putting on their first performances after the rapid fall of COVIS-Incidencies, our partners are less flexible and we had to postpone our premiere until September. Now we hope that the unreasonableness of the "irrepressibly liberated" will not bring us a fourth big wave after the summer holidays, which we cultural workers will then have again to pay for first...
As we all know, hope dies last and so we are now assuming a premiere of our planetarium play on Thursday, 2 September at 8 pm in the Planetarium Bochum. Follow-up performances are planned for Friday, 3 September and Saturday, 4 September - also at 8 pm and on Sunday, 5 September at 7 pm. We have made an agreement with the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr that our tickets will include a VRR-public-transport-ticket for the entire area on the day booked!
We will provide more detailed information about our newest creation in an upcoming newsletter!
Unfortunately, the only thing left for the summer is our extended online exhibition of the "Lacquer Ballet", which we hope will finally be performed again on 11 September in Carcassonne (F).
We are currently strengthening our ensemble to eight performers (dance, music, drama) in order to tackle a new creation from mid-September, which is to be premiered at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2022.
We remain with best wishes for a restful and infection-free summer and look forward to an autumn in which we hope to see and hear our audience live again! |
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Foretaste "Sphere Suite" from minute 01:32:30 |
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| A journey into a think tank in the yellow zone |
02.05.2021 |
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Dance Highways - Viral Visions |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE is currently participating in two EU projects: "Dance Highways" and, starting in June, "Viral Visions; Deconstructing Art Immunity". Both projects deal with issues related to an EU-wide international artistic exchange of best practices in the context of the promotion of contemporary dance and Audience targeting strategies
Two performers from our production: " Human and artistic figure in the spherical theater" is invited to Palermo from 10 to 16 May 2021 for workshops and a small preview with excerpts from our newest production at the "Festival Dissidanza". Because of Corona and thanks to the mild temperatures in Sicily, the live outdoor performance will take place on Saturday, May 15, starting at 7:15 pm at "Parco Villa Filippina" in Palermo. After a year and a half without any performances, we will now have a double act of liberation = outdoors and with an audience!
Although these good news nourish the hope that theater and dance performances will take place again in Germany from summer on, it is saddening that the forced break has wasted an opportunity for a real relaunch of theater practice in our country and in our community, without any significant discussion. Up and down the country, everyone seems to be just standing in their respective starting blocks to try to pick up where they left off. Barely any signs of real new beginnings.
Düsseldorf is currently - and independently of Corona - building a new cultural center directly opposite the main train station called KAP1. Every week there is a report in the local newspapers about a supposed need for a new opera house. After a long period of reconstruction, the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf (municipal theatre) has now been renovated to its original state and is awaiting its reopening. Not any of the managers of one of these theaters nor, in the case of KAP1, not any of the future operators of this venue with its three large theaters halls, have launched any initiative to discuss how these "new" venues could be filled with "new" content in the future. On the contrary, the suspension of the previously practiced "frenetic standstill" inevitably led to a backlog. This will be followed by a hyper activity as soon as the restrictions will be lifted. The audience will not be able to respond to this coming oversupply at all.
No consideration was given to the possibility to organize this in a more appropriate way, together with all the local stakeholders. As with other tailbacks, those with the strongest means will once again prevail. This often leads to mass pileups...
And once again, untapped opportunities such as the chance for dialogue, for the use of swarm intelligence, for the redefinition of what one creates and why - the chance for new forms of public spirit, seem to emerge.
Together with our European Partners from Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Norway and Germany and an expanded circle of like minded artists from Austria and Croatia in June 21 with "Viral Visions", we will try within "Festival Dissidanza" in Palermo (!) to use these opportunities. Could it be that these international think tanks are to be more of a model for innovation than the competitive opposition at the local level? |
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Festival Internazionale Dissidanza 2021 |
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| Exhibitions real and virtual and virtual in the real |
26.04.2021 |
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Exhibits on our lacquer ballet in the municipal gallery in the Park Viersen (D) |
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On Sunday, 25 April 2021, the exhibition DANCE IN ART (25.04.-24.05.2021) opened virtually at the municipal gallery in the park in Viersen (D).
On the occasion of the festival "tanz nrw 21", which opened in Viersen, the exhibition takes up the wide-ranging subject that gives it its title. On display are an installation, various photos, sketches, ink drawings and sculptures on the theme of "dance in art", als also original photos and sketches from 1941 by Oskar Schlemmer and photos and the fan-figurine from the 2018/19 production of "Lackballett" by THEATER DER KLÄNGE. In the real exhibition in the municipal gallery in the Park Viersen there is also a media table, which can be used to visit the current virtual exhibition of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE on the Lackballett.
The "Lacquer Ballet" by Bauhaus master Oskar Schlemmer could only be performed once in 1941. In 2018/19, the THEATER DER KLÄNGE Düsseldorf continued the idea 77 years later in a new guise and staged the production "Das Lackballett - Ein letzter Farb-Klang-Rausch von Oskar Schlemmer". Schlemmer's figurines were reinterpreted with a focus on material and colour. In the exhibition, the fan-shaped figurine, photos and graphics now provide insights into this contemporary performance of colour and form.
Subject to the current Corona Protection Regulations, the exhibition will be open from 11am on 25 April 2021, subject to new legal regulations.
The current Corona regulations apply. NO vistis are possible. From the 25th of may the number of visitors present at the same time is probably limited. An appointment must be made in advance by calling +49 (0) 2162 /101 160 or galerie@viersen.de. A daily negative rapid test is required for attendance, and a medical mask must be worn.
Dance in Art
Exhibition Städtische Galerie im Park, Rathauspark 1, 41747 Viersen
25 April - 24 May 2021
Opening hours:
Tue - Sat 3-6pm, Sun and Fri 11am-6pm.
Free admission
Tel. +49 (0) 2162/101160
galerie@viersen.de
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Municipal gallery in the Park Viersen (D) |
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| We have re-hung |
02.04.2021 |
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Original Oskar Schlemmer pictures in our gallery |
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Our online gallery exhibition on "Lacquer Ballet" has now been running since February with a good response. The first pictures have been ordered. However, this form of help for us and the artists involved could be even better.
To this end, we have supplemented the exhibition of our digital lacquer pictures and our performance photos with lacquer pictures and figurine designs from the 1940s, as well as original black-and-white photos from 1941. Visitors to our exhibition can thus now see a selection of the originals that inspired us both to recreate our figurines and precisely for the aesthetic direction of our digital lacquer pictures. These additional images, in context with our 2019 images, now allow for a direct comparison between the originals and our re-creation.
This exhibition will be available online until 10 May 2021 and will be the only opportunity to see anything of ours currently until an unfortunately indefinite time.
The premiere of our latest creation "Man and Art Figure in a Globe Theatre", scheduled for January, then March and finally May, has again been postponed due to Corona. We now hope that this piece, which we conceived for the Planetarium Bochum, can be premiered in Bochum before the summer break...
Please help us get through this period of no performances and thus largely no income for us by purchasing something from us that contributes to the art in your rooms and supports us in our further work! |
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Online gallery exhibition on "Lacquer Ballett" |
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| "We are, we want and we create!" (Oskar Schlemmer) |
04.03.2021 |
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Our plans for 2021 |
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We have not been able to play in public since one year!
However, the core of our work is still not crackable... and we keep wanting to create while we are still there - so we create in a different way.
Last week, "La Galerie Chorégraphique" in Carcassonne invited us to a transnational meeting, in the context of the EU-project "Dance Highways", which was focusing on the topics of dance mediation and audience development for contemporary dance.
The artistic directors of THEATER DER KLÄNGE - Jacqueline Fischer and Jörg U. Lensing - were there and will continue to attend follow-up meetings in Palermo, Warsaw, Bilbao, Tromso and again Carcassone in the coming months.
"Dance Highways" is a European project that brings together six contemporary dance partners: ASDC Space Palermo (I), Fundacja Rozwoju Teatru NOWA FALA Warsaw (PL), THEATER DER KLÄNGE Düsseldorf (D), Dansearena Nord Tromsø (NO), La Fundicion Bilbao (E) and La Galerie Chorégraphique Carcassonne (F). This international project, supported by the European Union in the context of Erasmus+, aims to use a European mobility agenda until September 2022 to develop concepts for quality improvement in terms of mediation and accessibility to contemporary dance concepts.
In February 2021, a kick-off meeting was held to organise five two-day transnational meetings and a total of five five-day peer to peer workshops, until September 2022, to bring together twelve international experts and carry out innovative artistic experiences with 18 professional dancers from the DANCE HIGHWAYS consortium.
In addition, these six partners plan to launch international festivals and various dissemination programmes that will provide the opportunity to share with a wider audience the fruits of this process. In this context, we are planning to show a "dance solo with video interaction" from current THEATER DER KLÄNGE production, in Palermo at the end of May of this year.
In spring 2022, the participants of this EU programme will also be hosted in Düsseldorf to present and share fragments of their work.
Starting in June 2021, THEATER DER KLÄNGE will also be a partner of a second Erasmus+ project, organised by the DGB/VHS association "Arbeit und Leben" Düsseldorf. The aim of this project is to initiate a debate around questions of the Artistic professional relevance discussion in the context of the current pandemic.
Other issues such as the ephemerality of performing Arts within the discourse and the mind-set of regional politics, as well as the difficulty of accessing new audiences, will be debated.
The six European partners of the project from Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Poland and Croatia will organise workshops, public events and round tables. These will provide an opportunity to discuss matters about the relevance of art - especially in the context of the Covid crisis - for society and its citizens.
Artist shall discuss these topics with their audience, or with an audience yet to be won, in order to explore ways of communicating with them about, how the value of contemporary cultural creation can be transmitted to society in our different European countries.
In addition to these European networking and exchange projects, we are of course also working on further new creations:
The scheduled première of our latest intermedia music and dance piece "Mensch und Kunstfigur im Kugeltheater" (Man and Art Figure in a Spherical Theatre), in January of this year, has been postponed to Thursday the 6th of May 2021 at the Planetarium in Bochum city.
In the run-up to the premiere, at the end of March/beginning of Apri this year, we will be working on two video workshops focused on our dance and drama improvisational approach. Both workshop-results will be videorecorded at our rehearsal studio and will be available as an online workshop programme in the near future.
Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer, who got the artist's grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, will interview and produce dance videos with two dancers in the coming mid-April, on the topic of the "Relevance of Dance"in the context of a social system, in order to later compile them into a dance short film. The unedited film material will be made available for a forthcoming THEATER DER KLÄNGE production.
THEATER DER KLÄNGE has received funding from the National Performing Arts Fund within the context of the "#Take Part" Programme in order to develop a "Total Virtual THEATER DER KLÄNGE" and to make it online available to the public, at the latest in September 2021. Since all of our initiatives to build our own Theatre in Düsseldorf have never been realised, we are now, after almost 35 years of activity, going to build our own (never built) space - in CyberSpace.
Our architect for this will be none less than Walter Gropius itself.
The theatrespace will be virtually accessible and will include a performance space as well as an rehearsal studio, a library and media library, a gallery, two consultable workshops, as well as a book and media counter in the lobby.
In 2021/22 we are also planning to create a new performance, which will have offshoots such as radio plays and an artistic video-documentary.
We hope that our creative work will help us get through this time, despite the mandatory social distancing period. But we hope above all, that after this long period of deprivation and as soon as we will be able to offer that (again), our audience will desire to see, hear and ideally visit live and in person our results! |
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Dance Highways |
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| Premiere postponed into May |
13.02.2021 |
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Human and Artificial Figure in the Globe Theatre |
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A month ago we were still cautiously hopeful about a possible postponement of our January premiere to March. Since this week it is certain: no premiere will be possible in March 2021 either!
For this reason, we have again decided to postpone and are now cautiously optimistic about a possible premiere date of 6 May 2021 for our new play "Human and Artificial Figure in the Globe Theatre". So, should no further waves, or even new mutation pandemics follow, but sensible behaviour and medical art be able to defeat this aggressor, we hope for possible communal gatherings again without fear, so that we can also experience our performing arts again in a place directly with our own senses.
Of course, the situation also challenges us to create alternatives and to try them, as we did with our video streaming series "Theatre on Demand" from March to November 2020 and are currently doing - in another variation - with the exhibition of images of the "Lacquer Ballet" curated by us in our online gallery.
But the basic condition of theatre and dance in our latitudes is the theatre in which a community gathers to witness a "cultic" event, which it not only watches or listens to, but in which it becomes a component through its active participation. Performers and recipients see and hear each other and, in the best cases, interact with each other. A so-called "transmission" of such an event via electronic aids cannot be a substitute for this, but is always only a derivation.
So we hope for this reunion, renewed experience with our audience and are also working in parallel on other forms of electronic derivations and further European cooperation projects, which, however, should not replace the live event! |
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First informations about our new creation |
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| Virtual exhibition on the "Lackballett" |
30.01.2021 |
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Online in 3D |
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Actually, we were invited to perform our play "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" at the Festhalle Viersen in February this year and there was supposed to be a parallel exhibition on the "Lacquer Ballet" at the "Villa V" in Viersen until spring. Thanks to Corona, TRIAS has now been postponed for one year and the exhibition on the "Lackballett" has been postponed to the distant future, if not cancelled...
However, as a small substitute, we are currently putting a virtual exhibition on the "Lackballett" online from 1 February and this exhibition will run in a 3D web gallery until the founding anniversary of the Theater der Klänge on 10 May 2021.
In addition to 10 screenshots from the interactive computer work of video artist Yoann Trellu for and with the ensemble of the Theatre of Sounds on the Lackballett, we are also exhibiting a selection of 12 photos from the performance (photographer: Oliver Eltinger).
Both - the screenshots and the photos - are available for sale, but would always have to be made to order individually.
Every photograph sold - printed in high quality on HD-AluDibond - benefits the Theater der Klänge as well as the photographer and the video artist! |
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Online Gallery |
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| Rehearsals instead of premiere |
15.01.2021 |
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The premiere of "Man and Art Figure in the Theatre" |
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Corona has also thrown a spanner in the works of our plans for the premiere of our current new play entitled "Man and Artificial Figure in the Globe Theatre". Actually, this should have taken place yesterday, Thursday 14 January 2021, and we would also have invited people to the Planetarium Bochum today, tomorrow and on Sunday to see and hear our new live full-dome creation.
But already at the beginning of November it was foreseeable that January 2021 probably wouldn't work. By mid-November it was clear that we would have to move to March 2021. We still hope that the premiere series can finally take place in March 2021, but we are currently rather sceptical about that too... Corona is powerful!
At the beginning of February we will have to decide together with the Planetarium in Bochum, whether the premiere on Thursday, 11 March 2021 can be planned there or not.
We are currently using the cancelled premiere week for rehearsals in our Düsseldorf rehearsal studio, which has been technically new equipped with air filters and air conditioning since November thanks to the federal programme "Neustart Kultur". The ensemble has become accustomed - even while dancing - to the mouth-nose protection and we are all hoping for higher temperatures, decreasing fall rate curves and the prospect of finally being able to play live in front of an audience again!
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) |
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First info on "Man and Art Figure in the Globe Theatre" |
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| A small Christmas gift |
22.12.2020 |
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Theatre on Demand - Conclusion: Our Feature Film "Gregorius" |
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The Corona year passed as well as we could with three rehearsal periods without any contagions and our new play is almost ready. Numerous foundations, special funds and individuals have helped us throughout the year with funding sums, donations and entrance fees to our "Theatre on Demand" events.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks!
We would like to offer our audiences, our supporters and those interested in our work the opportunity to receive a small gift:
From Saturday 26 December 2020 (2nd Christmas Day) from 6pm until Sunday 27 December 10pm, you will have the opportunity to watch online our only feature film up to date, which we released in 2012: "Gregorius on the Stone "!
During the break between the Düsseldorf premiere in early May 2004 and the guest performance in Munich with the same production, we filmed the material with the ensemble of THEATER DER KLÄNGE. From the 2004 film material, an 103-minutes feature film was edited to the music of the group ESTAMPIE, who collaborated with us on this project, as part of the anniversary activities for "25 years of Theatre of Sounds" in 2012.
The film premiered on 1 November 2012 at the Atelier cinema in Düsseldorf and has since been available on DVD through our online shop.
If you are interested in streaming this feature film online, please send us an email to:
gregorius@theaterderklaenge.de
We will send you a confidential viewing link to the video by return of post, which will be valid from 26 December to 27 December.
We say goodbye with this action for 2020 and will be back in touch in the new year when we will be working again on our current project again. |
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Gregorius - Trailer on YouTube |
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| Lacquer pictures |
26.11.2020 |
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and other news |
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Current (before Christmas):
Our "Lackballett" online event from last Sunday went surprisingly well and at the end of it all, resulted in a good little discussion via zoom verbally, as well as with very positive messages in the chat.
Some participants asked about the possibility to get the video images created by the dancers - actually by the moving coloured figurines - as wall pictures. This question had already been asked by some people of the audience last year after our live events.
Here is the good news:
Yes, we have "curated" 10 motifs from the canvas results as 2K-screenshots, which we can have produced as picture prints if they are ordered from us specifically. Due to the resolution, the picture sizes are ideally printable at 60 x 45cm, the maximum size would be 80 x 60cm.
We have put together a brochure for the 10 motifs, which we can send as a PDF file, if you are interested.
No, we have not made any pictures so far, so you cannot look at them "in nature". A single test picture was auctioned off for the finissage of our last year's exhibition. In this respect we know how good these pictures can look (photo in a wooden frame or printed on ultraHD AluDibond).
If you are interested in this form of our artistic work, please send us an email. The proceeds of these pictures finance on the one hand the high-quality production of the pictures, on the other hand they are used as a royalty for the benefit of the video artist Yoann Trellu and partly finance our ongoing theatre work.
Please send a mail to: info@theater-der-klaenge.de
Otherwise:
Corona also has its good sides: With federal funding from the german "Neustart Kultur" (DTHG) fund, our rehearsal studio has been equipped with high-quality air purifiers, which are said to be able to filter out 98% of viruses in the air, and - in connection with this - we have finally installed an air conditioning system. The former ensembles, which sometimes froze in our rehearsal studio or had to rehearse in summer at greenhouse temperatures, will be envious...
The most important last thing:
On Saturday, 14 November, we completed a ten-week rehearsal phase with a newly composed ensemble, which will continue for one week in January 21, before the premiere in March 2021. The challenge of this new creation is to create an auditory-visually interactive dance production for a full dome, as it is offered to us by the Planetarium Bochum...
More is not yet revealed:
but look forward to a real step out of conventional theatres, with the possibility of a live 180-degree video scenography and immersive audio with 64 loudspeakers in a spatial audio system, in which the live dancers will still be the focus and centre of the entire interactive event. |
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Website Theater der Klaenge |
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| "Das Lackballett" on Sunday, 22 November 2020 as evening event |
13.11.2020 |
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Online |
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If Corona hadn't cut us off for November, we would have performed our "Lackballett" live on Sunday, 22 November 2020 at the Arnoldinum in Steinfurt (D). This guest performance might be postponed until spring 2021...
We would like to offer an online replacement event for the possibility of seeing and hearing "Das Lackballett" once again in 2020, and together with the Fundación Goethe, which invited us last year with our piece "TRIAS - Das triadische Ballett" for a tour in Spain, we invite you to an online event on Sunday, 22.11. at 7:30 pm.
If you register by e-mail, we will send you an online meeting link. With this link you can join the meeting on 22.11. from 7:15 pm on via your web browser. At 7:30 pm we welcome the audience online and give an introduction to the play. As the audience is expected to be Spanish as well, this introduction will be in the form of a Spanish subtitled video of about 10 minutes duration. Afterwards we will give the link into the chat to watch the complete video recording of our "Lackballet" (65min). The choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and the director J.U.Lensing will be in the chat of the meeting the whole time and will be available for comments, questions and answers during the transmission as well as for a quarter of an hour afterwards.
The ensemble for "Das Lackballett" didn´t receive any fee due to the cancellation of the live event in Steinfurt. So it would be a help, if you would donate an entrance fee for this event in the amount of normal tickets to the Theater der Klaenge.
Please send your registration-request to: info@theater-der-klaenge.de
Please donate to:
Klangtheater e.V. - IBAN DE05 3016 0213 2501 6820 15 / BIC GENODED1DNE |
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Website of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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| The THEATER DER KLÄNGE in the Corona Year |
05.11.2020 |
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State of affairs - early November 2020 |
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Our last "Theatre on demand" action the past weekend with the video of "Das Lackballett" unfortunately does not mean the end of the Corona consequences for our work as well.
Currently we are still in the rehearsal process for our new piece "Man and Art Figure in the Dome-Theater" and hope to use the remaining 8 days, which are left to bring our piece together, in full cast. Air exchangers, disinfectants, mouthguards, etc. currently still allow rehearsals in our rehearsal studio in Düsseldorf.
At the same time, more and more performance opportunities are breaking away. The guest performance with our "TRIAS-Suite" at "Bauhaus 100 im Westen" in Bocholt, which was cancelled in March, has probably been cancelled forever without replacement. The recently cancelled guest performance with "Das Lackballett" in Steinfurt will probably be made up for in spring 2021. Our planned premiere of the new piece in the Bochum Planetarium for January 2021 is in the balance, as is the guest performance with "TRIAS" in Viersen planned for April...
Our appeal for donations has raised just over 2500 € in funds through the various ways of donating to us. Together with a donation from the Heinrich-Heine-Kreis Düsseldorf, we were recently able to at least pay out the fees to those involved in the cancelled Bocholt guest performance.
After initial uncertainty at the beginning of the first lockdown in spring, numerous funding opportunities have been set up by the german federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. We have been supported by some of these programs, so that our rehearsal studio could be and is currently being equipped for Corona and we were even able to compensate for cancelled rehearsal dates later in June and currently with the additional funds.
We would like to thank the National Performance Network with its program #steppingout, the NRW Office for Free Performing Arts with its production support, the Performing Arts Fund with its program #takecare and the DTHG program #Neustart Kultur. A donation from the van Meeteren Foundation and countless individual donations contribute to the fact that in 2020 we were and are able to work financially as carefree as possible.
For the cancelled "Lackballett" guest performance, we will organize an online performance on November 22. More about this in the next newsletter.
Please come through the second lockdown in good health and keep your fingers crossed that the figures in December/January return to normal so that we can realize our planned premiere in early 2021.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) |
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The Planetarium in Bochum |
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| Theatre on demand: The lacquer ballet |
26.10.2020 |
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Online from Thu, october 2, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, november 1 to 10 pm |
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Our online action "Theatre on Demand" comes to its preliminary end this week. Started for the Corona lockdown directly in the third week of March, we will conclude this online supply of theatre performances with our latest production "Das Lackballett".
The theatres are open again, and we still have the hope to welcome you live to our new premiere in the theatre in January. Still... or already no more? We would have also liked to invite you to a live performance of our "Lackballet" on 22 November in Steinfurt. But due to the current second wave of the pandemic, this performance was cancelled by the city of Steinfurt last week.
So now - until further notice - only as a video recording online from Thursday, 29.10. from 7 pm to Sunday, 1. 11.2020 to 10 pm:
"The Lacquer Ballet - One last colour-sound rush by Oskar Schlemmer" is the full title of our production from 2018, which premiered in Dusseldorf in January 2019 and subsequently had several very successful guest performances in Germany and abroad in 2019.
The former Bauhaus master Oskar Schlemmer designed a lacquer ballet as his last stage work in the early 1940s, which was not performed in public - as he was considered a so-called "degenerate artist" at the time. It was performed once on 6 December 1941 in Wuppertal during a festival of Herbert's Wuppertal Inking Factory - which employed him at that time as an artistic assistant and instructor for lacquer experiments - and has not been taken up again until today.
The Dusseldorf THEATER DER KLAENGE took the planned activities for 100 years of Bauhaus as an opportunity to deal with this "Rhine-Bergian" work by Oskar Schlemmer and to continue the idea in a contemporary form and to perform it again 77 years later. Firstly, the figurines designed and realised by Oskar Schlemmer were reinterpreted. The reinterpretation was mainly about an interpretation of material and colour, as the subject of lacquer today allows different answers than in the 1940s.
On the other hand, both the sculptural movement possibilities and the resulting choreographies in the form of figurine dances and a final "round dance" were newly developed for a full evening programme.
The "Lackballett" is embedded in an interactive live video scenography and interactive live electronic music, as the THEATER DER KLAENGE has developed and tested since 2005 for several intermedia dance productions. In this way, the bridge from classical to digital modernity is built!
The result is a contemporary performance of colour and form, a "colour-sound intoxication" which, in combination with lacquer figurines, turns the theme of lacquer pictures into light paintings that are constantly reshaping, overpainting and appearing in a constantly different way through physical performance and music. In the spirit of Oskar Schlemmer, this is a contemporary art action as well as a dance concert! |
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THEATER DER KLAENGE: Theatre on demand |
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| Theatre on demand: The silver prince |
17.10.2020 |
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Online from Thu, October 22, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, October 25 to 10 pm |
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The research 2014/15 on the Bauhaus for our production "TRIAS - Das triadische Ballett" led to an intensive study of the founder and long-time director of the Bauhaus: the architect Walter Gropius.
From 1919-1928, Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, was also the director. Those nine years form the framework for this new THEATER DER KLÄNGE production. Nine years that are marked by political quarrels over the founding of the Bauhaus, by the struggle to implement the innovative ideas and develop a curriculum, i.e. to fill them with life. Privately, these years were also marked by the end of his first marriage and the beginning of his second. Walter Gropius was already called "the Silver Prince" at the Bauhaus because of the early greying of his hair, but also because of the noblesse of his appearance.
"The Silver Prince - Nine views of Walter Gropius and the bauhaus" is a theatre play conceived for the media. It reflects the nine years in which Walter Gropius was committed to the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. The person of Gropius is portrayed in different periods of time by the people who accompanied him particularly intensively during this time, i.e. from different perspectives and thus very differently. The contemporaries embodied by the ensemble, who each portray Gropius as a changing narrator, are all historical figures: Max Thedy, Hans Groß, Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Alma Mahler, Ise Gropius, Fritz Hesse and Hannes Mayer - opponents, loyal employees, wives, politicians and institutional successors.
Social and/or artistic vision, political struggle and intrigues, love, burning and burn-out, avant-garde versus quickly becoming yesterday again - many themes are reflected in these views on Walter Gropius as a person.
In a total of 30 scenes, six actors slip into flying changes open on stage, in a total of ten main roles as well as numerous supporting roles. The video scenography was created especially for the play. It structures the mosaic, indicates spaces and time periods and provides further background information.
"The Silver Prince" is the first theatre material on this exciting topic of German history. It also deals with the question of the significance of modernity for our time.
We are showing a complete recording of the premiere series in Düsseldorf in January 2018. The video is online from Thu, 22 October from 7 pm to Sunday, 25 October until 10 pm |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE: Theatre on demand |
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| Theater on demand: Bauhaus Ballets |
15.10.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 15th - 7pm until Sunday, 18th of october 2020 - 10pm |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE started in 1987 very consciously referring aesthetically back to the Bauhaus stage works of the 1920ies.
"The Mechanical Ballet" goes back to two photographs and to descriptions of the former Bauhaus student Kurt Schmidt, handed down to us by the book "The Stage At The Bauhaus" from 1923. In 1987 we dared coming up with a reconstruction of the figurines showed on these photographs. Dealing with these figurines led us to the creation of a new choreography as well as a new composition of the stage music for piano, trombone and percussion. The result in 1987/88 was a great success with the public and has by now seen almost 200 performances, not only in many German theaters but also abroad: in France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Israel and India. "The Mechanical Ballet" has been a permanent part of our repertoire ever since and we are at present the only ensemble, that reenacted this ballet - originally created for the Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar in 1923 - and who is able to present it in a life performance.
In 2015, calling it "TRIAS", we reinterpreted "The Triadic Ballet", following a project plan by Oskar Schlemmer from 1922. The formal structure of first 11 scenes as well as the recreation of the figurines are almost identical with the way Schlemmer himself designed them for their first release in Stuttgart and Weimar in 1922/23.
Differing from other reconstructions of the 1960ies and 70ies our approach of newly interpreting this stage work was to focus on the humorous, ludicrous, and even carnivalesque elements within this figurine ballet. All of the choreographies, the music and the final 12th scene are new creations made by THEATER DER KLÄNGE.
"bauhaus ballets", our new evening-filling program, brought in 2017 both of our Bauhaus productions together: "The Mechanical Ballet" and "TRIAS".
"bauhaus ballets" was first performed in 2017 in Düsseldorf´s Capitol Theatre - celebrating the 30th anniversary of the foundation of THEATER DER KLÄNGE, the THEATRE OF SOUNDS.
The program is now part of your guest performance repertoire.
From October 15th to October 18th 2020 we will offer both pieces online in video stream in full length.
We still ask for donations instead of tickets for this event (see our website) |
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Theatre on demand - Bauhaus Ballets |
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| Theatre on demand: Art of the Dance Fugue |
07.10.2020 |
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Online from Thu, October 8, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, October 11 to 10 pm |
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It was in 1751, that Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Art of the Fugue" was first published posthumously. "The Art Of The Fugue" is the final result of more than ten years of exercises with contrapunctal composing, put into a musical score for four voices.
Whenever Theater der Klaenge, the Theatre of Sounds, has created choreographies, especially those for the intermedial plays, it has been our wish and aim to apply contrapunctal techniques from musical composing to the creation of choreographies.
Contemporary choreographers who dealt with the musical work "The Art of the Fugue" so far mainly concentrated on dancing to Bach's music. Our interest has been deaper, touching the structual level: we have been seeking to acquire the contrapunctal techniques that Bach used for his work and to transform these procedures into patterns of movement, thus not only dancing to the music of the fugue but dancing according to the techniques of the fugue.
"The Art of Dancing the Fugue" is a choreography for four dancers - two women, two men. It is meant to examine how visual music can be created today by four moving bodies and furthermore how today's dance and motion technologies for modern dancers are an aesthetic prerequisit for such a creation. Polyphony in this context should be understood literally as several voices: in this case the expression of four body languages in order to articulate this well ordered, punctuated and harmonized dialogue of four individuals to a collective body.
The recording of this production from 2016 can be seen online as part of the current Theater der Klaenge programme "Theatre on demand": Thursday, 8 October from 7pm to Sunday, 11 October until 10pm. |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Theatre on demand: Kontraste |
30.09.2020 |
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Online from Thu, october 1, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, october 4 to 10 pm |
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Jacqueline Fischer, long-standing dancer and choreographer for the Dusseldorf THEATER DER KLAENGE, worked 2015/16 on her second evening programme. After having created the very successful evening of dance entitled "Ich ist ein Anderer" ("I is another") for the THEATER DER KLÄNGE in 2008, this piece was dedicated to "Contrasts" the feeling of being free within performance-oriented societies – such as the one in Germany.
Free in the sense of one's culture or different ethnical origin, free in the sense of "not being able to perform or keep up" because of illness, age or lack of education.
This piece concentrated on the human being, its origin, its environment and is focused on the respective connections and contrasts, in order to unveil its abilites and direct the view onto all that it is able do.
An international cast of performers from Germany, Greece, Chile, the USA, Japan and the Congo have created a music and dance theatre programme on this question which also used video scenography and electronic live music in addition to acting, vocal and dance.
The play was premiered in January 2016 at the Forum Freies Theater - Juta Dusseldorf. We show a recording from January 16th 2016 from this premiere series. Instead of tickets to this online performance we still ask for donations. |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Theater on demand: TRIAS - The triadic ballet |
21.09.2020 |
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Online from Thu, September 24, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, September 27 to 10 pm |
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In our Theater on Demand series, we are approaching the present with our new version of the "triadic ballet", as we have been holding this piece in our repertoire since 2015 and we are playing it continuously since then.
The triadic ballet of Oskar Schlemmer is his most famous work for the theatrestage and this which is connected mostly with the stage of the Bauhaus.
So little it was to be seen during the twenties, the pictures of the ballet are connected today on the reconstructions and new creations of the sixties and seventies. It was necessary to add a new interpretation to these.
Instead of a stiff one to one costumerecreation the costumes are so interpreted as Schlemmer had developed them simply and originally as an enlargement of ballet costumes and stage figurines (also of the puppet theatre). Instead of automated, stare to dehumanised figurines to a mechanised music TRIAS picks out as a central theme the breaking off, the explosion and physical joy and musical action in the music and dance theatre. Instead of a celebration of high constructive Bauhaus art, TRIAS focusses itself on the clowneske and carnival stresses in Oskar Schlemmer's access to the stage.
TRIAS of the THEATER DER KLAENGE is a new interpretation with the dance and musical possibilities of the 21st century. It ventures in 2014/15 for the first time for nearly 40 years and more than 90 years after his première.
Besides, TRIAS does not want to animate more or less as the inheritance of the classical modern art, but also the mind of the "roaring twenties" and with today's physical and musical technologies to make a today's (Bauhaus) stage party!
The piece was newly created in 2014/15 with relatively small financial means by the Theater der Klaenge. Thanks to generous support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2019 and the ordering of duplicates of our figurines by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, also in 2019, a completely new figurine set was created last year, very much based on the originals by Oskar Schlemmer, with which the Theater der Klaenge has been touring since May 2019.
For this reason, a new complete recording of our 2019 guest performance at the Sayner Huette was recorded, which can now be viewed online in form of a HD-Video from Thursday, September 24 from 7 pm to Sun, September 27, 2020 until 10 pm.
Instead of ticket sales for this performance we ask for donations (see info on our website) |
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Theater on demand |
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| Theater on demand: CODA |
16.09.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 17th - 7pm until Sunday, 20th of september 2020 - 10pm |
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The THEATER DER KLÄNGE has been working for several years with intermedia forms of dance, electronic music and interactive live video.
As a continuation of the electronic-intermedia works HOEReographien and SUITE intermediale, a new work entitled "CODA - Bach's Cello Suite in C Minor" has been developed for the 2013/14 season.
The focus of the work in CODA was on the dancing interaction possibilities with light and video.
J.S. Bach's music - and especially the dance-cello suites - are in themselves a work of variation on dances that were "old-fashioned" in their time. Bach uses the possibility of going beyond the practical purpose to expand, vary and contrapuntally reflect on dance forms still known at that time. Taking up this approach and continuing it with today's staging and musical means, a visual music in the structure of Bach's music was created for the six cello movements by Bach through dance and composed light.
The baroque music inspires references to the very geometric dance forms of the baroque, as well as to ornamentation in light, which in turn uses the dancing body as a moving image surface. Thus a very sensual, history-bridging work of art was created, consisting of dance to Bach's cello music in a very modern, moving light implementation based on Baroque dance forms such as Allemande, Sarabande or Gigue.
In the second part of the program the 6 dance movements of the Cello Suite were repeated. In the repetition, however, the dancers, through their movements, were at the same time musicians of an electronic music, which takes Bach's music as its musical material, which is played electronically through movement dynamics. The resulting media music also directly controlled the interactive video presentations of the theater scenography, which in turn quotes baroque scenic approaches.
We show the complete video recording of this play from 2014 from Thu, 17.9. from 7 p.m. to Sun, 20.9.2020 to 10 p.m. Instead of buying a ticket, we still ask for donations. You can find more information on that on our website. |
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Theater on demand: CODA |
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| VANITAS and Reigen in Lack |
08.09.2020 |
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Theater on demand: double publication |
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On Thursday, September 10, THEATER DER KLÄNGE will publish two videos online simultaneously.
- The first is the complete recording of the 2012 production "VANITAS - Schall und Rauch". This piece was created on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE:
In "Vanitas", 25 scenes deal with the appearance and vanity of human actions. Vanitas is an important motif in literature, art, theater and music of the baroque age. It is the culmination of a continuous tradition. Beauty and decay are linked together. Vanitas motifs show that man has no power over life. Most striking are images of the past and the decay. Texts or music also make the past and passing into a theme. In the simplest case, it is a representation that makes it clear that it presents an absent person. This absence in presence is a paradox that is repeatedly taken up in modern art history and theory.
"Vanitas" can be seen online from Thursday, 10.9. from 7 pm to Sunday, 13.9. to 10 pm. (Link see below)
- The second video is a short dance clip entitled "Reigen in Lack", recently assembled by J.U.Lensing, which will be published online at the same time as the public premiere in Carcassone (F) on Thursday, 10.9. at 7 pm as part of the "Danses-Cité" festival at the Auditorium Fabrique des Arts Carcassone.
"Reigen in Lack" is based on sequences from the Theater der Klaenge - dance production "Das Lackballett". Recordings of the dancers participating in this ballet merge with video "Lack"-paintings, which were generated live at the "Lackballett" on a screen from these recordings via computer.
This first public projection of the dance clip "Reigen in Lack" will be introduced on September 10th by the dance "Die Kugelhände" from the THEATER DER KLÄNGE piece "TRIAS - Das triadische Ballett", performed live in Carcassone by choreographer Jacqueline Fischer.
Reigen in Lack: https://vimeo.com/447546255
Festival "Danses-Cité": https://www.lagaleriechoregraphique.eu/live |
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Theater on demand |
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| Theater on demand: SUITE intermediale |
02.09.2020 |
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Online from Thu, September 3, 2020 from 7 pm to Sun, September 6 to 10 pm |
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This fall we want to complete our online performances in form of a "Theater on Demand", which we have started in March for the Corona Lockdown, so that you can see and hear our works of the last 10 years in full length online for one weekend each until the end of October 2020. Instead of tickets to these online video performances we ask for donations!
We will continue the series from Thursday, September 3rd at 7 pm on with our creation from 2010 "SUITE intermediale".
In "SUITE intermediale" dancers use space as an audio-visual instrument. The "Inter-Media Suite", is made up of seven self-contained, audio-visual compositions. It is a collective creation of a choreographer and a director together with video artists, a composer and performers (who are simultaneously dancers and musicians).
On the visual level, the dance performance is transformed into a three dimensional video and light environment. On the acoustic level, the electronic transformation of sound, generated live or electronically, is interpreted and controlled by the movements of the dancers.
The elements of teamwork, interaction and cooperation play decisive roles, because the piece is not about a single authorship but is rather, a collective development in the combining of diverse competences. The equal treatment of music algorithms, video algorithms and choreographic modular material requires from all participating persons, a deep respect for the developmental process, and for the efforts of the equally participating artists, from various disciplines. A great liberty of creation possibilities exist for the performers, because they are not only dancers, they are visual transmitters for the video input, and they are musicians of the composer's live offered sound structures as well. At the same time, they have to improvise structurally within a frame, which is arranged with the choreographer, working varyingly with fixed movement material. A detailed knowledge of the interactive techniques is necessary and comparable to a musician who knows his instrument exactly and who knows perfectly well how to play it.
The scenographic and acoustic spaces only emerge through the actions of the dancers. "SUITE intermediale" brings together "Musique concrète" with interactive electronic music as well as theories of "absolute film" developed through modern real time transformation of sound by computer. In each performance the real time composition comes to a varied form.
"SUITE intermediale" was the logical continuation and completion of an interactive-electronic theater approach, which began as early as 1993 with the piece "Figur und Klang im Raum" (Figure and Sound in Space) and was significantly developed further in "HOEReographien" in 2005. The technology used, as well as the intermedial approach to it, also played a decisive role in subsequent pieces such as "Vanitas", "Coda" or, more recently, in the "Lackballett".
With the new piece "Das Kugeltheater", which we are developing for a premiere in January 2021, this approach will be consistently expanded to a 3D space for video and audio... |
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English Website of the THEATER DER KLAENGE |
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| We are back in "business" |
27.08.2020 |
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On September 1st the rehearsals for our new project will start |
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Since Monday, August 24, our office has been manned again and our new employee Julia Roth can be reached there Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
On Tuesday, September 1, 2020, a rehearsal phase for a new creation will finally start again, which is to be premiered in January 2021. The THEATER DER KLÄNGE will use an intermedial ball-theater in NRW (D) for this purpose...
But before that we will be present in various other forms:
Next week we will continue our online video series "Theatre on demand" with our creation "SUITE intermediale" (2010). The nine productions from the years 2010 to 2019 will then be publicly available online in streaming form every week from Thursday to Sunday.
On Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12, 2020 our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer will be a guest at the Festival Mixité in Carcassone (F). There she will perform live the dance to "Die Kugelhände" from our version of the "triadic ballet". In addition, the public premiere of a short film created by J.U.Lensing with the title "Reigen in Lack" will take place there. From September 11th we will make this short film publicly accessible online.
Originally, "Das Lackballett" was invited to Carcassone. But unfortunately this guest performance also fell victim to the Corona lockdowns!
However, "Das Lackballett" is invited to the Arnoldinum in Steinfurt for Sunday, November 22, 2020. Unless a second wave of Covids thwarts us again, the "Lackballet" can be seen and heard live in November!
We will be back next week for the video premiere of the "SUITE intermediale" and wish you a good start into the 2020/21 season! |
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Our webiste in english |
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| Holidays also online |
29.07.2020 |
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until the end of august 2020 |
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The THEATER DER KLANGE has - in spite of the Corona crisis - gone on working the whole spring. Alternatively to the canceled performances in spring and summer we started the videostreaming format "Theatre on demand" the 19th of March, 2020 with the complete videorecording of our first production "The mechanical ballet". Till last sunday we have offered every week always from Thursday till Sunday chronologically in each case a complete recording of our pieces since 1987 online as video streaming and in addition to that we started a Fundraisingcampaign which has brought a good of 50% of the required failure sum to us.
"Besides" we have maintained the company of our Artistic Office in emergency occupation and to a good part in home office and have hired since the middle of June a new employee who will full work for us from the 24th of August, 2020 on in our office.
The in March - because of Corona - uncompleted pretests to our new project were resumed in June by support of the program "#takecare" in single test form and with online co-operation of our videodesigner for three experimental weeks.
Even if all this sounds like "half power" and is not at all comparable with our exceedingly tumultuous year 2019, a company holidays break should be granted for us. Nevertheless this also concerns our video streaming.
Together with the start of our work for the coming season from the end of August on we will also take up again our video streaming. We have still nine our HD-Videos from the last 10 years:
"SUITE intermediale",
"Vanitas",
"CODA",
"TRIAS",
"Contrasts",
"The art of the dance fuge",
"Bauhaus ballets",
"The silver prince"
and "The lacquer ballet".
We hope to have you again as Onlineguests for the 9 weeks from September on until the beginning of November, 2020. Until than enjoy the summer free of screens! |
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Theater der Klange Website |
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| Theatre on demand: Johnnys Jihad |
22.07.2020 |
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Online from the 23rd of july - 7pm till the 26nd of july, 2020 – 10pm. |
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"Johnny´s Jihad - an american Taliban" is based on a true story.
At the end of 2001, twenty-year-old John Walker Lindh, an American from San Francisco, was arrested by his fellow countrymen in Afghanistan for fighting on the side of the Taliban. Why did this son of liberal parents convert to Islam and join the worst fundamentalists as a holy warrior? "I was trapped in the free world," Pommerening has him reply. "Freedom is nothing / It means nothing to me."
In 1999, John Walker Lindh, a young American, lost his faith in Western values and found a new ideology in Islam. John searched for adventure and the true meaning of the Koran in Yemen and Pakistan until entering an Afghan Taliban training camp, where he soon became a convert to the cause.
Captured in 2001, shortly after fighting broke out between the Afghan Northern Alliance and the Taliban, he survived the bloody prison uprising of Mazar i Sharif only to be captured by a fellow American. Special Forces agent Dave Tyson was stunned to find his enemy was an "American Taliban" and agonized over whether to respect Human Rights or apply the "logic of war" as dictated by General Dostum of the allied Northern Alliance...
This gripping, intimate play is a political thriller with Shakespeare-like qualities in which language is supported by Indian percussion music. It deals with basic issues, such as "Western values" versus torture, and Muslim fanaticism versus power games.
The text of Marc von Pommerening offered the ideal basis for a musicalization of text on the base of a rhythm composition, which J.U.Lensing compiled together with three actors and the Indian musician Debasish Bhattacharjee (assistant: Conny Rave).
Online from Thursday, 23rd of July from 7pm to Sunday, 26th of July till 10pm
Instead of tickets we still ask for donations! |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Theatre on demand: I is another |
15.07.2020 |
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Online from the 16th of july - 7pm till the 19th of july, 2020 – 10pm. |
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I is another (Arthur Rimbaud)
Modern literature was quick to recognize the difficulty - the impossibility even - of constructing a narrative with the "I" or the "ego" as its unifying element, whether this was the author's own "ego" or that of a fictional character.
Starting from a famous quote from the poet Arthur Rimbaud, - "I is another" - the actors explore and comment on a series of different types and prototypes-, returning again and again to the question of what constitutes personal identity and actively encouraging the audience to reflect on this question from different angles.
The "play" is not so much about the way professional actors recreate a person's existential environment (what Bordieu calls the "habitus") through posture, voice and gestures but rather about how people and bodies are re-modelled to reflect the multitude of types available to us in modern society.
Are social classes, status, wealth, poverty, power, helplessness genetically "determined" - or are they the result of ego- modelling? What defines the individual and how? What factors can suddenly change a previously conventional life? What is meant by character, ethos or point of view in a world of stage-managed "I's"?
"I is another" mirrors on the physical as well as the verbal level (reflected through the words of the text) what is happening everywhere today as people invest in self representation and social role-playing!
Instead of buying tickets for this we ask for funding our actual activities! |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Theatre on demand: vicious circles |
08.07.2020 |
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Online from the 9th of july - 7pm till the 12th of july, 2020 – 10pm. |
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In 2006 we ventured after religious subjects (Ludus Danielis in 1994 and Gregorius in 2004) also once the employment of the Satan. But - nomen est omen - was this creation one of the most difficult works in our history for the anewed ensemble...
People that would otherwise have remained silent and unheard give a first-hand account of their everyday lives, their hopes and frustrations, their pain and their suffering. These portraits of their personal and social lives together form an uncompromising picture of present-day society, marked by increasing competition and pressure, structural mass unemployment, welfare cuts and the marginalising of ever larger social groups. They all suffer in one way or another because of social conditions; they are all overwhelmed by the unreasonable demands and humiliations they have to bear. Through a series of interviews, we learn about the precarious conditions that make life so difficult for them, and about which they can usually do nothing.
These poor people - especially immigrants without any income - are beset by vague fears. "Dwellers in Hell" sets out to portray their feelings, desires, fears and hopelessness in the street, in prison, in court or in a cellar in the city. The play's originality lies in the way it depicts them in all their humanity without resorting to clichés.
The play gives a voice to people whose concerns and problems would otherwise pass unnoticed. The aim is not to pity or laugh at or spurn these people, but to understand them!
In particular the original interview passages lent to the scenic action as a soundtrack an affected making power, which was published in parallel also as an audio book.
In memory: We make this online action above all for making our performances visible, although performances are actually restricted. An audience ordinarily pays for this entrance fees. Instead of this we ask for donations for our topical activities!
Online from from the 9th of july - 7pm till the 12th of july, 2020 – 10pm. |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Theatre on demand: HOEReographien |
01.07.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 2nd - 7pm until Sunday, 5th - 10pm |
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"HEAReographics - a dance concert" was the title of our creation for the year 2005.
Questioning the classical dance dependence on music was the starting point of the "Heareography" project.
A cycle of single pieces (Soli, Pas de Deux, Trios, Quartett) in the form of dance through which electronic music is produced, dance that develops video sculptures and dance from live-music structured improvisations, a constellation that, with mixed shapes, results in an overall visual composition in the form of "autonomous" dramatic art that supports the concept of "autonomous music".
Online from Thursday, 2nd - 7pm until Sunday, 5th - 10pm |
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Theatre on demand - HEAReographics |
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| Theatre on demand: Gregorius |
24.06.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 25 - 7pm until sunday, 28 of june 2020 - 10pm |
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"Gregorius on the stone - a legend about incest, love, atonement and choosing" was called our creation in a renewed cooperation with the music ensemble ESTAMPIE in the year 2004.
Based on Harmann von Aue's middle-age story "Gregorius", Thomas Mann wrote the novel "Der Erwählte". The story deals with double incest, arrogance, dazzle, remorse —which, finally, led "Gregorius" to become the Pope - and this was the basis for a theatrical-musical adaptation by the Theater der Klänge in a joint work with the "ESTAMPIE" ensemble specialized in ancient music.
Those who remember the successful 1995 production "LUDUS DANIELIS", which was also a joint work by both Ensembles, can imagine what is to be expected from a theatrical-musical directing by J. U. Lensing. The integration of live electronics in the musical process was developed by composer Thomas Neuhaus for the performances of Theater der Klaenge during the years 2000 until 2004. Ancient music is put together with live electronics, theatre and dance. The aesthetic framework includes musical theatre, image theatre, dance theatre and stories by minstlers, in a play that lasted for two hours. Besides, a music that ventures into the confluence of medieval sounds performed by ethnic instruments and electronic sounds.
Clemente Fernandez and J.U.Lensing wrote a new linguistic version based on von Aues and Manns texts. Besides, the central figures performed as dancers while the story was spoken in musically acompanied monologic form of two narrators and the singing voices of ESTAMPIE. This "epic narrative style" was a result of numerous developments, which were developed in the preceding pieces "LUDUS DANIELIS", "The birds" and "Megalopolis".
The result in form of a music-theatre-staging was played with success in Dusseldorf and Munich. In 2004 the time between the Dusseldorf and Munich performances was used by the relatively small ensembe for a shooting of the scenic material in real locations. This videomaterial camped down till 2011 in a box and on the occasion of archiving works in 2012 the feature "Gregorius on the stone" was edited and resulted in a feature-film which is available since then on DVD.
The theatrical version was material for an extensive PHD-thesis on the subject "Middle Ages adoption at the contemporary music theatre" from Andrea Schindler M.A at the university of Bamberg in 2009. |
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Theatre on demand: Gregorius |
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| Theatre on demand: Modul|a|t|o|r |
17.06.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 18th of june - 7pm until sunday, 21st of june 2020 - 10pm |
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"Modul/a/t/o/r - Le Corbusier" was the title for our creation in the year 2002.
The "Modulor" is a measuring tool which is based on the fusion of the human form with mathematics. The human figure with a raised arm creates, at the main junctures of spatial displacement, these being the foot, solar plexus, head and the fingertips of the raised arm, three intervals, which result in a series of golden sections. These are named after Fibonacci. In addition, the science of mathematics offers both the simplest as well the most distinctive possibilities of variation within any given value: the unity, the duality, both the golden sections.
This formal system, based on human proportions, as was demonstrated centuries ago in the work of Vituvius and Leonardo da Vinci, acts as both the formula and the generator for danced modules. These result, in interaction with a camera tracking system, as well as a microphone and a camera, in a multimedia project with the human body as its subject matter.
Since it is not tied by any particular text or dramatic context, this system is able to create a free basis, using both the sound material provided by the body itself (voice, breath, floor noises) as well as visual sequences of the moving body using videosampling. In this way a sequence of single modules for one to four dancers and two actors will be created. These provide sound and image, as well as acting as modulators for their own material, as movement is translated into data.
The whole piece was an extensive scenic collage about the questioned theories by Le Corbusier. The interactive, dancer's broads scenes went out first from the self-sedate basis:
As long as no one will enter the stage area the stage is dead (no picture. no sound). If a person enters this sensorised scenic space, a visual videoscenery (Szenography) and sound originates from the presence of a moving person within that stage-space.
After the performance series we filmed four theatrical sequences from "Modul|a|t|o|r" as short films. The interactively, intermedia Dance-Soli were a starting point for the following further development in the research project "PCI-Performer computer interaction" which was follwoed in 2005 by the piece "HOEReographien". |
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Website of the THEATER DER KLAENGE |
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| Theatre on demand: Megalopolis |
10.06.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 11th - 7pm until Sunday, 14th - 10pm |
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"MEGALOPOLIS - songs about the Megacities" was our creation for 2001:
10 authors from the 10 biggest towns of the world wrote at the request of the Theater der Klaenge in each case a song text on the development of their town into a Megalopolis (cities with more than 10 million inhabitants). These 10 texts - written in the respective national language - were libretti for "song compositions".
In cooperation of the composers Thomas Neuhaus and J.U.Lensing, as well as the actor Clemente Fernandez and the singer Birgit Wegemann originated settings of these "songs". Besides, the interpreters used their vocal qualities for the interpretation of the respective texts. Both oral interpretations were tonal material for an electronic-sound subsequent treatment. The mixture of direct voice and electronic subsequent treatment proved the real song composition. These "songs" were orchestrated in each case with a soundscape of the city.
Continued interesting for the interactive and intermedia work at the Theater der Klaenge and for the first time since "figure and sound in the space", Megalöopolis marked the beginning of the use of gestural controlling of the vocal sound modulations by the interpreters themselves: With the help of a camera-based "Tracking Systems" the body movements and space movements of the Performer could be moved in data for the electronic transformation of the voices. The interpreters became therefore not only by their vocal properties acoustic megaphones of the texts, but also by their action - or the action of dancers modulators of their sound-material. The whole live generated music was a basis of a total of 10 dances which were choreographed by the guest choreographer Carlos Cortizo.
MEGALOPOLIS was in its electronic-interactive work an establishing production to the 1993rd first essay of "figure and sound in the space" and starting point for the substantially more interactive, intermedia subsequent productions "Modul|a|t|o|r", "HOEReographien", "SUITE intermediale", "Vanitas", "Coda" and at last "The lacquer ballet"
The soundtrack and the texts to this piece were continued in an audio book with the same title, which appeared in 2003 in the label HoerZeichen-Verlag. This audio book was chosen in 2004 in the audio book top list of the german radiostation hr2. |
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Theatre on demand / a GoFundMe action |
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| Theatre on demand: The rite of spring |
03.06.2020 |
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Online-Videostreaming from Th, 4th of june 7pm until Su, 7th of june 10pm |
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"The rite of spring - The dynamism of violence" was the title of our production in 1999, wich marked a new direction for the THEATER DER KLAENGE.
Igor Stravinsky composed "The Rite of Spring" between 1911 and 1913 for the "Ballets russes". The opening in Paris in 1913 gave rise to a scandal. The reason was the till then unheard artistic application of brutality and power to the musical, and of the primitive to the realm of dance. But that alone could not have been the cause for discontent. One year before the outbreak of the first world war, there was a general feeling that the long period of peace of the "Belle Epoque" could soon experience a brutal, eruptive and barbaric ending.
Still today - and for that piece nearing the end of this ultimately brutal twentieth century and likewise after a long period of peace in Europe, the signs are ever increasing that uncontrolled outbreaks of violence - also in Europe, are multiplying. "The butcher doesn't content himself with economical killing. He wants to feel what he does. For this reason he tortures and mutilates his victims. He kills in mass. Violence holds as proof of his affiliations. - The sense of the excess is the act itself, the blood bath. The killers rile themselves up mutually to the kill." (Wolfgang Sofsky in "Die Zeit" ("Time") 15/98)
Stravinsky has described in "The Rite of Spring" this ritualistic process of the "blood victim". "…one day I was overcome by the vision of a great heathen ceremony: all kinds of men were sitting in a circle and watched the death dance of a young girl who was about to be sacrificed…" The theme is unfortunately still, or again, current. It was essential to find its relevance to our times.
The music of Igor Strawinsky was played at first original in his version for piano for 4 hands for a solo dance skilfully choreographed by Joachim Schlömer. This solo artistically dancing presentation before pictures of Francis Bacon is interrupted abruptly by culprits who "attack" this event and select themselves the "virgin" in the form of the solo dancer as the victim.
The disgrace process of the cultural presentation, violates the protagonists on the stage (pianist and dancer), the audience, as well as Strawinsky's music. The music is loudly continued in a Tecno-music treatment. Only when the victim is selected and tortured in a ritual form, the music from the loudspeakers is again Strawinsky in the orchestra version of 1960, conducted by himself.
This piece marks an exception in the way the THEATER DER KLANGE was going on. It is the only piece which was produced in form of an action theatre and which is completely based on a ready music of a famous composer.
It pretended in the 12th year of the existence of the THEATER DER KLAENGE a layout for another artistic direction, which gets on in a discourse with contemporary theatrical trends and dance trends and continued this in the most different manner in particular in the following interactive-intermedia pieces and Collage-forms. |
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Theatre on demand |
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| Become our patron! |
30.05.2020 |
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Become a patron of an organisation which offers a workspace to artistically active people. Exactly this is what the THEATER DER KLAENGE is offering for 33 years now in Dusseldorf:
Our theatre offers this space because we want to unite every year creative people (Creatives) of almost all ages to work together for a new work of the performing arts.
This workspace is worth of the public authorities every year a support from tax means, so that we were and we are over and over again in the situation to be able to pay yearly approx. 10 people occasional fees.
This money was also enough to finance the necessary organisation and publications of these works. One person could be engaged in partial time-fixed employment and some other were engaged for several works with free fees from our beginings on.
We were nevertheless allways far away from the regular salaries or annual contracts of the state- or citytheatres. Also in the 21st century free organized theatres are still rather outlawed or free to hunt as birds...
In Rome patricians practiced a patronage for released slaves or protective-ordered minors. The name "Patron" stands also for sponsor or guarantor!
We depend on exactly this cartridge against unfair jury decisions or state retreats from the culture in future more than ever as one can see in the valuating of culture regarding the topical crisis.
If you are - as a citizen interested in culture – interested in the lasting preservation of a creative hotbed like the THEATER DER KLAENGE, then please become our patron or our patroness!
One month subscription to a commercial television broadcasting station costs around 10.-€, the membership in a fitness studio costs at least 15.-€ the month, a mobile phone contract monthly about 25.-€, a newspaper subscription around 30.-€ etc... The companies standing behind these offers can finance hundreds of people thereby partly even very well, because there are enough subscribers to whom the achievements and offers of these companies these monthly amounts are worth. If you understand culture as a food – because "Man does not live from bread alone, he also needs the roses" – then the works and the products of creative people should be also worth to you a monthly subscription, isn´t it?
Because the THEATER DER KLAENGE is not a house, therefore we cannot offer classical subscriptions like four tickets in the year.
The online platform "Patreon" offers a form of subscription with different considerations for different Patronage steps. Already for 5.-€ the month you get regularly somewhat of our running artistic work. If you are able to promote more, then multiplicate themselves also our considerations...
We hope with this model to come – without supporting memberships in an association or alternatively to one time fundings - to a supporter's network for our work which protects our basic financing in addition to the public fundings. And who knows: maybe these Patrones add up even so far that we can offer to our organizers and our creatives in future more than part-time employments or limited contracts for the creative work? |
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Patreon - Theater der Klaenge |
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| Theater on demand: Die Neuberin |
27.05.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 28th - 7pm until sunday, 31st - 10pm |
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"The Neuberin - The passion of a German theatre director" was our first big theatrical book development which took up the years from 1997 to 1999.
Friederike Caroline Neuber, called the "Neuberin", was an unusual woman. She attempted during her times to establish a sophisticated bourgeois state theater, a sort of theater in between the italian elite court opera of the times and the shack boulevard-theater of the marketplace. Despite the furor she managed to create in her younger years, as well as getting a few authors to write for her theater, she was pressed so hard by the male dominated competition, that she ended up losing her own theater, her troupe and lastly even her reputation.
This woman however set an example for the theater, and prepared through her efforts the path for a Lessing, who was then followed by a Goethe and a Schiller, and thereby assisted the nascency of a high level enlightened german theater. This woman affected theater history, though she has to this day -unjustifiably so- been given little recognition.
An impassioned woman in a time when actors were compared to vagrants and actresses passed as whores. Glory and downfall of a woman who was in the end put under by her male rivals, even her husband and her own actors. In the years 1997/98, the material was developed by authors Clemente Fernandez and J.U. Lensing into a stage play, a reflection on the life of the Neuberin from her 19th year to her death, in 24 scenes. The three and a half hour piece has been so far performed 14 times in Duesseldorf, Essen and Koeln and was in a shortened version be seen in the fall of 1999 in places where the Neuberin herself is known to have worked: Gotha, Weimar and Zwickau.
At present exists on CD a one hour condensed radio-play version of the play by J.U.Lensing, available since May 99.
The complete video-recording of 1999 from the premiere series in the Tanzhaus nrw is to be seen online from Thursday, 28th of May from 7pm on to Sunday, 31st of May, 2020 till 10pm. |
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Theatre on Demand |
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| Theatre on demand: Jubilaeum |
19.05.2020 |
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Thursday, 21st from 7pm on until Sunday, 24th until 10pm |
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With our production "jubilee" from 1997 we show our 10th video in the 10th week since beginning of the theatrical restrictions in 2020. From the next week we complement our financing model for this action, but also for our activities in general, with the possibility to become a supporting patron for the THEATER DER KLÄNGE!
Jubilaeum ("Jubilee") - a piece about the art of celebrating
An international ensemble with actors fromGermany, Greece, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Sweden and Spain dedicated itself to the theme "Jubilee" on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of this ensemble.
Thus was created a theatrical collage with the title "Jubilaeum": 100 small sketches about the rituals of joy and grief, about man-invented and artistic ways of rejoicing…
- 10 x 10 ways;
- to hold a celebration speech
- to dance at a party
- to eat and drink
- to have a procession
- to act out the ceremony of the day
- to dress up
- to be honoured ceremonially
- to give oneself a gift
A 100 minute production which brings together music, speech, acting and dance with comedic, but also serious scenes and dances, into a feast for the stage. This "feast for the stage" took place mainly at the Pantheon, Duesseldorf (altogether 27 performances) in the course of the memorial inauguration of a festival hall from the 19th century.
JUBILAEUM was performed a total of 33 times in Duesseldorf, Paris, Essen and Weimar. It is a piece which the Theater der Klaenge offered to itself on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, in order to celebrate its existence with its friends, former collaborators and its public. Smaller short versions with the core ensemble followed in 1998/99. There is hope to be able to keep this piece as part of the repertoire in the form of a reduced version |
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GoFundMe: Theater der Klänge |
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| Theatre on demand: The birds |
13.05.2020 |
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Online from the 14th of May - 7pm till the 17th of May, 2020 – 10pm. |
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Even if everything seems to return to normal step by step:
the theatres remain closed and rehearsals are possible only under security editions from June on.
Unfortunately, the normalisation and increasingly plentiful free offering of theatrical streaming leads to less and less growing eadiness in doing donations for us. Our action started the first two weeks very well and brought us during the first 14 days 20% of our donation aim. Since that time comes again and again a donation, so that we have arrived topically after eight weeks with 35%. However, it would be nice if our action - which is planned till the end of September - further produced financial support for us.
This week we show our eighth production "The birds" in a recording from the premiere in the year 1996:
"The birds - a comical and fantastical story inspired by Aristophanes"
The piece deals with the two "drop-outs" Evelpides (the Optimist) and Pisthetairos (the exaggerator), who abandon Athens and end up in a world between the earth and the land of the gods. It is the World of the Birds. The Birds assimilate the two into their world and turn them into one of theirs. The two convince the Birds that they have the power to rule over men and even to defy the gods. The birds are convinced and as a sign of their new entitlement, build an aerial city surrounded by a wall, between the world of the gods and the world of men. Evelpides and Pisthetairos become the architects of a "model" society, which in the shortest time reaches a position of power which cannot be ignored anymore either by men, or by the gods. The primordially paradiselike world of the Birds pays thereby the price for having sold itself, with Pisthetairos as the absolute ruler of this new world.
Aristophanes excercises with "The Birds" concrete critique on the Athenian society of his times, but also on the handling of power by humans.
The Theater der Klaenge staged the adaptation of the old material in a new mixture of mask-work, dance- "chorus", and stage music composed specifically for the piece. The different expieriences acquired during the last two pieces seeped into the new staging.
"Die Voegel" was shown with great success 34 times to approximately 6000 spectators in 7 cities, and remains first in the repertoire of the Theater der Klaenge despite the need for an 18 actor ensemble.
In 1997 "Die Voegel" received an invitation from Salonika (Greece) to be performed in its native land alongside the "LUDUS DANIELIS" production, and was translated back to Greek for that event !
However, this production showed at the same time also climax and final point of a formative way which is found fragmentarily still in the masque in the 1999th production "Die Neuberin" entrance.
Complete video-recording online from the 14th of May from 7pm till the 17th of May, 2020 – 10pm. |
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Theatre on demand: The birds |
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| Theatre on demand: LUDUS DANIELIS |
05.05.2020 |
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Online from Thursday, 7th - 7pm until sunday,10th of may 10pm |
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LUDUS DANIELIS ("The play of Daniel") - A medieval mystery play is the title of a 1994/95 musical theater production, which came into being out of a suggestion from musician/composer Michael Popp. The Theater der Klaenge adapted the staging of LUDUS DANIELIS to the music of the ensemble Estampie, which itself went back to a 1230 original script written by monks of the closter of Beauvais (F), and which in those days was presumedly performed every year at the New Year's Fest.
Europe of the Middle Ages witnessed the rebirth of theater in the churches. Out of the wish to portray biblical themes pictorially and with movement, were composed many different mystery plays of Testament subjectmatter, in which music was first applied to text from the Bible, following which the respective storylines were acted out along the sung out text.
LUDUS DANIELIS takes on a very special role in the musical creations of the Middle Ages. It dealt with nothing less than the first try since antiquity, to merge acting and music- the invention so to speak of Opera in the medieval world. The band ESTAMPIE from Muenich, which specialises in ancient music, has, as per the medieval musical conception, allocated to the leading roles specific instruments, which also provide the rhythm for the dance.
Contrarily to the then customary, very expensive performance practice, the Theater der Klaenge has concentrated itself on a church play which translates the sung text into acting and dance. On the basis of the closeness of the subject matter to the Orient (Babylonia, Persia ca. 600 B-C), the Theater der Klaenge allowed itself to be inspired by indian stage dance. The middle-age "Spielleute" ("playpeople") were included in the LUDUS DANIELIS in order to make the material not only biblically authentic but also performable. These actors appear between each (dance- and music-) act, in order to comment on the play, or parody it, or even put it in question in their very earthly manner .
The staging by Theater der Klaenge in collaboration with ESTAMPIE at the turn of the year 1994/95 in the "Duesseldorfer Kreuzherrenkirche" church was a great public success. Since then the piece has had guest performances in several places (mostly churches) , 30 very successful presentations for a total of approximately 7000 viewers. It was also performed collaboratively with the band ESTAMPIE, as well as with our play "Die Vögel" ("The Birds"), by invitation at "Salonika, cultural capital of Europe" in 1997.
The cooperation with ESTAMPIE continued in 2004 for the production "Gregorius on the stone" and flowed in 2012 into a feature-film with the same title and also with the soundtrack of ESTAMPIE and Thomas Neuhaus.
Online from Thursday, 7th of May at 7pm until Sunday, 10th of May at 10pm: A video documantary from the first performances of LUDUS DANIELIS in December 1994 in the Düsseldorf Kreuzherren church.
Instead of tickets we request donations! |
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| Theater on demand: Speech is of silver... |
29.04.2020 |
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From Thursday, the 30th of april until sunday, the 3rd of may 2020 online |
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"Reden ist silber..." is the title of a piece authored by the entire ensemble of the Theater der Klaenge, and which deals in the present of the year 1993/94 (there is a more current 1998 version) with the core motif :"communication". A palette of typical contemporary characters was created with the help of masks derived from the half-masks of the italian "Commedia dell'Arte". These types encounter each other in the most different situations and groupings, which respectively point out specific communication conflics. One encounters thereby the historical "Commedia dell'Arte" figures of the "Capitano", the "Pulchinella", or the "Harlekin" in their modern equivalents, as well as many newly found stylised mask-characters.
Theater is in this piece as it was in the historic "Commedia dell'Arte": a place to tell history. For example the story of Harlekin - Raadji, a young turk, who attempts to find his luck in Germany after completing his military service duties in Turkey, and who finds himself confronted by a hostile and brutal society; or the story of Jupp, an old warehouse man, who loses his job, and experiences the loneliness brought on by his new senseless circumstances; or Polichinell - Toni, who does everything he can to be aknowledged by the german upper-class; or Brighella - Ali, the moroccan who cleverly and unscrupulously infliltrates himself into this society, or, or, or…
The 25 scenes contain thereby a kaleidoscope of most different kinds or encounters and a weaving of relationships between the various characters, who by the means of comedic acting and wit, either master their respective speech and communications problems, or fail at them…
"Reden ist silber…" is a comedy about our times in the style of a "contemporary Commedia dell'Arte" ! Reden ist Silber… was performed alltogether 19 times in 5 different places. In 1998 a version current to the times was worked on for 8 more performances at the Theater der Klaenge Retrospective. The piece represented for the ensemble a reaction to the previous "Figur und Klang im Raum" ("Figures and Sound in Space"), and is once again a political play. It was created in collaboration and as the last part of the trilogy "Theater der Klaenge and Bauhaus" .
The recording is dated on the 5th of March, 1998. It shows the revised second version of this piece in a performance in the Dusseldorf Pantheon (today Templum).
Online from Thursday, 30.4 from 7pm till Sunday, 3.5.2020 - 10pm. Instead of tickets donations are welcome (see infos on our website) |
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| Theater on demand: Figures and Sound in Space |
21.04.2020 |
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23rd of april, 7pm until 26th of april, 10pm |
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Based on Oskar Schlemmer's "systematic stage essays" from the 1920's, the Theater der Klaenge set itself to work on "Figure and Sound in Space", a theatrical research project which concerns itself with the "laws of the stage": Representation, Space and Sound.
Oskar Schlemmer had engaged himself, particularly in the years from 1925 to 1928 at the Dessau Bauhaus, in a systematic "grammar of formal stage elements", which led to several "small dances". Despite the fact that most of Schlemmer's pieces were written to music, a systematic exploration of the element of Sound in (the theater) space had been forgone, since no composer was found to collaborate with, and Schlemmer was himself neither a composer, nor a director specialized in speech.
The Theater der Klaenge concerned itself 1992/1993 at first with Oskar Schlemmer's theory of "people and figures in space", and partially adopted for itself the results of this theatrical research. Parallel to that was integrated a pre-drafted electronic installation of microphones, light barriers and ultra-sound sensors, which the composer Thomas Neuhaus had designed for Theater der Klaenge during the rehearsal process. This installation allowed direct control of electronic music and light through sound and movement occurrences on stage, therefore through the actors themselves.
By "Polyphonic scenic composition for the stage", is meant the arrangement in time of multilayer happenings in the theater space. The most different theatrical elements such as light, sound, movement, color, gesture and mime are first understood as individual parameters, then so related to eachother in the composition, that the sum of the parameters creates the theatrical event in time. In this context, Joerg Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus have also defined the notion of an "integrative theater".
The piece came into creation also as a collaboration with the Dessau Bauhaus. It proved itself to be so cumbersome in the rehearsal process, particularly because of the immense technical layout, that the Theater der Klaenge chosed not to continue on the same path after 1993, but to turn itself instead to more "traditional" theater mediums. Nevertheless, "Figur und Klang im Raum" lived to see 32 performances to date in 8 cities, both home and abroad, and was from 1994 to 1998, combined in a reworked version with the "mechanischen Ballett" (the "Mechanical Ballet"), an integral part of the double program "Tanz am Bauhaus" ("Dance at the Bauhaus"), which also toured in Belgium, France and Israel.
In 2000, considerations on the resumption of "figure and sound in space" led to a 3-person play called "Manifesto", which, over 5 years of development, led to the interactive, intermedia research project "PCI - HOEReographien" in 2005 via the productions "Megalopolis" and "Modul|a|t|o|r". The developed approach was further developed via the "HOEReographien SUITE" (2009) to the "SUITE intermediale" (2010) and was most recently a partial component of scenic interaction in the productions "VANITAS" (2012), "CODA" (2014) and "Das Lackballett" (2019).
The recording of November 24, 1997 shows the revised second version of this piece in a performance in the small house of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus.
Online-Streaming from Thursday, 23rd of april on until Sunday, 26th of april 2020. Instead of buying a ticket we ask you to use the possiblity of helping us via GoFundMe (Infos on our website)) |
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| November 1918 * 1989 |
14.04.2020 |
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Theatre on demand: 16th until 19th of april 2020 |
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"NOVEMBER 1918 * 1989" is the title of a collective play by the Theater der Klaenge about the German revolution of 1918 in comparison with the events in the GDR in 1989.
Revolution - a major theme that suddenly became tangible in 1989. In contrast to the events in the GDR in 1989, the revolution of 1918 in Germany was around 1990/91 almost forgotten.
In 1991, Theater der Klaenge compared the course of the two revolutions with each other in a large theater collage in many different scenes, which repeatedly contrasted the individual phases of the revolution of 1918 with those of 1989.
The historical outline of NOVEMBER deals with the events from November 1917 (revolution in Russia) to spring 1919 (National Assembly in Weimar) as well as with the period from May 1989 (diconstruction of the Hungarian border installations) to March 1990 (new elections to the People's Chamber of the GDR).
Acting, allegory, farce, mask improvisation, pantomime and puppetry are juxtaposed with simultaneous dance and (Meyerhold's) biomechanics. This is embedded in a live electronic music, which is controlled by two percussionists. In addition, documentary film collages and slide projections. The whole event took place in a transformable play structure with movable screens. The international ensemble of the Theater der Klaenge became a modern comedian troupe, which presented its view of the events in simple, clearly understandable pictures and play scenes.
NOVEMBER was the first attempt of the Theater der Klaenge to create a play about a self-chosen political topic in collective authorship. The experiences of previous productions were incorporated and enabled the Theater der Klaenge ensemble to search for a theatrical form for each of the facts to be presented, which provided the most appropriate picture for the respective statement.
NOVEMBER was created in 1991 as the first co-production with the Bauhaus Dessau and was performed 19 times in Düsseldorf and Dessau. The ensemble of 1991 was the first to work under professional conditions in the Theater der Klänge rehearsal studio in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort and for several weeks also in the Bauhaus stage in Dessau. Numerous ensemble members from this year became permanent members of staff for several productions in the early nineties. In many respects, the working principles from this time still form the basis of our working methods today.
The recording was made on November 2, 1991 by Take it Media in the Theaterhaus Düsseldorf.
Online video premiere from Thursday, 16 April at 7 pm to Sunday, 19 April 2020 (10 pm). Instead of tickets we ask for donations via GoFundMe or PayPal. |
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| Die Kueche ("The kitchen") |
07.04.2020 |
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Online-Video-Premiere from the 9th of april until the 12th of april 2020 |
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"Man does not live from bread alone,he also needs the roses" - Arnold Wesker
"Die Kueche" is the title of a piece by Arnold Wesker from the year 1964, which was published in Germany in 1969 in a translation by Erich Fried. During the circumstances of the year 1990 in west Germany , it was updated and rewritten by J.U. Lensing through arrangements with the author.
"The kitchen" is the London author's first piece. It takes place in the large kitchen of a restaurant from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening. This environment shapes the hopes and anxieties of the protagonists, their activities, as well as their daily conflicts.
In his preface to the piece, Wesker writes: "For Shakespeare, the whole world might have been a stage, but for me it is a kitchen, where men come and go, and cannot stay long enough to understand eachother, where friendship, love and enmity are forgotten just as fast as they come into being." Wesker was for a time a confectionner. He knows the environment of his piece: the kitchen of a gigantic dining establishment , the wear of the day on the kitchen helpers , confectionners, waiters, the cook for roast, fish, soup, broiled items, the confusion of the languages, the inferno of the clattering dishes, the whistling gaspipes, the orders and the cursing.
The piece offered the Theater der Klaenge on the one hand its first concrete involvement with spoken theater, while at the same time the potential for work relevant to the times, in view of the millions of unemployed, the influx of foreigners, emigrants, people seeking asylum, the rising animosity towards foreigners, which was and still is socially and politically highly current material.
This piece was for Theater der Klaenge close to ist own sociopolitical reality, but also a highly interresting speech composition for a large "actor-orchestra". 15 actors and 9 actresses are for the almost two hour long performance, simultaneously actors, dancers and talking orchestra. The polyphonic text is treated in sections like a rythm and dynamics composition, while at the same time a precisely choreographed ballet of steaks, vegetable soup, and lambchops runs along.
This piece was also at the same time a first involvement with speech, to which one could in this way get closer. The Theater der Klaenge was, following this piece, in a position to develop ist own pieces based on written text. "Die Kueche" lived to see in 1990, 23 performances in the then newly opened Duesseldorfer "Theaterhaus" and was thereafter, due to the size of the production and of the multitude of the people involved , not absorbed into the repertoire.
As a consequence of the sometimes unacceptable rehearsal conditions in a warehouse in the Dusseldorf harbour which was intended for demolition (without heating, without toilets - at the site where the Gehry buildings are located today), the City of Dusseldorf granted a financial contribution towards rental costs from 1991 onwards for a rehearsal studio, which has benn operated by the THEATER DER KLAENGE in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort since 1991. "The kitchen" was also the last of the semi-professional productions that were rehearsed in evenings and on weekends. With the relocation to the rehearsal studio in 1991 and an institutional support for the Theater der Klaenge by the state of NRW from 1991 on, a fully professional work for the ensemble became possible.
We will show online from Thursday, April 9th to Sunday, April 12th, 2020 a complete recording from 1990, recorded in the Dusseldorf Theaterhaus and ask for donations instead of entrance fees via the portal "GoFundMe" as part of our "Theatre on Demand" campaign. |
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The kitchen |
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| Theatre on demand: 2nd of april from 7pm on until 5th of april 10pm |
01.04.2020 |
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The Baroque Theatre of Masks |
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In 1988, after the launch of the "Mechanical Bauhaus Stage", our first involvement with the theatre of the 1920s, we turned to an older, pre-bourgeois form of theatre: Baroque music and dance-theatre. Since the Commedia dell'Arte played a major role in street-theatre in the Romanesque countries during the Baroque period, but also in court-theatre, we took the traditional compendium "Die neue und curieuse theatralische Tantz-Schul" ("The New and Curious Theatrical School of Dance") by the Italian dance master Gregorio Lambranzi from the 18th century as a basis for developing our own production, in which masquerade, baroque dances, live music and revue-like sequences of scenes enabled a "different" approach to music and dance theatre.
The play was developed in 1988/89 in an intense rehearsal process and was repeatedly reworked and further developed in several versions and changing instrumentations over the years until 1995. For each new version, the baroque practice of set pieces and lazzi was used, which enabled the theatre principals in the baroque era to put together new programmes from set pieces per location, sometimes per performance.
All our versions were documented by video. From Thursday, April 2nd on to Sunday, April 5th, 2020, we will show the final fifth version in the program "Theatre on Demand", which took place from July 5th to July 9th, 1995 in Spee'sche Garten Düsseldorf under best weather conditions in an exciting open air en suite series. To get an impression of the previous versions and the development work, interviews with the contributors to the first version, as well as excerpts from the previous versions, can be seen and heard before the Video-Recording of the fifth version (1995) in full length. |
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| The Baroque Theatre of Masks |
31.03.2020 |
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Lambranzi’ work concerns itself with the mixture of different theatrical styles of his time, which are mainly defined by the fact that there still had never been a separation between music, dance and acting.
Basing himself on the music and dances of his time, as they were treated on the one hand by the people, and on the other by the court, he designed through 100 sketches a catalog of scenes, which portrays both the regular, professional and theatrical types of his times, as well as the court dancers and grotesque characters in scenic and dance sequences.
The Theater der Klaenge revived Lambranzi’s dance- and -comedians troup, inspired by the sketches and their inherent baroque aesthetic, in order to show a genre picture of late baroque dance-and-music theater through a combination of baroque court dances, folk dances, dance parodies, play of masks and the stage character of Lambranzi (as well as his wife).
This theater is defined by a half-open touring company type of construction, candle lighting, opulent costumes, Commedia dell’Arte characters, a theater-and-dance music of ist own, and a type of staging in which body language renders the spoken word to a large extent obsolete.
Die barocke Maskenbuehne, created in collective collaboration of the members of the Theater der Klaenge and written by Joerg Lensing, is not a reconstruction of historical theater, but much more an involvement with another, not literary and therefore pre-middle-class form of theater.
In the new music composition, new choreography of the dances, and new staging of the entire material, the "Baroque Theater of Masks" deals with a contemporary theater piece, which proves the possibility of "another" type of theater based on a buried tradition, through the masks of the Baroque, as an artistic challenge and test till today.
Die barocke Maskenbuehne has for this reason experienced between 1989 and the present 5 different versions, with the masks, costumes and scenic ideas of Gregorio Lambranzi, as it was the case in the original Commedia dell’Arte.
Each time a new ensemble was put together for a new version, it improvised with the previously found materials, characters, lazzos and dances (and sketches), so that out of each improvisation phase a new version could come into being based on the same aesthetic point of reference.
Work with the Commedia dell’Arte masks is since 1988 an integral part of Theater der Klaenge and constitutes a basis for examination and training of new admissions.
The 5 versions, in the same way as street theater variantes for the "Festival at Avignon", lived in 1993 altogether 55 performances in 7 different places and have been seen by approximately 10.000 spectators.
The work with masks led in 1994 to the creation of a contemporary piece under the title "Speech is of Silver…" |
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The Baroque Theatre of Masks |
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| Theatre on Demand - 2nd week |
25.03.2020 |
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Last weekend we launched an initiative which is an attempt to offer culture even in times when it is a danger to one's own life and the lives of others to visit a theatre, concert hall or a museum. This initiative is our "theatre on demand".
Every week we upload to our website one of our 27 pieces we've created so far. We proceed chronologically: none is skipped and none is left out. So there is potentially material available for 27 weeks. Since we are currently unable to sell tickets, we have decided to ask for donations on a voluntary basis. Anyone who wants, can donate any amount, just as if you had bought a ticket for a performance.
This has got off to a very good start: At the moment, after one weekend, we have received over 700 € in donations, which means that we have already reached about 16% of our self-imposed goal of 5,000 €. We are very happy about this and we are sincerely grateful to our donors for their solidarity and support in these difficult times. |
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| The mechanical eccentricity |
25.03.2020 |
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We continue optimistically: On Thursday, 26 March at 7pm we will publish the second part of our very first production "The Mechanical Bauhaus Stage" from 1987: "The Mechanical Eccentricity" by László Moholy-Nagy. At that time we were the first to ever implement this partition for a theatre stage and are this (as far as we know) until today.
Moholy-Nagy's stage work incorporates the film, the three-dimensional stage and several stage levels into moving objects, grids, backdrops, etc. At the end of this piece, a dancer appears in the mechanical action as a living example of the integration of human "biomechanics", which becomes abstract. Embedded in the score for "Mechanical Eccentricity" is a sketch from 1921/22 for a film "Dynamik der Großstadt" by László Moholy-Nagy in the form of the film rear projection provided for this purpose as part of the "plot".
The realized performance of the "Mechanical Eccentricity" has remained an utopia until 1987 among other reasons, because in the 1920s it was impossible to think of realizing this work for purely technical reasons.
The "mechanical eccentricity" in J.U. Lensing's first realisation is a creation from 1987 for the Theater der Klaenge. The double program of "mechanical ballet" and "mechanical eccentricity" was shown with great success in a total of 18 cities in 62 performances from 1987 to 1992 in front of about 15,000 spectators in Germany and abroad. Since then we have not performed it any more due to its complex installtion process.
This is the first time in almost three decades that you will have the chance to see this very unusual artwork. |
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Theatre on demand: The mechanical eccentricity |
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| Theatre on Demand |
20.03.2020 |
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Our Video-Documataries are from now on online |
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The Covid19 pandemic has also affected us indirectly at THEATER DER KLÄNGE. In the middle of the first rehearsal phase for our new production we have to stop our operations because the risk for our ensemble to infect each other is simply too great. Also, a performance of our TRIAS-Suite for March 26th in Bocholt has been cancelled at short notice. Nevertheless, all our dancers, musicians, video and sound artists but also our director and choreographer have contracts promising them a salary. And rightly so! Our artists are without exception freelancers, almost all of whom are paid from engagement to engagement and are now especially hard hit, in particular as the second mainstay – teaching activities – is also not practicable for them at the moment. Therefore, our loss of rehearsals and the cancelled guest performance is currently tearing a hole of approx. 5,000 € into our budget, as we would like to pay out the cancelled salaries and fees to the artists working with us in any case.
As a fringe theatre we are dependent on public funding. In over 32 years of existence, we have regularly received generous funding from various public sponsors, but also from foundations, for our very specific and unique artistic work. However, nobody could foresee the current situation, nor could anyone have anticipated it.
We defy the virus creatively!
We could just wait now and try to get something from the state emergency funds that have been promised. But we would rather creatively turn this situation into something good: As long as the lockdown continues, we have decided to publish one of our complete performance recordings of our 27 productions so far online for one weekend each week.
Every Thursday evening at 19:00 we will publish one of our productions on this page in chronological order until the following Sunday. Some of these plays have not been shown for decades and the corresponding professionally made films have been stored in our archive ever since.
You want to continue your theatre and dance experiences and currently have no opportunity to do so?
We understand the gravity of the current situation and yet we see with regret that culture was the first thing that was banned. But if you have enjoyed going to theatre or dance performances so far, we will be launching our home-alternative from today, Friday, 20 March 2020! On our website we have published detailed information about all our previous productions so that you can get an idea of what we have created so far. The pieces in detail are:
1. The Mechanical Bauhaus Stage (1987: The mechanical ballet & The mechanical eccentric)
2. The Baroque Theatre of Masks (1988/89)
3. The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker (1990)
4. November 1918 * 1989 (1991)
5. Figure and Sound in Space (1993)
6. Speech is Silver… (1994)
7. The Play of Daniel (1994)
8. The Birds by Aristophanes (1996)
9. Jubilee (1997)
10. The Neuberin (1999)
11. Das Opfer by Igor Strawinsky (1999)
12. Megalopolis (2001)
13. Modul|a|t|o|r (2002)
14. Gregorius by Hartmann von Aue and Thomas Mann (2004)
15. HEAReographics (2005)
16. Vicious Circles (2006)
17. I is another (2007)
18. Johnnys Jihad by Marc Pommerening (2009)
19. Suite Intermediale (2011)
20. Vanitas (2012)
21. Coda (2014)
22. TRIAS – the triadic ballet by Oskar Schlemmer (2015)
23. Contrasts (2016)
24. Dance Fugue (2017)
25. Bauhaus Ballets (2017: The mechanical ballet & TRIAS – The triadic ballet)
26. The Silverprince (2018)
27. The Lacquer Ballet by Oskar Schlemmer (2019)
Donations instead of tickets?
Admittedly, if we now upload the films every week for 4 days each anyway, where is the reason for you to donate?
Well, in this case: Donating is an act of solidarity!
On the one hand you really help us, because we can pay the fees and salaries of our artists without having a loss of money.
In addition, as a non-profit organization, we can also issue you a donation receipt.
If you are willing to donate more than 50 €, we will give you the video link to a recording of your choice in advance! You can then watch one of our 27 productions as often as you like, completely detached from our online premiere schedule.
Why should only the major film streaming services in the "social distancing phase" determine your cultural programme at home? With our "free" service you can enjoy our music theatre and dance productions on demand at home!
Organizational details
As theatremakers, we believe in connecting audiences with performers in shows at a particular time and place. This community experience cannot be simulated digitally. As free theatre, we also live to a large extent from the audience who attend our performances and are prepared to pay an entrance fee for them. We therefore reserve the right to end the action with free films once the situation has eased and normal cultural activities are possible again. We also reserve the right to end the campaign early if it does not meet with sufficient interest.
In case of problems with the transmission of email addresses to receive video links, please contact us via the GoFundMe contact form. We will take care of it as soon as possible. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us via the contact form, too. Our office will continue to operate in single occupation for the time being on a half-day basis. |
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Theatre on Demand on our website |
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| 2019: What a year! |
17.12.2019 |
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bauhaus 100 and the THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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It was already autumn/winter 2018 and still unforeseeable for us what 2019 could mean for the THEATER DER KLÄNGE. To our surprise our numerous suggestions and project plans for the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus had only encountered reserved interest of directors, organizers and funding institutions. We had prepared our plans well and long time in advance:
an exhibition on the Bauhaus stage,
a revival of Oskar Schlemmer's "Lacquer Ballett",
a resumption of our "Triadic Ballet" and our theatre play "The Silver Prince".
However, in the end it was the city of Düsseldorf, Weimar´s ACC-Galerie and lateron Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum and the NRW fund "Bauhaus 100 in the West" who, at the turn of the year 2018/19, trusted our expertise based on almost three decades of work with the concepts of Bauhaus stage. It was them, who were ready to provide support for our plans and who got it all started.
The fund "bauhaus 100 in the west" in particular financed among others our production of the "Lacquer Ballet" and they allowed us to realize almost true-to-original reconstructions of all figurines for our version of the "Triadic Ballet" - eight duplicates of them are also on show in the New Bauhaus Museum in Dessau. Finally with the sponsorship of the city of Düsseldorf, agreeing to support the project of an exhibition and to finance the rehearsals for the resumption of the above mentioned productions, we were able to realize our ideas and plans for 2019.
With newly built figurines "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" came out in spring. It was a great success - enthusiastically received by public and press, not only on a trip to Spain in Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao, but also in two open air performances in Krefeld and a cheered guest presentation in the Sayner Hütte, invited by the Architect´s Association of Rhineland-Palatinate. These five events in spring were topped in autumn: with a celebrated guest performance in Steinfurt and finally, in front of 900 spectators in the frame of Weimar´s Triennale of Modernism in the Weimar Hall. Altogether, in this year just ending, over 2400 spectators have seen our 2015 version of the "Triadic Ballet" with the new figurines from 2018/19.
Even during the final rehearsal for our interpretation of Oskar Schlemmer's "Lacquer Ballett" we were not sure whether our electronic-media-enhanced version of Schlemmer´s idea of an abundance of colours to which we added an abundance of sounds would be accepted by the public and the press. Today - with 5092 visitors in 11 cities, who again and again celebrated the altogether 20 performances of the "Lacquer Ballet", we can speak of a great success of this production. Almost allways sold out performances in Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Weimar, Darmstadt, Leipzig, Dessau, Ascona, Solingen, Hagen, Münster and Herne, several of them with cheering audiences confirm this assumption. The reviews and the general media response do so as well:
Front page of the specialist german dance-magazine "Tanz", in January followed by a very good review in February, front page in the Bergisch Art Magazine "Die Beste Zeit" (The Best Time) in it´s November issue, large reviews in "Die deutsche Bühne" (The German Stage) and in the "Bühnentechnische Rundschau" (Stage Technology Review) in spring, an extensive article in the catalogue "Expressionistic Dance and the Bauhaus Stage", as well as its English translation in the international magazine "Art Style".
Most of our Novembre tour performances were initiated by festival directors, art associations, groups of friends from museums or foundations. This shows once again - like always since our beginnings more than 30 years ago - that we are being valued, supported and invited by enthusiasts and by passionate lovers of art.
An invitation of our theatre play "The Silver Prince - Nine Views on Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus" by the director of the "Theatre Krefeld-Mönchengladbach" allowed us to resume this play as well, a production which unfortunately has been less in demand with the public and the organizers than our dance productions. However, the big applause in Krefeld´s City Theatre and two very good reviews in "Rheinische Post" and "Westdeutsche Zeitung" showed that this sophisticated presentation of the intellectual heads of the Bauhaus does not lag behind our celebrated dance productions.
Next to the above mentioned stage presentations corresponding with our declared orientation combining various forms of art on stage: musical, visual, plastic and performing arts with all possible forms of artistic expression through electronic media - we were once again active as curators. The exhibition "THEATER DER KLÄNGE bauhausbühne" initiated in cooperation with the ACC-Galerie Weimar counted at least 800 visitors in Weimar and more than 1000 in Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum. Our 96-page catalogue was bought more than 400 times during the exhibition and in the foyers of our performances.
The scenographic design by students of the Design Department of Dortmund´s University of Applied Sciences and Arts was completely implemented on the 430 square meters of Weimar´s ACC-Galerie and exhibited in a reduced scale of 200 square meters in the Theatre Museum in Düsseldorf. Even after their finissage these exhibitions continue to exist in the virtual world: photos especially but also audio guides, realized by sound designstudents from the Design Department of Dortmund´s University of Applied Sciences and Arts have been stored on the website museum.de - look for ACC-Galerie Weimar or Theater Museum Düsseldorf.
This extra-ordinarily intensive year was completed by numerous smaller representations: Individual dances from TRIAS were performed in the context of concerts staging our "TRIAS Suite". Gropius´ speech "Art And Technology - A New Unit" was given by our "Silver Prince" actor András Sosko. And, on our tour in Spain in May, the dance of the figurine "Die Kugelhände" (The Ball Hands), was twice interpreted by our dancer/choreographer Jacqueline Fischer - open Air in the Barcelona Pavilion, once built by Mies van der Rohe.
During all this we were hit by several adversities: in February the head of our artistic Administration Department changed and a new staff had to learn the ropes. In July a disastrous water damage in our office created the necessity of a complete renovation which is going on to this very day, finally an illness-related break down of our Silver Prince main actor in October. We mastered all these challenges. No performance was canceled, the two exhibition openings in Weimar and Düsseldorf were successful and we produced eight duplicates of our new "TRIAS figurines" for the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, as well as duplicates of our five figurines of the "Mechanical Ballet" for the August-Kestner-Museum in Hannover.
Now - at the end of 2019 - we are indeed exhausted, however looking back at all what was done and presented, we are proud and happy.
With the passing of the Bauhaus hustle, things will very probably cool down again in 2020, allowing us to concentrate on the creation of a new intermedial stage work for music and dance.
Our thanks go to: our Bauhaus Stage Ensembles, the multiple organizers, sponsors, multipliers and not to forget to you, our spectators. Thank you to all of you, it is your commitment and enthusiasm that made this year and our work in it possible.
We do hope, that you were present at one or the other event of this year and we would be happy if you continued to be interested in our work in the upcoming year 2020 ! |
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Diary (in german) of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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| Finissage of our exhibition: Concert and picture auction |
04.12.2019 |
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Theatrical museum of Dusseldorf the 8th of december at 6pm |
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Sunday, the 8th of December ends our well visited exhibition "THEATER DER KLÄNGE bauhausstage: Originals. Appropriations. Continuations." in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf.
This exhibition was visitable already from the 1st of June to the 4th of August, 2019 in the ACC gallery of Weimar and from the 12th of September to the 8th of December 2019 in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf .
Virtually this exhibition is "visitable" for the ACC gallery of Weimar, as well as for the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf in the web entrance of museum.de
For the end of the exhibition within the scope of the Bauhaus100 jubilee year a Finissage takes place on Sunday, 8th of December, 2019 at 6pm in theatrical museum of Dusseldorf.
Our three musicians for the THEATER DER KLÄNGE dance piece "TRIAS - the triadic ballet" will play in concerto just 40 minutes of music from the Dusseldorf version of this ballet.
Thomas Wansing (piano), Beate Wolff (cello) and Oliver Eltinger (percussion)
After the concert pictures from the exhibition, as well as digital Screenshots from the "lacquer paintings" from our production "The lacquer ballet" and from our piece "SUITE intermediale" will be saled. The sales take place in form of an auction. The benefit of this auction is for the THEATER DER KLÄNGE. |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE Homepage |
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| "The lacquer ballett" the 26.11. in Hagen and the 29.11. in Herne |
23.11.2019 |
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Last performances within our "lecquer ballet tour" |
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According to two sold off performances in the Teatro San Materno in Ascona (CH) and a cheered performance before an audience of more than 500 people at the theatre of Solingen, "The lacquer ballet" guested following an invitation by the varnish museum of Münster before nearly 400 spectators also successfully in the town hall Münster-Hiltrup.
Now both last stations of our "lacquer ballet tour" lead us - following an invitation by the "friends of the Osthaus Museum Hagen" - on Tuesday, 26th of November at 7:30pm in the town hall of Hagen and the 29th of November at 8pm final in the Flottmannhallen in Herne.
Our really very eventful 2019 is almost concluded: On Sunday, the 8th of December, 2019 we also close our topical exhibition "THEATER DER KLÄNGE bauhausbühne" in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf! |
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| Tour with "The lacquer ballet" in november 2019 |
01.11.2019 |
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10 Performances in 7 cities |
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We play our "lacquer ballett" after sketches and photos from Oskar Schlemmer the following dates:
6th of november at 8pm: Theater der jungen Welt / euro-scene Leipzig
7th of november at 8pm: Theater der jungen Welt / euro-scene Leipzig
9th of november at 7:30 pm: Bauhaus Dessau
10th of november at 5 pm: Bauhaus Dessau
16th of november at 7:30 pm: Teatro San Materno in Ascona (CH)
17th of november at 5 pm: Teatro San Materno in Ascona (CH)
19th of november at 7:30 pm: Theater und Konzerthaus Solingen
21st of november at 7:30 pm: Stadthalle Münster-Hiltrup
26th of november at 7:30 pm: Stadthalle Hagen
29th of november at 8 pm: Flottmannhallen Herne |
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| "The Silver Prince" in Krefeld on October 20 and in Düsseldorf on October 25-26 |
17.10.2019 |
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"The Silver Prince" is a theatre play with a multi-media conception. It reflects nine years of work that Walter Gropius invested in the Bauhaus in Weimar and later in Dessau. The play shows Walter Gropius in the different phases of this era, each presented by the reference person, who - in the respective phase - was closest to him. Gropius is therefore presented from varying angles, thus quite differently. The various narrators, embodied by the ensemble of this play, are the historic characters Max Thedy, Hans Groß, Johannes Itten, Alma Mahler, Ise Gropius, Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Fritz Hesse und Hannes Maier - opponents, loyal staff members, wives, politicians and institutional successors.
"The Silver Prince" is the first theatre production and the first radio drama about this exciting subject of German history. It also looks into the significance and the value of modernity for our time. |
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Tickets on eventim.de |
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| THEATER DER KLÄNGE Bauhaus Stage: Originals, Annexations, Continuations |
04.09.2019 |
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Opening Of The Bauhaus Exhibition In Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum |
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On Thursday, 12th of September 2019 at 6 p.m. we will be opening in Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum the exhibition: "THEATER DER KLÄNGE Bauhaus Stage: Originals, Annexations, Continuations". It has recently been shown by the ACC Galery in Weimar.
At the opening there will be short speeches by Dr. Michael Matzigkeit, temporary director of the Theatre Museum Düsseldorf, Marianne Schirge, director of Düsseldorf´s department for cultural affairs and Prof. J.U. Lensing, artistic director of the THEATRE OF SOUNDS. The final speech of the day will be "Art and Technology - A new Unit" by Walter Gropius, presented by our actor Andràs Sosko, who is representing Gropius in our theatre play "The Silver Prince".
From 13th of September to 8th of December 2019 the exhibition can be visited daily Tuesday to Saturday.
Video extracts and figurines from our productions can be heard and seen next to historic and current photographies, drawings, graphics, texts, anecdotes. There will also be a detailed audio guide that is arranged like a radio play.
The exhibition will be complemented by an exhibition catalogue with 96 richly illustrated pages.
It can be bought at the cash desk of the museum or online in our shop.
You can get a first taste of the exhibition by listening online to our audioguide here |
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Audioguide (in german language) |
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| Bauhaus Stage Works in autumn 2019 |
03.09.2019 |
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TRIAS – The Silver Prince – The Lacquer Ballet |
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In the autumn of the Bauhaus anniversary 2019 THEATRE OF SOUNDS is again burning a firework honoring this art, architecture and design school. We will be touring with three of the Bauhaus plays:
September: "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" in Steinfurt and in Weimar
Oktober: "The Silver Prince" in Krefeld and in Düsseldorf
November: "The Lacquer Ballet" in Leipzig, Dessau, Ascona (CH), Solingen, Münster, Hagen and Herne
12th of September to 8th of December 2019: Our exhibition "The THEATRE OF SOUNDS ´ Bauhaus Stage" in Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum |
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| THEATER DER KLÄNGE bauhaus stage: Originals. Appropriations. Continuations. |
24.05.2019 |
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An audive and medial exhibition |
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Düsseldorf´s THEATER DER KLÄNGE (THEATRE OF SOUNDS), is worldwide the only theatre group, that has been dealing repeatedly and in a relevant manner with the historic bauhaus stage and possible consistent continuations of these theatre and dancing approaches.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, THEATER DER KLÄNGE presents in Weimar ´s ACC Galerie their way of dealing with this "different" approach of theatrical thinking developed by the Bauhaus artists 100 years ago.
In this auditive and medial exhibition THEATER DER KLÄNGE shows ten of their "Bauhaus Productions":
These stage works deal directly or in an interpreting way with the historic Bauhaus und its stage works created in the 1920ies. A separate room is dedicated to each project that was realized by THEATER DER KLÄNGE, presenting nearly every step of the production: beginning with traces of the original ideas in scetches, drawings, photos, texts, going via reconstructions of the outlines and concepts to be admired in models and figurines and finally the different realizations on stage to be seen in videos, photos and theatre programmes. These ten thematic rooms are connected via accustic corridors, in which the world of sounds of each of the stage productions by THEATER DER KLÄNGE can be experienced accustically. In little radio play recesses "anecdotes" of each of the productions are being told by artists who were directly connected with these works.
The audio-visual scenography was created by design students of the university of applied sciences and arts Dortmund.
THEATER DER KLÄNGE will open the exhibition with the speech by Walter Gropius "Art and Technology - A New Entity" from our theatre play "The Silver Prince".
A comprehensive catalogue and an audio guide with online accessibility will complete this exhibition.
Opening:
Saturday, 1st of June 2019, 8 p.m.
Greetings will be presented by:
Frank Motz (ACC-Galerie, Weimar)
Prof. Nora Fuchs (University of applied sciences and arts, Dortmund)
Prof. J.U.Lensing (THEATER DER KLÄNGE, Düsseldorf)
Walter Gropius (played by Andràs Sosko):
and his shortened lecture: "Arts and Technology - A New Entity"
The exhbition is open from the 2nd of June to 4th of August 2019. |
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ACC Galerie Weimar |
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| "The Triadic Ballett" in Spain |
23.04.2019 |
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Barcelona - Valencia - Bilbao |
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Starting point of our growing number of guest performances during the Bauhaus anniversary 2019 will be a one week tour in Spain, following an invitation by Fundación Goethe. During the guest performances in Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao we will present our new version of the "Triadic Ballet" by Oskar Schlemmer.
Next to the representations of our full 85-minute piece "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" with live music, we will also show the dancing solo "Ball Hands" - danced by our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer - during two days in the "German Pavillon" by Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona!
Dates and places:
Sunday, 5th of May 2019 at 7 pm: "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet", CaixaForum in Barcelona
Tuesday, 7th of May 2019 at 7 pm: Solo "Kugelhände (Ball Hands)", Pabellón Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona
Tuesday, 7th of May 2019 at 8 pm: "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet", Espacio Inestable in Valencia
Wednesday, 8th of May 2019 at 1 pm: Solo "Kugelhände", Pabellón Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona
Thursday, 9th of May 2019 at 8 pm: "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet", Teatro Campos Elíseos Antzokia in Bilbao
Directly after returning on the 10th of May, anniversary of the foundation of Theaters der Klänge, The Theatre of Sounds in 1987, we will follow the invitation of Northrhine-Westfalia´s Chamber of Architects on Saturday, 11th of May 2019 at 2 pm presenting our concertante "TRIAS-Suite" live in the Baukunst archive of Northrhine-Westfalia in Dortmund. This 45-minute concert programme will be refined by the "The white dancers" from "TRIAS", and the speech "Art and Technology For A New Entity" by Walter Gropius, presented by András Sosko, our Gropius-performer from our theatre play "Der Silberprinz", "The Silver Prince"
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Schedule |
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| Project 2019 |
02.04.2019 |
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Exhibition "Bauhaus Stage" |
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In this year of the 100th birthday of Bauhaus we are not going to create a new stage play as usual.
Instead we will present in what way we have been dealing with Bauhaus during the last 32 years:
On June 1rst 2019 we will open an exhibition in ACC-Kunstverein Weimar, that was curated and organized by our artistic director J.U.Lensing:
THEATER DER KLÄNGE Bauhaus Stage
Originals - Adaptations - Further developments
Later in this year, from September 12th on, this exhibition can also be seen and heard in Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum.
This exhibition is a friendship arrangement between Weimar´s ACC-Galery and Düsseldorf´s THEATER DER KLÄNGE, THE THEATRE OF SOUNDS, whose protagonists got to know and cherish each other in the former East-German times of 1988, when THEATER DER KLÄNGE was invited for a guest performance of our "Mechanic Bauhaus Stage" at the German National Theatre in Weimar.
Students of scenographic design and also sound design students at the Dortmund University of applied sciences and arts have been working during the past winter term on a comprehensive audio-visual exhibition concept, which is now being prepared in more detail and will be put up in Weimar at the end of May.
In spite of - as always - only very limited financial support, this will be a comprehensive exhibition around the subject "Bauhaus Stage", in the course of which 10 stage works by THEATER DER KLÄNGE will be presented in Weimar (8 in Düsseldorf). Stage works that dealt with historic Bauhaus creations, taking them up as they were or interpreting and further developping them. A comprehensive catalogue and an audio-guide - also available online - will complete the material around this exhibition.
During the whole year of 2019 there will be numerous guest performances during which we will be taking up our productions on stock: "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet", "The Lacquer Ballet", und "The Silver Prince". Even extracts of our production "The Art Of Dancing The Fugue" from 2016 will be invited to Weimar and presented in the frame of Weimar´s Bach-Biennale.
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ACC-Announcement (in german) |
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| 2019 |
21.02.2019 |
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Bauhaus100 |
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The world premiere of "The Lacquer Ballet" following an idea of Oskar Schlemmer was positively received by the critics. All of the performances with fully booked houses in Düsseldorf und Dortmund were indeed a real hit with the public. THEATER DER KLÄNGE, THE THEATRE OF SOUNDS reinterpreted Schlemmer´s idea and carried it forward with the intermedial means of our time. 100 years after the foundation of the famous art and design school in Weimar, we take this production as a kickoff for a number of further activities around the subject "Bauhaus Stage" in 2019.
At present we are organizing a number of guest performances and tours. And this year there will be the occation to revisit four of our Bauhaus stage works, that we have had in our repertory for years already.
We are also just starting with the reconstruction of altogether eight figurines from "The Triadic Ballet". They will be serving as figurines in an exhibition for the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, that will be opened in September 2019. These eight figurines are copies of our revised version of "The Triadic Ballet", that we showed in 2017 on the stage of Düsseldorf´s Capitol Theatre. The figurines that we will now prepare for Dessau will be even closer to the original creations by Oskar Schlemmer and they will be made for exhibition and not for dancing purposes. This is a work commissioned by the foundation "Bauhaus Dessau", that we were able to persuade with our figurines, reason why we were awarded the contract.
The city of Krefeld will start on March 16th at 6 p.m. with its Bauhaus anniversary year. Opening event will be a panel debate. Our artistic director and bauhaus expert Prof J.U. Lensing was asked to participate. On top of that, the city of Krefeld invited "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" for the 14th and 16th of June to participate with an Open Air performance in the centerplace of the city. And in the so-called Krefelder House, the City Theatre Krefeld / Mönchengladbach will show our "Silver Prince" on the 20th of october, a theatre play on the history of the Bauhaus and its founder Walter Gropius created by us.
Krefeld is not the only city in Northrhine-Westfalia, that treasures our artistic work inspired by Bauhaus. On Saturday, 11th of May, we will be guests in Dortmund´s Baukunstarchiv NRW (Archive For The Art Of Constructing) with the concertante representation "TRIAS-Suite". Highlight of this concert with the musical ensemble from our "TRIAS" will be our "White Dancers" from the second act of the "TRIAS" giving a short performance in the atrium of the Archive For The Art Of Constructing. On top of that this will be accompanied by our actor Andras Sosko appearing in the role of Walter Gropius, presenting an extract of our play "Der Silberprinz": the original text of Gropius´ official speech "Art and technics a new unity".
The "TRIAS-Suite" with the white dancers as a scenic and music performance can once again, a week later, on May 19th, be heard and seen in Oberhausen, this time in front of a Peter-Behrens-Building as a background.
Before these performances in Northrhine-Westfalia we will be on tour in Spain. From the 5th to the 9th of May we will show our "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao.
On May, 23rd the Kestnermuseum in Hannover will be opening the exhibition "Bauhaus Stage And The Expressive Dance". There will also be a panel discussion on the opening night, in which - again - our artistic director Prof. J.U.Lensing will be part of the panel. A text written by him under the title "The Bauhaus Stage: Original - Appropriation - Continuation" can be found in the catalogue of this exhibition.
Under a very similar title: "THEATER DER KLÄNGE´s Bauhaus Stage: Original - Appropriation - Continuation" will be opening on the 1st of june an exhibition in the ACC Art Association Weimar that was organized and curated by us. It can be visited daily until August 4th. After that the Theatre Museum of Düsseldorf will take over and show the exhibition from September to December 2019.
In the second half of 2019 there will be further guest performances: "TRIAS", "The Lacquer Ballet" and also "The Silver Prinz". At the revival of the "The Silver Prinz" in the automn of 2019 we expect to publish a radio drama of the same title.
The second half of this year will be certainly as densely filled as the first part was, and there might be even more of our contributions to the Bauhaus anniversary. We will get back to you in June the latest with a more detailed programme for the second part of this year.
We do hope that you will note the above mentioned dates in your calendar as that there will be plenty of occasions to meet again. Looking forward to welcoming as many of you as possible. |
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english Website |
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| The lacquer ballet (booked out) |
30.01.2019 |
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also Dortmund is full booked out since the last week |
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The Bauhaus stageworks and the THEATRE DER KLAENGE are a guarantor for sold out houses. What we have experienced already in 1987/88 - at that time still with big astonishment - recurred in 2014/15 with our revised version of the "triadic ballet" and topically also again with our "lacquer ballet". There is more audience than seats at the theatres we can record.
Also the places at the Dortmund theatre in the depot are booked out since Thursday last week. Booked-out is not sold out, because the ticket system in Dortmund reserves only ticket, but they are still not sold. A few of the reserved tickets will be free for the evening. There is a chance at the box-office, if one comes early enough to join on the Waiting list and wait in the queue.
We are very glad that also our newest creation has such a resonance with the audience and, by the way, also in the press and the media discussing the production.
At the moment the phone is ringing very often in our office. Almost daily we have new inquiries whether our Bauhaus productions are available for guest performances. So, in 2019 you will have the chance to see the "lacquer ballet", as well as our productions "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" and also our play "The silver prince"!
In March starting first with smaller preappearances in North Rhine-Westphalia we will go month for month in other towns and also to France, Spain and to Switzerland.
However, the climax will be a new exhibition which we open in June in Weimar on the subject "THEATER DER KLAENGE and the Bauhausstage". This exibition is also planned for autumn in Dusseldorf. Also in addition there should be an accompanying program in the form of guest performances in Weimar and Dusseldorf... |
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Homepage in english |
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| Dusseldorf booked-out | New website | "The lacquer ballet" in Dortmund |
07.01.2019 |
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News 2019 |
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Now also our additional show of the " lacquer ballet" in the FFT-Juta Dusseldorf is sold out!
Two performances of this remain for the 31st of January and 1st of February, 2019 at the Theater im Depot in Dortmund. Ticket link see below.
Beside our rehearsals to the "lacquer ballet", our German Greek youth exchange, the answer of numerous guest performance inquiries for Germany and Abroad for 2019 and also the planning of a "Bauhaus stage exhibition" for Weimar and Dusseldorf still this year, we have also now a new build website!
Starting with the new year, our new website is switched online - with more modern website functions, bigger photos and directly selectable videos and sounds.
www.theaterderklaenge.de
We have a lot of plans for 2019 and we are glad about our public interest in it! |
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"The lacquer ballet" in Dortmund |
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| The Lacquer Ballet |
17.12.2018 |
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A Tribute to Oskar Schlemmer |
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After the destruction of the Bauhaus and the ostracism of the artists who worked there, Oskar Schlemmer, subjected to an occupational ban by the national-socialistic government, got protection and work from the factory owner Kurt Herberts. This is why Schlemmer in his late years worked in the laboratory for varnishes and coatings at Herbert´s inking units in Wuppertal - together with several famous artists who, like him, had been denounced as being so-called "degenerate artists".
For the 75th anniversary of the Herberts company Schlemmer created within only one month in a veritable tour de force "The Lacquer Ballet", a dancing performance with altogether six figurines that Schlemmer built together with his brother Carl. "The Lacquer Ballet" was only performed once, on December 6th 1941, in Wuppertal´s Concordia Hall.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus we take up this little ballet in order to concentrate once again and this time for good on Oskar Schlemmer. We revive for the first time since 1941 his idea of a "Lacquer Ballet". We choreograph it newly, we interpret and bring it on stage. Our aim is not a reconstruction. Due to lacking sources this is not really possible. We aim at reflecting, honoring and also creating a requiem for this artist who has been so inspiring for us.
Thus our "Lacquer Ballet" will be a public contemplation: of Oskar Schlemmer on the one hand, of dancing on the other and also of the making of pictures. It will revive to a dancing life the sketches of Schlemmer´s figurines. And, on top of that, today´s computer technology provides us with sophisticated tools, that are able to transform the dancers, the colors and the forms on stage, live and online into moving light images, going far beyond Schlemmer´s Ideas in his time and with his possible ways of expression. However, this is how he put it and this is how he inspired us to our creation with the artistic possiblities of our days:
"I do believe that an artist with just some colors and corresponding forms should be able to express his most personal being - unambiguous, unique, unparalleled. I want a blustering way of painting, born from color, shadow and light, structures and laws that bear the mystery and realize the inner story again and again."
With this in mind, do look forward to our first night and the following presentations of "The Lacquer Ballet":
10th to 13th of January 2019 in Düsseldorf, Forum Freies Theater (Juta)
and 31rst of January and 1rst of February 2019 in Dortmund, Theater im Depot. |
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Theater im Depot Dortmund |
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| The glass is more than half-filled |
22.11.2018 |
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Finances and esteem |
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November, a little time for a breather these days and for some thoughts, before the activities for our next premiere will again call all our attention.
We would like to express our special thanks this year to the State Government of Northrhine-Westfalia and above all to the Minister for Culture and Sciences Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen and her staff. For the first time within the now 31 years of our continuous cultural work in Northrhine-Westfalia we received a quite unexpected positive message: the State Ministery for Culture in Northrhine-Westfalia will raise its grants for us by 30% this year - and on top of that this will be paid out quickly!
Looking back onto the last three decades of cultural politics in Northrhine-Westfalia, the first era of the socio-democratic- green state government in Northrhine-Westphalia and its cultural minister Michael Vesper, the second red-green reign with mainly Cultural Minister Ute Schäfer and even the christian-democratic government together with the liberal party from 2005 to 2010 with Cultural Secretary Hans-Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff - all of them repeatedly gave whole-hearted promisses, at the end of which the long term cultural players often came away empty-handed or even had to face painful cutbacks. That´s why it is very much apprechiated now that for once Cultural Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensken this time simply supported those, who have been doing successful cultural work in Northrhine-Westfalia for years - and in our case even for decades.
Successful means for us above all:
31 years of continuous cultural and creative work, 31 years, in the course of which we developed each year a comprehensive piece of art, that allowed each time at least ten artists to live on their creative work for about three months a year.
Successful also means for us:
31 years of work for integration and intercultural understanding, as our casts have always been of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic backgrounds. There were times when up to 90% of our artists had not been from German origin, however our working language has alway been German.
Successful also means for us:
having been engaged in social integration by giving people at least a low-paid marginal employment within our company. Some of them would not have been offered any more chances on the normal labour market.
Successful in our understanding means last but not least:
having developed into being experts in quite a lot of fields: Bauhaus, Intermediality, New Music Theatre, constructive-musical forms of developing choreography, immersive audio, sensoric-electronic interaction of movements and media, development of dancing figurines and so on.
We would like to thank the State of Northrhine-Westfalia und Dusseldorf´s District Government and all the other supporters of our work for this year´s promotional acknowlegement of all these successes.
The Bauhaus network of the State of Northrhine-Westfalia provided us this year with a special support for the construction of a new set of figurines for our version of Oskar Schlemmer´s "Triadic Ballet", as well as for a first-time reconstruction of the figurines, that Schlemmer once designed for his "Lacquer Ballet" in Wuppertal.
At present we benefit - also with unexpected joy - from the suddenly possible state programme "Strengthening Cultural Infrastructure". It provides us with resources allowing us to further develop the technical equipment of our rehearsal studio, which is a prerequisite for our work. And on top of that last week: we were able to welcome a new technical caretaker in our team. He was provided by the National Service For Voluntary Work.
The city of Düsseldorf is signalizing at present, that the exhibitions and re-enactements of our Bauhaus-Creations we have been planning for 2019 will be furthered at the level we asked for. Apart from the usual grants for rent and production costs, the city of Dusseldorf also helped financing our september guest performances in Moskau that took place within the frame of the city partnership between Düsseldorf and Moskau.
And for the first time the Civic Trust (Burgerstiftung) Düsseldorf decided to support a production of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE choosing the "Lacquer Ballet". We thankfully can also rely as usual on the Foundation Van Meeteren in Dusseldorf, who - as well as our Booster Club - were able to support us financially.
At present we had a German-Greek youth exchange going on in our premises. It was initiated and is being organized by the Greek members of our team in cooperation with Dusseldorf´s trade union adult education center office "Work and Life" and it is supported for our part by the Culture Secretary of Northrhine-Westfalia.
And last but not least we are working intensively on our 26th big music- and dance-theatre creation "The Lacquer Ballet".
Enjoy with us the new cultural prosperity in our state and also in our city and do reserve your tickets for the first night of the "Lacquer Ballet" in the FFT-Juta Dusseldorf on the 10th of January 2019 or its further presentations on …
A first taste of it can be seen on the 6th of December 2018 at 6 p.m. in the NRW Forum Dusseldorf. On the occasion of the vernissage of the exhibition "Bauhaus and Photography. New Ways of Viewing in Modern Art" we will show first extracts of our "Lacquer Ballet".
We are looking forward to your coming! |
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Exhibition in the NRW-Forum |
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| We create again |
20.10.2018 |
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Rehearsals-Start for the "varnish ballet" since the 16th of October, 2018 |
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Since Tuesday this week we are activ again for what this ensemble was brought to life in 1987: We create together a new, to be developed stagework in collective cooperation of different disciplines and specialists!
Spiritual employee for our to be developed "varnish ballet" is once more Oskar Schlemmer, who developed in 1941 a "varnish ballet" for a performance in Wuppertal, which was presented there on the St. Nicholas's day in 1941 in the Concordia hall.
77 years have passed since this last ballet evening of Schlemmer and a lot has been developed, so that we - as a following generation - can take up the idea and the draughts to his figurines, but the new creation will of course be anotherone than it has been possible for him in 1941.
Topically a new ensemble works since Tuesday under the direction of our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer with 6 dancers / actors with figurines - provided by Caterina Di Fiore and Christian Forsen - in direct cooperation with J.U.Lensing (director + music composer) and Yoann Trellu (interactive videodesign) on an extensive revised version to a topical "varnish ballet".
The premiere of this creation is planned for the 10th of January, 2019 in the Forum Freies Theater (Juta) in Dusseldorf. |
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| On the way |
18.09.2018 |
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The ensemble for our "mecanical ballet" is actually rehearsing |
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Since yesterday we rehearse again our "mechanical ballet", based on an idea of the Weimar Bauhaus student Kurt Schmidt from the year 1923. This ballet in our interpretation is invited to be performed the coming Friday, 21st of september 2018 and Saturday, 22nd of september 2018 within the "Gavroche International Festival" in Moscow.
The ensemble is consiting of our dancers Jacqueline Fischer (windmill), Laura Wissing (machine being), Fatima Gomes (little one) and our dancers Kai Bettermann (locomotive) and Darwin Diaz (dancer). Also, besides, are our musicians Thomas Wansing (piano), Matthias Müller (trombone) and Dieter Stamer (drums & vibraphone). The ensemble is led by Jörg U. Lensing and accompanied by Miriam Pankarz (Tour Management) and Johann Lensing (Light assistant)!
The premiere on Friday in the "Teatrium Serpuhovke" is already sold out. The subsequent performances on Saturday are nearly sold out... |
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"The mecanical ballet" will be played in the "Teatrium na Serpuhovke" (Moscouw) |
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| Autumn 2018 |
29.08.2018 |
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Activities in our rehearsal studio |
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Today the "international dance fair" starts in Dusseldorf and we are hosts for various international ensembles which rehearse in our studio for their presentations within the scope of the festival of the dance fair.
After another rehearsal-time by a Japanese artist living in Dusseldorf our studio then again is OURs, starting from the middle of September for the resumption of the "mechanical ballet", which is invited within the scope of the "International Gavroche Festival" for the 21st and the 22nd of September, 2018 to Moscow.
Then, beginning in the middle of October we begin with our new ensemble the rehearsals and development work for a new intermedia dance production with the title "The Lacquer Ballet". We develop this piece continuously in our studio until shortly before the premiere. The premiere is planned for 10th of January 2019 with subsequent performances in the Forum Freies Theater (Juta) in Dusseldorf. |
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Gavroche International Festival |
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| "The mecanical ballet" is again invited to Moscow |
18.05.2018 |
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Gavroche Festival Moscouw |
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Our first production "The mechanical ballet" guested already once in 2007 in Moscow. At that time together with our new intermedia production "HOEReographien" under the program title "The mecano-electronic Bauhaus stage".
We are glad that for the first time the town partnership between Dusseldorf and Moscow gets relevant for us. "The mechanical ballet" is once more invited for September 2018 to Moscow. This time within the scope of the "Gavroche festival" will be played three spots on both days of Fr, 21. and Sat., 22nd of September (on the 22.9 a double bill) in Moscow.
The relatively short "mechanical ballet" (40 minutes) was shown from the beginning on in double programmes. To the creation in 1987 we combined it with a premiere of the "mechanical Exzentricity" according to a draught of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy under the program title "The mechanical Bauhaus stage". From 1993 on we combined "The mechanical ballet" with our first intermedia production "figure and sound in the space" under the program title "Dance at the Bauhaus". Later the programme "The mecano electronic Bauhaus stage" was set in combination with first "HOEReographien" and from 2011 on our "SUITE intermediale". At last we showed "The mechanical ballet" in combination with our in 2014 revised version of the "triadic ballet" in the programme "Bauhaus ballets".
Seldom "The mechanical ballet" was shown itself without a combination with another dance-piece. We are glad that the Moscow Gavroche Festival has the courage to invite "The mechanical ballet" as a solitaire programme! |
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The mecanical ballet |
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| Premiere in one week: The silver prince |
03.01.2018 |
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From the 11th to the 14th of January, 2018 in the Collenbachsaal Dusseldorf |
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Since yesterday we are topically in the final rehearsals to our theatre work "The silver prince - 9 looks at Walter Gropius and Bauhaus". From next Monday on we prepare in the Collenbachsaal Dusseldorf our premiere for Thursday, 11th of January, 2018. The piece will be performed there the next week Thursday till Saturday in each case at 7:30pm and on Sunday, 14th of January at 6:30pm.
Our audience awaits an intensive theatrical evening in which the difficult foundation of the today legendary Bauhaus becomes as clear, as the failure in Weimar and the decision for a restart in Dessau.
Such enterprises are allways much bigger than only the foundation of an institute. For that this play concentrates above all on the visions, discussions, love stories and disagreements, the political fights and the cauterisation for an idea from the involved people. In the eye of the storm: the person of Walter Gropius, the founder and nine years director of the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau from 1919 to 1928.
We are exited to see audience again! Please come numerously. |
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Informations about "The Silver Prince" |
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| New website |
20.12.2017 |
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bauhaus ballets and The Silver Prince |
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On the occasion of our jubilee program "Bauhaus ballets" and even more on the occasion of our January premiere with the "silver prince" we build a new website to our Bauhau stageworks.
Click on the following link:
www.theater-der-klaenge.de
If you click now once again on the appearing title page of our website, the new website opens to the "bauhaus stage" with information and pictures to our "Bauhaus ballets" and to the theatre production "The silver prince".
So our "old website" is not extinguished, but is accessible furthermore about the "bauhaus site" on top in the menu under the point "Archive". Also on this updated "old website" both programmes "Bauhaus ballets" and "The silver prince" are documented in word and picture.
We hope that you like the anew formed web pages, so that we see each other again in one of the upcoming performances of the "silver prince" in January, 2018 in Dusseldorf or Dortmund! |
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bauhaus stage - THEATER DER KLAENGE |
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| Bauhaus ballets: PREMIERE with new figurines |
12.10.2017 |
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From today on - and only for these 4 days from the 12th to the 15th of October, 2017 - we show after hard work our "Bauhaus ballets" in the Capitol Theatre of Dusseldorf.
Almost all new figurines to the "triadic ballet" have been finished and were - as our 30 year-old figurines to the "mechanical ballet" - yesterday proved in our general rehearsal . We felt never so close to Oskar Schlemmer...
There are still tickets for all the four evenings at the box-office! |
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Capitol Theatre Dusseldorf |
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| New Figurines |
29.09.2017 |
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bauhaus ballets |
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In 2014 THEATER DER KLÄNGE, the Theatre Of Sounds, decided to produce a new interpretation of "The Triadic Ballet" by Oskar Schlemmer.
For this purpose we constructed figurines according to sketches that Oskar Schlemmer had made within a tabular summary.
At that time the finances for our Schlemmer re-interpretation were not clear. That´s why we chose to create a "home-made" solution: For the most part the inflexible figurines were constructed in cooperation by Udo and J.U. Lensing in our own cellar workshops. Separately Adriana Kocijan produced the mask for the figurine "Ball hands", students of Dortmund´s technical college prepared the figurine "The Diver" and our costumes designer Catarina di Fiore created all the parts of the figurines that had to be sewn. In that way we were able to realize the early costume set of our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet", whose first representation - with a new choreography by Jacqueline Fischer and music composed by Thomas Wansing specifically for this purpose - was enthousiastically celebrated in 2015 in Düsseldorf.
Subsequent guest performances in Dortmund, Idar-Oberstein, Ascona, Bonn and Brussels took their toll. The figurines suffered as they had not been constructed to go on tour. They were just not strong enough for this purpose and were quickly worn out.
That´s why in 2017 we decided to rebuild the figurines.
This time we wanted to make them tour compatible and, different from our work in 2014, our guide line this time is a big number of photographs of the figurines, showing us how Oskar Schlemmer finally had realized his figurines. Quite interestingly: part of the figurines he had constructed twice, and some of the finally realized figurines for "The Triadic ballet", differ greatly from his graphic sketches. Looking on the photographs one can see that Schlemmer adapted his first ideas of immobile and abstract forms towards a realization that focussed more on their being able to dance.
At present a professional team of artists and artisans with their project director J.U.Lensing are working each in their own workshops at the realization of these new figurines: Christian Forsen is responsible for the figurine sculptures, Catarina di Fiore with her assistant Sylvia Straub for the parts of the figurines made of cloth and Adriana Kocjian for the helmet masks of the "Disc Dancer".
From 12th to 15th of October 2017"Bauhaus Ballets" (The Mechanical Ballet" & "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet") are going to be seen for the first time within one evening programme in Düsseldorf´s Capitol Theatre. Among then the presentation of our "Triadic Ballet" will be a real premiere:
dancing for you our new figurines are going to see the light of stage for the first time! |
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Video teaser for the bauhaus ballets |
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| bauhaus ballets with new - 30 years of THEATER DER KLANGE |
03.09.2017 |
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from us for you |
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THEATER DER KLANGE, THE THEATRE OF SOUNDS, was founded in spring 1987 in Düsseldorf. In autumn 1987 it presented its first work: "The Mechanical Bauhaus Stage" at Düsseldorf´s former "Young Theatre in the Old Town" (JUTA). Already then, the first part of this programme was "The Mechanical Ballet"!
We are now celebrating the 30th anniversary of these two occasions and we are doing this in Octobre with our new programme: "Bauhaus Ballets", this time in Düsseldorf´s Capitol Theatre.
We celebrate this double anniversary on the one hand with the creation of a new evening filling double feature with the "Mechanical Ballet" from 1987 and, as a second part, with "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet".
On the other hand we just started remanufacturing some of the figurines for the "Triadic Ballet". We are reproducing them according to the costumes originally created by Oskar Schlemmer as accurately as possible and this in every detail.
As the creation of these two ballets in 1987 and in 2014/15 were already supported by public funds, the production of this newly arranged evening and the recreation of the figurines is now solely on our shoulders. We are doing this without any financial project support.
And this is, where you can come in:
We are creating this programme out of our vocation as passionately committed artists and in continuation of our now 30 years of artistic dialogue with the legacy of the Bauhaus. And we are doing this also and foremost for you, our public, as a public presentation of an artistic creation without an audience simply does not make sense.
That´s why we are inviting you here to contribute to our 30th anniversary by coming as a paying visitor - and by bringing your friends with you!. Do come to one of our representations between the 12th and the 15th of October 2017 to Capitol Theatre, Düsseldorf. With four sold out houses, our two anniversary activities in 2017 could be financed by our public alone.
You will see our "Mechanical Ballet" with - among others - two dancers who already danced 30 years ago in the premiere of 1987. You will see the newly manufactured and largely orignal figurines for the "Triadic Ballet". You will hear a masterful playing ensemble of musicians who are accompanying both ballets live. And last but not least you will experience our two "Bauhaus Ballets" in their "Rhineland Edition", full of delight in playing, excelling with humour and a musicality, meant to give you some idea of the "subversive power" free of academicism and thus the atmosphere at the Bauhaus of the 1920ies.
Ticket sale is online and open around the clock. We are looking forward to seeing you at our double anniversary!
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Online-tickets |
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| bauhaus ballets |
26.06.2017 |
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12th until 15th of october 2017 in Dusseldorf |
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The today legendary Bauhaus organised in 1923 a first big exhibition in form of the so called "bauhaus weeks". Oskar Schlemmer presented in this frame his "Triadic ballet" at the national theatre of Weimar, his students Schmidt, Teltscher and Bogler created "The mechanical ballet" at the theatre of Jena. On the occasion of our 30-years jubilee the THEATER DER KLÄNGE shows for the first time a combination of both Bauhaus ballets in the revised versions of 1987 (The mechanical ballet) and 2015 (TRIAS - The triadic ballet) in the Capitol theatre Dusseldorf. Both ballets were never shown till this day in a program.
Exemplarily they stand for a constructivist, playful adjustment, though for the departure of the early Bauhaus in the 1920s. The mechanical ballet and TRIAS of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE, venture a new interpretation with the dancer's broads and musical possibilities of the 21st century. Besides, both ballets animate the inheritance of the classical modernity, but also the spirit of the "wild, relieved and happily celebrating" roaring twenties.
Capitol theatre of Dusseldorf, Erkrather Strasse 30. From the 12th to the 15th of October 2017, tickets under +49-211-274000 or www.westticket.de |
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Tickets bauhaus ballets |
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| Bauhaus Guest Performance at the Art & Design Atomium Museum (ADAM) in Brussels |
27.05.2017 |
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Saturday, 3rd and Sunday, 4rth of June |
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THEATER DER KLÄNGE, the Theatre of Sounds, has been invited to Brussels´ Art & Design Atomium Museum on the weekend 3rd and 4th of June 2017: it will present its "Mechanical Ballet" as a video documentation and live scenes from "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" in the Auditorium of the museum.
Both presentations - Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. - are going to be a highlight within the closing celebrations of the exhibition "BAUHAUS #ITSALLDESIGN" that started in March and ends June 11th, 2017. THEATER DER KLÄNGE is also present within this exhibition: a 15-minute-video of the "Mechanical Ballet" is shown there around the clock. |
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Agenda Atomium Designmuseum |
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| The Theatre of Sounds celebrates its 30th anniversary in May |
06.04.2017 |
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reading of the text "Rameaus Neffe" the 10th of may 2017 |
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It was in 1987, on the 10th of May that musicians, actors and dancers - most of the from Essen´s art school Folkwangschule - met in Düsseldorf together with a photo artist from Düsseldorf and an advertising merchant - all of them invited by the composer J.U. Lensing, from Düsseldorf as well. The aim of this invitation was the foundation of an interdisciplinary music theatre company.
The Theatre of Sounds "THEATER DER KLÄNGE" was founded as an association with the aim of creating and performing intermedial stage plays. It was defined that the music used for these plays should always be original music, meaning musical works prepared for these plays by contemporary composers. From ten founding members four of them are still active within the company!
In the course of 30 years 24 productions were created, many of them realized in several versions. Thus, the Theatre of Sounds can look back onto altogether 39 plays, three audio books, three music CDs, three DVDs, one fiction film and two book publications in the context of two single exhibitions in 1997 and in 2012 each of them in the Theatre Museum of Düsseldorf.
For the anniversary year the Theatre of Sounds is planing a new programme under the title "Bauhaus Ballets" combining its 1987 production "The Mechanical Ballet" with "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" from 2015 to a double feature programme. Its first performances will take place from the 12th to the 15th of Octobre 2017 in the Capitol Theatre in Düsseldorf.
A small foretaste on this will be shown the next Thursday, 4th of May, 2017 at 10am in the Dusseldorf film werkstatt. We project in this cinema extracts of our video-documentations from the "mechanical ballet" and from "TRIAS - The triadic ballet".
We commit our real jubilee day on the 10th of May, 17 at 8pm with a scenic reading we will give in the Dusseldorf bookstore Gossens in Dusseldorf-Oberkassel. This bookstore topically decorated a shop-window dedicated to the THEATER DER KLÄNGE. Extracts from the Diderot text "Rameaus nephew" are read and played in the translation of Goethe by Kai Bettermann and J.U.Lensing. |
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Bookstore Gossens Dusseldorf |
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| The art of the dance-fugue on the 8th of April in the Rochuschurch in Cologne |
05.04.2017 |
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First performance with the organ-musician Iris Rieg |
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On Saturday, the 8th of April, 2017at 8pm we are with "The art of the dance-fugue" in the original dance-cast guests for the opening of the palm week in the Rochuschurch in Cologne-Bickendorf. It concerns in this respect a premiere, because we work together for the first time with the organist Iris Rieg, who plays on the one hand the organ voice to the electronic rhythm compositions of J.U.Lensing and on the other hand the 7 well-chosen sentences from Johann Sebastian Bachs "The art of the fugue" on the organ of the Rochuschurch in Cologne.
One of the rare opportunities to see this really successful dance composition in connection with the hearing experience of Bachs music live presented by a good interpreter on a church organ. |
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Rochuschurch Cologne Projects (in german) |
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| 2017 |
10.02.2017 |
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We would like to inform you about our present work going on behind the scenes. |
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From next Sunday on Arnoud Samba Nkassa will be "Artist in Residence" in our rehearsal studio. He was member of the cast in our production "Kontraste" and asked our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer to assist him preparing an evening filling dancing solo. The evening will have its premiere in France this spring.
In March our "Bach team" will start rehearsals in order to revive "The Art Of Dancing The Fugue", that is going to be presented on Saturday, 8th of April 2017, 8 p.m. at Rochus Church in Cologne-Bickendorf opening the celebrations around Palm Sunday and the Easter week. For the interpretation of Bach´s "The Art Of The Fugue" the congregation of Rochus Church invited Iris Rieg, an organist also quite famous among connoisseurs.
Directly after this guest performance in Cologne we will have further international guests as "Artists in residence" in our rehearsal studio: In order to prepare our new production for 2017 Athen´s dance company "Echodrama" will cooperate with Jacqueline Fischer, J.U.Lensing and the composer Thomas Neuhaus, thus creating an international artistic exchange. Echodrama is highly interested in the interactive system we developed, using music for generating dancing structures and interactive computer technology for generating a music that originates from movements. At present THEATER DER KLÄNGE, the Theatre of Sounds, is almost the only dance company worldwide, working in such a way.
End of April we will have auditions in our rehearsal studio, in order to find a new actor´s cast for our production 2017/18. Its premiere is planned for early 2018. In 2015 we presented "Der Silberprinz - Walter Gropius und das Bauhaus" ("The Silver Prince - Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus") as a staged reading in front of a small group of spectators in Düsseldorf´s Theatre Museum, where it was very positively received. This encouraged us to transform this draft of a play into as fully developed theatre evening.
And for May 2017 we are planning a small but exquisit event, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of our ensemble. You will hear more about that later … |
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Rochus Church in Cologne |
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| The Art Of Dancing The Fugue |
27.10.2016 |
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Composing Music By Dancing / Dancing A Concert |
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It was in 1751, that Johann Sebastian Bach´s "The Art of the Fugue" was first published posthumously. "The Art Of The Fugue" is the final result of more than ten years of exercises with contrapunctal composing, put into a musical score for four voices.
Whenever Theater der Klänge, the Theatre of Sounds, has created choreographies, especially those for the intermedial plays, it has been our wish and aim to apply contrapunctal techniques from musical composing to the creation of choreographies.
Contemporary choreographers who dealt with the musical work "The Art of the Fugue" so far mainly concentrated on dancing to Bach´s music. Our interest has been deaper, touching the structual level: we have been seeking to acquire the contrapunctal techniques that Bach used for his work and to transform these procedures into patterns of movement, thus not only dancing to the music of the fugue but dancing according to the techniques of the fugue.
Our way of dealing with dance has also been characterised by a will to pursue a certain style: our works are the result of a close cooperation of musical composition and choreography, we like to work with an abstract and high-quality design vocabulary and we aim at reflecting contemporary dialogues.
In "The Art of Dancing the Fugue" we are examining if the structure supports the individual being or if it is the other way round: if the individual being supports the structure. We do this experimenting with mono-, poli- and heterophony and we apply this to the theme: Individual being versus collective body.
"The Art of Dancing the Fugue" is a choreography for four dancers - two women, two men. It is meant to examine how visual music can be created today by four moving bodies and furthermore how today´s dance and motion technologies for modern dancers are an aesthetic prerequisit for such a creation. Polyphony in this context should be understood literally as several voices: in this case the expression of four body languages in order to articulate this well ordered, punctuated and harmonized dialogue of four individuals to a collective body. This in itself is statement enough about the present social discourses concerning individual and society and also concerning questions of spirituality.
Saturday, the 12th of november at 8pm in the Dortmund (D) Theater im Depot |
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Theater im Depot Dortmund (D) |
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| The Art Of Dancing The Fugue |
07.10.2016 |
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within the frame of the 11th International Düsseldorf Organ Festival IDO |
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"The Art Of Dancing The Fugue"
within the frame of the 11th International Düsseldorf Organ Festival IDO
World premiere: 2nd of November 2016
Further performances: 3rd to 5th of November 2016
Last Friday the 11th International Düsseldorf Organ Festival IDO had a grand opening presenting a concert with 103 trombones and organ.
Grand final this year will be a new creation by THEATER DER KLÄNGE ( THEATRE OF SOUNDS): "The Art Of Dancing The Fugue".
As the title suggests, this work deals with Bach´s last great work of music: "The Art of the Fugue".
The first part of the evening is an exploration of Bach´s compositional structures, making them visually tangible by using them for the creation of a choreography.
In the second part of the evening Bach´s work will be audible in chosen movements of the work - played by the renowned organist Prof. Wolfgang Baumgratz on the organ of the protestant Thomas Church in Düsseldorf.
The evening is divided into 4 parts:
1 pure dance (without music)
2 dancing rhythms according to Bach´s structures, to musical, harmonic or topical materials of Bach´s "The Art of the Fugue"
3 Dance accompanying six chosen movements from "The Art of the Fugue", played on the organ
4 pure music (without dance)
IDO festival and THEATER DER KLÄNGE, have been exploring possibilities of a cooperation for the last 3 years. Each time they failed due to lacking finances. This year the city of Düsseldorf finally made this cooperation possible, being the main supporter of this new creation for the grand final of the IDO festival.
Next to the artistic challenge that this involves, this work is also meant to be a statement on today´s value of historic music, by giving answers to today´s questions concerning the growing diversity (polyphony) of our society in a globalized world, presenting polyphony as a well ordered and harmonic interaction - audible in the polyphony of Bach´s music and optically visual as an interaction of dancing and communicating bodies.
"The Art Of Dancing The Fugue" can be experienced from Wednesday, 2nd of November to Saturday 5th of November 2016 each day at 7:30 p.m. in the protestant Thomas Church in Düsseldorf, Eugen-Richter-Straße 12, 40470 Düsseldorf-Mörsenbroich. |
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ido-festival |
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| Cinema presentation on September 1rst, 2016 |
29.08.2016 |
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Dancefair Northrhine-Westphalia 2016 in Dusseldorf |
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In the frame of this year ´s International Dance Fair in Düsseldorf Ehrenhof we will be present on even two of the stands there.
On stand no. 43, called "Tanzland NRW" (dancing land Northrhine-Westfalia) we are present as a one of the northrhine-westfalien dance companies representing our entire repertoire.
On stand no. 27, the French agency "Galerie choréographique" is offering our programme "Bauhaus Ballets" ("The Mechanical Ballet" & "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet"), as from Mai 2017 on we will present these two pieces as an evening filling overall programme in two parts. This Thursday, 1rst of September, extracts ot these two ballets can be seen within a cinema presentation: in the movie theatre "Cinema", Schneider-Wibbel-Gasse 5 in the heart of Düsseldorf´s Old Town. Start is 11:30 h. |
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| Next Premiere: November 2016 |
23.08.2016 |
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Rehearsals For Our New Dance Play Have Started |
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Tuan Ly and Tim Cecatka are completing our chamber dance ensemble next to our core dancer Phaedra Pisimisi and to Camilla Scholtbach, being a member of our dance company for a year now.
These four dance interpreters have been working with our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and our director and composer J.U.Lensing since Tuesday, 23rd of August. This time they are bringing to life a new pure dancing piece that is going to have its premiere in the frame of Düsseldorf´s International Organ Festival IDO in the first week of November 2016. The spiritual seventh in this group of artists will be once again Johann Sebastian Bach!
More about this and the ongoing developments in our next News Letter. |
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| Bauhaus - Summer Break - New Project |
19.07.2016 |
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We have deserved it, this year´s summer break after an intensive spring with many new ideas for the time to come and accordingly a lot of fruitful talks and negotiations.
Until Sunday, 14th of August the exhibition "Bauhaus - It´s All Design" with the video recording of our "Mechanical Ballet" from 2009 can still be seen in the Federal Art Hall in Bonn.
From 31st of August to the 3rd of September we can be met at the International Dance Fair in Düsseldorf Ehrenhof. On the one hand we are one of the Northrhine-Westfalian ensembles, which are going to be represented on the NRW stand of the Northrhine-Westfalian State Office for Dance. On the other hand both our Bauhaus productions will be exclusively represented for guest performances abroad by the French agency "Galerie Choreographique" on their own stand. On Thursday, the 1st of september at 11:30am we will show videocompilations of our "bauhaus ballets" in the Dusseldorf movie-theatre "Cinema"!
From August 23rd on we will start rehearsing for our new dance performance, that is going to have its premiere in November in the course of Düsseldorf´s "ido - International Organ Festival" in a Church in Düsseldorf. You will hear more from us once we are back from our summer holidays. |
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Bauhaus - It´s All Design |
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| External Activities |
30.05.2016 |
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June 2016 |
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Jacqueline Fischer and J.U.Lensing, the artistic directors for choreography and direction of THEATER DER KLÄNGE (The Theatre of Sounds) are also active in other fields - individually for themselves as well as for colleagues:
Jacqueline Fischer participated as a writer in the 4th volume of a sequence of books called "Gemeinsame Geschichten – Tragisches und Komisches aus dem Einwanderungsland Deutschland" (Shared stories - tragical and comical narrations from the immigration country Germany). She was author of the chapter "Let ´s see who is right". The book has just been published in german, was edited by ZAKK and Diakonie Dusseldorf and can be bought there. The idea for Jacqueline Fischer´s story in this book came out of the research and cooperation work for our last play "Contrasts".
On June 2nd, 2016 Düsseldorf´s "Theater Kontrapunkt" (Theatre Counterpoint) will present its new play: "1816 - Das Jahr ohne Sommer", (1816 - The Year Without a summer). It will be presented within this year ´s Schumann-Festival in Dusseldorf. Jacqueline Fischer developed the choreography of the moving chorus for her colleagues´ production, which is going to be heard and seen from the 2nd to the 5th of June 2016 in the Boui Boui Bilk in Düsseldorf.
From the 13th to the 23th of June 2016 Jacqueline Fischer was invited as a choreographer by the Hellenic Dance Company/National Dance School of Athens to rehearse with specifically selected Greek dancers two dances from our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet": the "Harlekin"-Solo and the duo "Spirals". Both of them will be shown in public on Thursday, 23rd of June, in Athens´ National Dance School.
J.U.Lensing has repeatedly been working also as a composer for film music. Two films of the film maker Lutz Dammbeck were set to music by J.U. Lensing: "Das Netz" (The Net) will be presented on Tuesday, 7th of June, "Overgames" on Wednesday, 8th of June, both at 6:30pm in the movie theatre of the cultural center "U" in Dortmund. Both the director Lutz Dammbeck and the composer J.U.Lensing will be present to discuss their work.
Dammbeck´s latest film "Overgames" was shown at the film festival DOK 2015 in Leipzig and received the documentary film price of the Goethe Institute. "Overgames" is at present touring in numerous cinemas of the major German cities. At the end of this year it will then be broadcasted on german tv by ARTE and rbb.
An earlier work "Architecture & Soundscapes", produced within the frame of a coproduction of TU-Dortmund (professorship energy efficient construction) with FH-Dortmund (professorship Film/TV) composed of ten short films presenting ten energy efficient public buildings in Europe in their respective environments. This film will be presented on Friday, 10th of June at 7pm at the "KABÜ" in Essen-Rüttenscheid, an evening arranged in collaboration with the association "Baustelle - Schaustelle" (Construction and Sight).
J.U.Lensing, Professor for Sound Design at the FH-Dortmund and responsible for the entire sound design of "Architecture & Soundscapes" will present these 10 films. He will also explain and give examples how varying the sound design (music) can change the quality of our perception of the presented object in this architectural films.
In the field of the film-sound as well J.U.Lensing published the following books: "Sound Design - Sound Montage - Soundtrack Composition" and he translated the standard-work "Audio-Vision" by Michel Chion, which appeared in the german publishing house Schiele&Schön.
At present J.U.Lensing is translating and editing a new publication of Michel Chion for the german book market. It is going to be published in autumn 2016 again by the editing house Schiele&Schön: "Audio-Logo-Vision im Kinofilm - Geschichte/Ästhetik/Poesie" (Audio-Logo-Vision in movies - History/Aesthetics/Poetry). |
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Cinema in the Dortmund U Center |
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| The THEATER DER KLANGE enters the 30th year of existance |
10.05.2016 |
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Media exposition in the audio book store Romeike in Dusseldorf |
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Today, on the 10th of May THEATER DER KLANGE celebrates it´s 29th day of founding. So, our ensemble goes now into the 30th year of existance and activities. If this would have foreseen by someone in 1987, the founder-twens of that time would not have believed him!
We celebrated ourselves allready and that together with our audience in a completely sold off performance of "TRIAS - the triadic ballet" in the federal arts centre in Bonn the 30th of April!
Beside up to now 23 full-length music-, dance- and theatrical creations, which were developed by the ensemble and were brought to performance in numerous variations and partially also in revised versions over and over again (nearly 600 times), the THEATER DER KLANGE produced numerous audio visual media till this day:
3 music CDs, 3 audio books, 3 DVDs (under it the feature-movie Gregorius) and 2 books, one together with the DVD "Gregorius". The unique audio book store Romeike in Dusseldorf forms on the occasion of our foundation day a shop-window with the theme THEATER DER KLANGE and offers all CDs, DVDs and books produced by us for direct prehearing, to view and to purchase them.
So, please celebrate our 29th foundation day with the purchase of one or several of our media (maybe as a present for birthdays?) in the Dusseldorf audio book store or also directly in our on-line shop.
By the way: Who applies for the membership in our conveyor association "Klangtheater e.V." (sound theatre inc.), gets the three audio books published by us "Die Neuberin", "Megalopolis" and "of devil circles" as a welcome present.
If so, please seind us a mail with the reference "conveyor association" to info@theater-der-klaenge.de |
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Online Store THEATER DER KLANGE |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet in the Federal Art Hall of Germany |
21.04.2016 |
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Saturday, 30th of April 2016 at 7:30 pm in Bonn |
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TRIAS can be seen once again in Northrhine-Westfalia with life music and performed by the original cast.
We are presenting our new interpretation of Oskar Schlemmer ´s "Triadic Ballet" on Saturday, 30th of April 2016 at 7:30 pm. in Bonn at the Forum of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany
At present the Federal Art Hall is showing the exhibition: "Bauhaus - It´s all Design".
THEATER DER KLÄNGE is a partner in the framework programme of this exhibition.
The radiostation WDR3 said after our premiere in 2015: "With it's first production 28 years ago, the Düsseldorf ensemble, THEATER DER KLÄNGE, already established themselves as Bauhaus-experts. With this production they expand on earlier works, as a matter of fact, one cannot imagine a better remake of the Triadic Ballet than this most excellent adaptation. Not only a contemporary reflected Meta-Schlemmer, but also a loving historical tribute." |
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Tickets Online |
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| "the bauhaus. it is all design" at the Federal Art Hall in Bonn |
09.04.2016 |
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TRIAS on stage at the Forum of the Federal Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn |
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Last weekend the exhibition "the bauhaus. it´s all design" from the Vitra Design museum was opened at the Federal Art Hall in Bonn.
More than 3000 visitors right at the opening weekend gave evidence of an overwhelming public interest.
Our "Mechanical Ballet" - the 15-minute-video-version that we published with absolut-medien - is presented around the clock and at a prominent place within this exhibition.
On top of that we will be present in the framework programme of this exhibition: on Saturday, 30th of April at 7:30 p.m. we will be guests in the Forum of the Art- and Exhibition Hall of the German Federal Republic presenting our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" from 2015 with the original cast and with live music.
Due to limited places and the obviously enormous public interest it seems wise to reserve tickets well in advance. |
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Calendar - Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany |
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| Our presence in the media |
27.03.2016 |
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On TV and in the Internet |
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At the occasion of the guest performance with the Bauhaus Ballets in Ascona (Switzerland) THEATER DER KLÄNGE got its usual press reviews and on top of that was also present on Swiss TV. Please have a look at the link down below!
During the last weeks we were also working on bringing extracts of our vast video and audio archive online, making these extracts audible and visible.
Have a look on our website! For each production you will find photographs, texts and press reviews and there will also be two buttons called "Video" and "Klang" (sound).
If you click on these, the underlying link will lead you either to our new video account (Videos) our to our equally new sound cloud account (Audiofiles) with partly exquisite audio-visual or just auditory examples. Indeed we would like to fulfill our name, offering with our theatre of sounds, a feast not only for the eyes but also sometimes exclusively for the ears.
www.vimeo.com/klangtheater
www.soundcloud.com/theater-der-klaenge
In our shop you can order our publications: books we published, audio books, music CDs and DVDs …
http://theater-der-klaenge.de/shop/shopdaten/
Every sold item helps us to finance further projects!
Absolut-medien published a "bauhaus series". On their DVD "Bauhaus Stage & Dance 2" you will find 15 minutes of a HD recording of our "Mechanical Ballet" taken from our guest performance at Bauhaus Dessau in 2009.
https//absolutmedien.de/reihe/81/edition+bauhaus |
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Theater der Klänge al San Materno |
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| bauhaus ballets |
04.03.2016 |
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Ascona - a successful sneak preview |
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Last weekend in Ascona, Switzerland, we had a very successful sneak preview for our new program "bauhaus ballets". We intend to present this double feature of "The Mechanical Ballet" and "TRIAS" at guest performances in the years to come. Both ballets were presented in 1923 in the frame of the so-called "Bauhaus Weeks" in Jena and Weimar. "The Mechanical Ballet" saw its world premiere in Jena. It had been created by Bauhaus students, who attended Oskar Schlemmer ´s stage classes, newly introduced to the curriculum at the Bauhaus in Weimar. "The Triadic Ballet" was Schlemmer ´s own creation. He had brought it with him to the Bauhaus and showed it in 1923 at the National Theatre Weimar.
A subsidy from the North-Rhine-Westfalian Ministery for Children, Youth, Culture und sports helped us to finance the presentation of a shortened version (8 out of 12 scenes) of our "TRIAS - the Triadic Ballet" in Ascona. "The Mechanical Ballet" was shown completely. Both pieces were enthusiastically celebrated by the Swiss public and we are already planing further activities in Switzerland!
Another successfully passed test for us: we had to recast roles in the TRIAS. Camila Scholtbach, who already joined our ensemble when we produced "Contrasts" and the Folkwang dancer Danilo Cardoso mastered theirs roles with bravura, not without interpreting them with their own individual note.
TRIAS can be seen and listened to with the original cast and in full length on April, 30th at the Forum of the Bundeskunsthalle (Federal Art Hall) in Bonn. More about this in our next newsletter. |
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Ausstellung in der Bundeskunsthalle Bonn |
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| Bauhaus Ballets (Extracts) |
23.02.2016 |
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Sneak Preview |
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The North-Rhine-Westfalian Ministery for Children, Youth, Culture and Sports supports our guest performance "Bauhaus Ballets" in Ascona. We are surprised and thankful and with this subsidy able to show the compete "Mechanical Ballet" and 9 out of 12 scenes of TRIAS.
This double guest performance at the Teatro San Materno in Ascona, Switzerland will be our sneak preview for our double feature under the title "Bauhaus Ballets" that we are planning to present at future guest performances. In this two-hour-program we are uniting our "Mechanical Ballet" from 1987 with our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet" from 2015.
"The Mechanical Ballet" was first performed in 1923 by Kurt Schmidt, at that time student at the Bauhaus in Weimar, together with his fellow students F.W.Bogler and Georg Teltscher. It was created as a frame work for the program "The Mechanical Cabaret". In this same frame work program Oskar Schlemmer presented in 1919 first parts of his "Triadic Ballet". In 1922 TRIAS had its first performance in Weimar and from then on became world famous as the "Bauhaus Ballet" as such.
Oskar Schlemmer was, at that time, head of the Bauhaus stage department and both works were later documented by the Bauhaus edition "The Bauhaus Stage". In this same book master teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy also presented his vision of a "Mechanical Eccentricity", which was realized as late as 1987, when THEATER DER KLÄNGE brought this draft on stage and thus became the world premiere cast for the "Mechanical Eccentricity". This piece was in our repertory until 1992 but could not be held there any longer.
However, we now unite two other "Bauhaus ballets" in one evening. We do hope to be invited with this evening onto numerous stages and are looking forward to hearing from you in case you see a place for us in your programme. Please bear in mind, that in the next years Bauhaus will celebrate it´s centennial. Depending what date you base yourself on it can be celebrated in the years 2018 until 2020. For further information, do not hesitate to contact us. |
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Further Informations to this programme |
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| BAUHAUS BALLETS (Extracts) |
15.02.2016 |
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Teatro San Materno Ascona (CH) - 27th and 28th of february 2016 |
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"Contrasts" was an unexpected successful production in Dusseldorf and in Dortmund. In Dusseldorf this piece gave to us four sold out performances en suite. With this, we managed with our three latest productions every time the "sold out" in Dusseldorf: "CODA" (2014) to "TRIAS" (2015) and now "Contrasts" (2016).
TRIAS was also in Dortmund and with the subsequent performances in Dusseldorf a huge success. That´s why we will resume this piece and present it again this year. Not only "TRIAS" still finds big interest, but also over and over again our "mechanical ballet".
The newest inquiry comes from a very much engaged choreographer from Ascona, who succeeded to build with the Teatro San Materno a small "Bauhaus theatre" there. Full of enthusiasm for the bauhaus stage she would have invited with pleasure our two Bauhaus productions, which is however not possible to her, due to financial reasons.
For that we show exceptionally in Ascona act 2+3 of the "mechanical ballet" and some solo scenes and duet scenes from "TRIAS" in form of a Workshop presentation at this very special theatre.
The possibility to see "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" again completely comes up at the end of April in big frame again in North Rhine-Westphalia.
More about this will be written in one of our coming newsletters. |
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Performances dates |
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| Contrasts |
06.01.2016 |
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Premiere and first performance series from the 13th to the 17th of January, 2016 |
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Jacqueline Fischer, long-standing dancer and choreographer for the Dusseldorf THEATER DER KLAENGE, compiles topically her second full-length dance-program.
After she created in 2008 very successfully the dance-evening "I is another" for the THEATER DER KLAENGE , the new piece of "Contrasts" devotes itself to the free-being in meritocracy societies like the german one.
Freely in terms of other ethnically or culturally origins, freely in terms of "not efficiently and competitive" by illness, age or lacking education. The piece concentrates upon the person, his Origin, his surroundings and focuses itself on the suitable connections and contrasts to uncover his abilities and to steer the look at what he is able to do. The ease of the dance enables to devote itself a poetry of the representation by staying serious to the called subjects.
An international ensemble with interpreters from Germany, Greece, the USA, Chile, Japan and the Republic of Congo compiles to this question a music and dance theatre evening which will also use a video scenography and electronic music beside play, song and dance.
PERFORMANCES:
Wednesday, 13th of January, 2016 - 8pm FFT Dusseldorf (Juta)
Friday, 15th of January, 2016 - 8pm FFT Dusseldorf (Juta)
Saturday, 16th of January, 2016 - 8pm FFT Dusseldorf (Juta)
Sunday, 17th of January, 2016 - 5pm FFT Dusseldorf (Juta)
Sunday, 24th of January, 2016 - 6pm Theatre in the Depot Dortmund |
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Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf |
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| TRIAS Music available on CD from the 17th of october on |
18.10.2015 |
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Release concert on saturday, the 17th of october at 6pm in Dusseldorf |
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1919 Oskar Schlemmer put together a classically, romantic repertoire of piano music (among other things Händel, Mozart, Haydn, Bossi). This on the one hand, because he always had to be aware to sit on the piano to play if necessary, on the other hand no composer offered him an adequate music to work for the triadic ballet at that time.
The unique cooperation with Paul Hindemith in 1926 to a music for mechanical organ, was not adequate for Schlemmer, because Hindemith composed only parts of the triadic ballet and this regardless of common rehearsals with the dancers. In addition, Hindemiths music is mostly lost and is hardly reconstructable.
For the first both new interpretations of the "triadic ballet" in 1968 in Stuttgart and in 1977 in Berlin the new ballet musics both soaks off the playful character of the pieces of music, wich had been originally chosen by Schlemmer.
Hence, the new compositions of a music for a "triadic ballet" in 2014 went out from the situation, Schlemmer had in 1919. Few non amplified instruments (piano, solo instrument, percussion), which play live together for the dances. Besides, any sound-producing was permitted (also new ways to play the instruments) which can be generated directly with these instruments. This always in direct dependence or as a rhythm and impulse giver for the dancing figurines. In the "abstract" scenes increases the sound by careful use of electronic modulations of the instrumental sounds.
The music was simultaneous codeveloped and "tailor-made" by the composer Thomas Wansing for each scene as a piano-korrepetitor in the rehearsals for the ballet in the studio of the THEATER DER KLANGE in winter 14/15. In the third act the music increases after the respective scenes around a short part in concerto form, which are also given in the live performances.
For the publishing on CD the composer has fortified the instrumental studio recordings partially with sound samples and additional percussion in the editing to give more density and depth to the sound impression than this is possible in the live performances with only 3 musicians.
The complete new music to "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" is available on CD since the 17th of october on in the THEATER DER KLANGE Web-Shop. |
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Web Shop |
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| J.U.Lensing invited by the literature office of northrhine-westphalia |
11.10.2015 |
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One hour with... |
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The literature office of North Rhine-Westphalia invites regularly creatives - above all authors - from North Rhine-Westphalia to a public conversation. The leader of the literature office Michael Serrer questions the respective guest on behalf for the audience about his motives of creating, the intentions and the appraisals to topical cultural politics.
The founder and long-standing leader of the THEATER DER KLAENGE, Prof. J.U.Lensing from Dusseldorf is for "one hour" on Wednesday, 21st of October at 7pm invited as guest by the literature office of NRW in the Heinrich Heine institute Dusseldorf. |
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Facebooksite of the literature office of northrhine-westphalia |
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| The Silverprince - Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus |
06.10.2015 |
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Scenical Reading of a new text for theatre and audioplay |
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The intensive renewed research to the Bauhaus in the course of the preliminary works for our last production "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" produced as a side effect a research on the founder and long-standing manager of Bauhaus, the architect Walter Gropius.
What led him to the foundation of this later famous creation college after the First World War?
What made him swing from the "cathedral of the socialism" to the motto "art and technology a new unity"?
What were the reasons of the move from Weimar to Dessau?
Which role played his two wives Alma Mahler and Ilse Frank?
Why did he take his hat after only 9 years?
With these questions and some more in the head J.U.Lensing generated a text for theatre, which was fed from the searches in the Bauhaus archive Berlin, but also in the libraries of the university of Weimar and the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau.
The text is a basis of a staging still to be compiled for the THEATER DER KLANGE next year, as well as to the creation of a new radio play / audio book. There are other plans for a movie.
Topically a small ensemble around J.U.Lensing has worked off the text for a scenic first reading, which is to see and shall be heard the coming Sunday, 4th of October, 2015 at 11am at the Dortmund theatre in the depot and on Sunday, 11th of October at 11am in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf. |
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Program Theatermuseum Dusseldorf |
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| The mecanical ballet |
14.09.2015 |
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The 25th of september in the Vitra-Design-Museum in Weil am Rhein |
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On the occasion of the opening of the Bauhaus exhibition "#allesistdesign" (#everythingisdesign) in the Vitra design museum, the THEATER DER KLANGE is invited to present "The mechanical ballet" the 25th of September in the city Weil am Rhein.
"The mechanical ballet" is rarely to be seen during the last years, despite the fact that we hold it further in our repertoire. Our version of this ballet was anew choreographed by J.U.Lensing in 1987 on the base by two Black-and-white photos from 1923 and a coloured glas-painting of the former Bauhaus student Kurt Schmidt and it was performed for the first time with a music specially composed for it by the composer and pianist Hanno Spelsberg. The Bauhaus figurines were reconstructed faithfully.
The music and the choreography remained unchanged till this day. Thus means the "original" of the THEATER DER KLANGE can be see and hear on the 25th of September, 2015 in the city of Weil am Rhein (D). |
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Bauhaus #allesistdesign |
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| 18th Bauhausparty under the motto "collective blue" |
01.09.2015 |
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TRIAS Concert and Clowns as opener for the bauhaus party in 2015 |
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The THEATER DER KLANGE "Bauhaus Band" opens together with both Oskar Schlemmer clowns from TRIAS this year's "bauhaus party" in the famous Bauhaus Dessau building. The party has the motto "collective blue" and should go from 7pm to far after midnight on Friday, 4th of September, 2015.
We play 5 sentences from our latest production "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" in concerto form, piano (Thomas Wansing), cello (Beate Wolff) and drumset (Oliver Eltinger). Embedded in this concert our actor Kai Bettermann plays both Schlemmer clowns: "The cello clown" and "the musical clown" which we have both woken up to life for TRIAS the first time after more than 90 years. |
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Bauhaus Dessau |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet |
12.08.2015 |
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For the last time with the original dancers! |
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"TRIAS - The triadische ballet" is to be seen and to hear provisionally the last time in the original cast. The cultural summer in Idar-Oberstein (D) invites the production on Saturday, 29th of August at 8pm in the municipal theatre of Idar-Oberstein.
Because two our dancers go from September on to an engagement at the theater in Trier, we work at the moment on the replacements of the suitable roles. The musicians and our actor remains original. We work on this now, so that we can further play TRIAS from september on and in 2016 in the same quality, but new cast and hope so for invitations of organizers and festivals! |
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Municipal theater of Idar-Oberstein (D) |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet - 24th/25th of May in tanzhaus nrw |
20.05.2015 |
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Today! |
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"The triadic ballet" from Oskar Schlemmer was performed in the graphically known original version only few times. In the twenties happened only other fragmentary performances of parts of this ballet, which became nevertheless famous.
The sixties adaptation of Margrete Hasting exists as film version, the seventies version of Gerhard Bohner is to be seen on DVD and topically in a reconstruction of his work by the junior company of the Bavarian state ballet.
There are no other versions existing till 2015. "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" of the THEATER DER KLANGE delivers therefore - nearly 100 years after the first sketches to this ballet - a topical interpretation of this "ballet idea" in a new choreography and with a completely anew composed music for small ensemble (piano, cello, percussion).
So much the 2015th version is inspired by contemporary dance, costume material interpretations and musical style quotations, so much it also tries an approach to the twenties original of Oskar Schlemmer. Small ensemble (also for the music), joyfull play, humor, fun in the dance and in the grotesque up to a pointless clownery.
Oskar Schlemmer was not only an artist and a lonesome thinker, but also a passionate actor and musician who appeared on stage (in the Bauhaus)! He called the two souls in his breast as apollonic and dionysic. After the rather apollonian interpretations of the past to his work, the THEATER DER KLANGE devotes itself now also to his dionysian side...
To see and to hear the next Sunday and Monday, in each case at 8pm in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf. |
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TRIAS |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf |
09.05.2015 |
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Sunday and monday, 24th and 25th of May 2015 - 8pm |
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When we made our small series of studio performances in January in FFT Dusseldorf and also for both performances in Dortmund numerous ticket-wishes had to remain dissatisfied, because all the shows were fast sold off. Unfortunately, even at the box-office people had to go home. So much we were pleased having a full house, we regret that some people came along in the theatre without being able to enjoy then what they wanted to see and hear.
That's why we organise two other performances in Dusseldorf, to which the rehearsals have begun yesterday. Finally, we can show our interpretation of the "triadic ballet" from Oskar Schlemmer also on an appropriately big stage - in the dance house nrw.
Use the week-end 24th and 25th of may for enjoying a contemporary interpretation of this dance and design classic of the twentieth century, or how in the radiostation WDR3 said:
With it's first production 28 years ago, the Düsseldorf ensemble, THEATER DER KLÄNGE, already established themselves as Bauhaus-experts. With this production they expand on earlier works, as a matter of fact, one cannot imagine a better remake of the Triadic Ballet than this most excellent adaptation. Not only a contemporary reflected Meta-Schlemmer, but also a loving historical tribute. |
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Tickets for the tanzhaus nrw |
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| Text, Sound, Applause |
28.04.2015 |
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8th of May 2015 - 8:30pm in the Caffé Enuma Düsseldorf |
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Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and the artistic director of the THEATER DER KLANGE - J.U.Lensing - are guests on Friday, 8th of May, 2015 at 8:30pm in the Caffé Enuma in Dusseldorf. Both will speak there of the topical production "TRIAS - the triadic ballet" and about the nearly 28 yeras old theatre.
Musical guest of the evening is the Dusseldorf musicgroup Cattelan whose songs "pomegranate" or "person GV" will be sung in all corners of the space.
"Text, tone, applause" presents scenes from the topical programmes of the Dusseldorf theatres, texts from the feather of home authors and sounds of representatives of the local music scene. The event originates in the cooperation of Christine Brinkmann (zakk word & stage), Sven-André-Dreyer ("Read, You sow!"), Mareike Götzinger ("SHOWERS poetry"), Verena Meis ("ausReihe3") and Dr. Michael Wenzel ("Sonny Wenzel and friends"). The actors and her guests stand on behalf for different artistic disciplines and offer with "text, tone, applause" diverse entertainment as well as the presumably best opportunity to get to know the cultural offer of Dusseldorf in comfortable atmosphere. |
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Caffé Enuma Düsseldorf (Prinz Arcticle) |
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| TRIAS The triadic ballet | More performances |
28.04.2015 |
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Premiere on big stage in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf |
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| On Sunday (24th of May) and on Monday (25th of May) - in each case at 8pm - we will present once more two performances of "TRIAS - The triadic ballet" in Dusseldorf. For the first time on big stage -what the piece was conceived for. This respecting we announce the second PREMIERE, because the piece will get once more another audio-visual dimension in the tanzhaus nrw. The online-possibilities for an advance booking is switched free (see link). Regarding the january and february sold out performances an untimely reservation is recommended! |
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tanzhaus nrw / Tickets |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet | music |
25.03.2015 |
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Studiorecordings for a new CD |
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Thomas Wansing, Beate Wolff and Oliver Eltinger - our topical "Bauhaus Band" for TRIAS - were the 12th and 13th of March guest in the recording studio of the Folkwang university of arts in Essen to record in there 12 titles for TRIAS under good terms of recording.
Arthur Joggerst of the ICEM of the FUdK was the recording sound engineer, the artistic leader of the THEATER DER KLANGE - J.U.Lensing is the music producer. Fenn music, the label which brought out in 1997 already our CD "Bauhaus Stagemusic", is also interested to publish the TRIAS music on CD and for downloads.
If everything goes well, we have still in this spring the publication of a new THEATER DER KLANGE music album!
A pros pos TRIAS: For Whitsun Sunday and Whitsun Monday we announce the PREMIERE on big stage for TRIAS in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf. In our next newsletter we bring to this the concrete announcement and the link to the advance booking. |
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Music CDs from the THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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| TRIAS - Standing Ovations in Dortmund |
09.02.2015 |
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Two times again sold out |
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TRIAS in Dortmund excelled the reactions in Dusseldorf. The double seat contingent of the theatre in the depot Dortmund in comparison to the capacity of FFT Dusseldorf (Juta) became already apparent in the (festive) mood in the hall at the beginning. Every scene got its applause. Then this discharged wildly after the scene of both spirals, after the first small "concert" of our musicians. Afterwards the tension increased, which explosed in an applause lasting several minutes with Bravos, feet trample and at last two times Standing Ovations in Dortmund.
This reaction makes us very happy, because we had to work very hard and against a lot of opposition - as a free ensemble - to create a piece which is taken up by the audience with such gratitude!
For those which could get no more tickets, here the first bright spot:
Make a notice for the Whitsun weekend in your calendar, or - plan a visit this weekend to Dusseldorf... |
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TRIAS - press review |
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| TRIAS - The triadische ballet (Sold out) |
22.01.2015 |
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Thanks to Oskar Schlemmer, the ensemble and the audience |
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TRIAS gives to us sold out houses, applause lasting several minutes and very much, very good critics in the radio and in the press!
Fortunately (and unfortunately) now the performances in Dortmund the 7th and 8th of February are also completely booked out.
The beginning of February we will have a conversation in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf for possible subsequent performances there in the big hall.
Oskar Schlemmer's vision, an ensemble working together creatively and really well and the exceedingly big interest of an obviously art loving and theater loving audience make this success possible. We have hesitated long after 1987 to devote ourselves again directly to a Bauhaus work, because we ourselves have created 21 own pieces and Schlemmer was "forbidden". Now we regret no second that we have come along in the spring of the last year on the trip to the Weimar Bauhaus around the ideas of 1922 to let come to life again anew!
"TRIAS - The triadic ballet" should be further performed. For December a guest performance stands in a queue, perhaps, in Bauhaus Dessau. |
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TRIAS |
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| TRIAS - The triadic ballet |
31.12.2014 |
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First series in Dusseldorf from the 14th to the 17th of January, 2015 |
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The main rehearsals are concluded. On the 6th of January the final rehearsals start for our version of the "triadic ballet". It is the second time that we have dived into the world of the ideas of the Weimar Bauhaus, which has given to us inspiration to an own work by photos, sketches and reports.
Oskar Schlemmer has become an imaginary ensemble member during the last months. Like him, we have built in our workshop figurines, have roofed, repaired and paralell our costume builder Caterina Di Fiore tailored a lot of costumes. But above all that we allow them to dance. Otherwise than Oskar Schlemmer, we worked together from the beginning on with 4 very much motivated and creative actors/dancers (Kai Bettermann, Darwin Diaz, Elisa Marschall, Phaedra Pisimisi) and the composer Thomas Wansing directed by the duet Jacqueline Fischer (choreography) and J.U.Lensing (direction). They worked out hand in hand from the first improvised ideas of the actor/dancers a total of 12 scenes which put out now TRIAS.
We have kept as much as possible of the figurine plan of Oskar Schlemmer for his "triadic ballet", but directed them in dancing and acting as musically completely new and added surprises for the two intermezzi between the acts as above all for the abstract finale...
The result of our second direct Bauhaus stage work is first to be seen and to hear with live music in a studio theatre series from the 14th to the 17th of January, 2015 in FFT Dusseldorf (Juta). |
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TRIAS - The triadic ballet |
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| Rehearsals for TRIAS have begun! |
15.11.2014 |
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The triadic ballet |
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Funding grants from the Kunststiftung (Art Endowment) of North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the "Fonds Darstellende Kuenste" (Funding for Performing Arts) have made a long planned project possible. THEATER DER KLAENGE has finally begun work on the "Triadic Ballet" from Oskar Schlemmer. Even after the city of Dusseldorf and the Endowment of Van Meeteren extended their support for the project last spring, a substantial sum was still missing, which made it impossible for us to become fully active. Our vision is to build 18 figurines, to sketch 12 choreographies and to compose 70 minutes of live music to accompany the dances.
First test rehearsals in September have revealed the potential for us to positively handle this historical presentation. THEATRE DER KLAENGE is a specialized company, whose purpose is to focus upon this important work of German dance history, nearly 40 years after it’s last presentation. Our focus, since the foundation of our ensemble, has always been to focus directly on the "Bauhaus" starting with our "mecanical Bauhausstage" (1987), and later, to also focus indirectly on the stage tradition of Bauhaus. "Figure and Sound in the Space" (1993) reflected Oskar Schlemmer’s work for the Dessau Bauhaus stage and continued this in topical electronic possibilities. Our productions "HOEReografien" (2005), "SUITE intermediale" (2010) and our last production, "CODA" (2014), continued this interdisciplinary beginning in further virtuosic works.
And finally, we come to: "The Triadic Ballet"!
The reconstructions of the sixties and seventies stressed on the one hand, a doll and machine-like character, and on the other hand, the sculptural art character of Schemmer’s drafts. Unfortunately in either of these reconstructions- which can still be viewed today on video - it is difficult to find evidence of the central amusing, clown-like themes of Oskar Schlemmer’s works.
Our "Rhein Version" presents not only the humorous side of Schlemmer in TRIAS, but also the acrobatic character up to giving light to the abstract components of his figural dance space. Our version of the "Triadic Ballet" will have it’s first studio performances in the Duesseldorf FFT-Juta and in the Dortmund Theater im Depot. Mark your calendars today so as not to miss these few and rare performances…. |
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TRIAS |
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| Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts |
19.10.2014 |
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Our videodocumentation is part of a Moholy-Nagy exhibition in the Bauhaus Archiv |
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The exhibition is extended because of the great audience success till the 2nd of February, 2015!
A montage from a videodocumentation of our version of "mechanical eccentricity" from 1988 is to be seen topically since the 7th of October within the scope of the exhibition "Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts" in the Bauhaus archive in Berlin. The exhibition devotes itself above all to the media work of the Bauhaus master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and runs until the 12th of January, 2015. This exhibition and was to be seen before in March, 2014 in the Plug in institutes of Contemporary arts in Winnipeg (Canada).
The repeated and increasingly reinforced inquiry for our Bauhaus works does not pass without any effect on us. Topically we dig once more very intensely into the work of the both Bauhaus-Masters Walter Gropius and Oskar Schlemmer... |
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Bauhaus Archive Berlin |
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| Jacqueline Fischer - dance is live |
11.09.2014 |
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Portrait in the Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen (12th of September, 2014) |
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Our foundation member, long-standing interpreter (dancer and actress) and current choreographer Jacqueline Fischer is invited for Friday, 12th of September at 7:30pm in the Emil Schumacher Museum in Hagen. Within the scope of a sequence with the title "Trace search" artists are invited, to portray their personal artistic way in Germany.
Jacqueline Fischer shows pictures and videos of her artistic stations and speaks about her approach to dance and theater. The THEATRE DER KLAENGE plays an important role in this. |
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Osthausmuseum / Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen |
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| THEATER DER KLAENGE is present on the dance fair 2014 in Dusseldorf |
21.08.2014 |
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blue-red-yellow geonic orgametrie will be shown in two Showcases |
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The THEATRE DER KLAENGE presents itself on the North Rhine-Westphalia booth (R14) within the scope of the international dance fair which takes place from the 27th to the 30th of August 2014 - the next week in the Ehrenhof Dusseldorf.
Within the scope of our presence there we perform two small spontaneous presentations in the showroom (behind R14).
In May Jacqueline Fischer developed for the "Meisterhaus"-celebration of the Bauhaus Dessau a choreography called "blue-red-yellow geonic orgametrie". This choreography will be performed again by the topical ensemble. To the electronic music of J.U.Lensing our musician Thomas Wansing plays live on a "Klompen-Drumset".
The 10-minute action for 3 dancers takes place on Friday, 29th of August and on Saturday, 30th of August in each case at 11:30am in the showroom of the North Rhine-Westphalia booth (R14) in the Ehrenhof Dusseldorf.
This short piece refers to our coming project "TRIAS" which focusses again on the Bauhaus stage works and will be performed for the first time in January, 2015 in the FFT-Juta Dusseldorf! |
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international dance fair 2014 in Dusseldorf |
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| blue-red-yellow geo-nic orga-metry |
10.05.2014 |
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Performance for the celebration of the restoration of all bauhaus master houses |
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The THEATER DER KLAENGE compiled in 1993 in cooperation with the endowment Bauhaus Dessau a full-length piece under the title "Figure and Sound in space". Base of this development was dipping into the stage experiments and basic question of an alphabet for a new "gramatical stage-language" of Oskar Schlemmer in the twenties in the Bauhaus in Dessau (D).
"Figure and sound in space" was for the Dusseldorf THEATER DER KLAENGE the prelude to a whole series of intermedia-electronically interactive pieces, starting with "Modul|a|t|o|r", about "HOEReographien" and the "SUITE intermediale" up to the latest premiere in January, 2014 with "CODA".
With the figurines in blue, red and yellow we created for "figure and sound in space" after the silhouettes of the costumes from Oskar Schlemmer for his Bauhaus dances, the THEATER DER KLAENGE compiles on topical inquiry of the endowment of the Bauhaus Dessau under direction and with a music of J.U.Lensing and under the choreographic management of the dancer Jacqueline Fischer a small miniature for the opening of the reconstructed Bauhaus master houses in Dessau.
A "blue-red-yellow geo-nic orga-metry" should move the often by Oskar Schlemmer sworn geometry of the organic bodystyle, humorously in a contemporary one. A rhythm composition specially written for this which goes out from glass, metal and woodsounds should stimulate to use the festival board on the street before the master houses with apt knives, spoons and what else is possible as an instrument. This - in the spirit of the famous "Bauhaus Band" - turns the table into a big rythmplate and a platform for human movements...
The short performance is shown two times on the Saturday, 17th of May 2014 (11am and 3pm) on the Ebertalle in Dessau directly before the master houses. |
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Bauhaus Dessau |
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| Real and virtual exhibitions |
09.04.2014 |
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Bauhaus stageworks and our videoarchive |
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Beginning with numerous exhibitions in 2009 in Weimar and Dessau to our Bauhaus stageworks, going on to the exhibition "Danser sa vie" in the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2011 in Paris and our own exhibition in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf in 2012/13 the train of our presence continues topically in several exhibitions. The Bauhaus museum of Weimar still shows a small extract of our "mechanical ballet" in a video running every day every half an hour: "The Bauhaus comes from Weimar".
Topically our 2009th HD-video of the "mechanical ballet" is to be seen daily in the exhibition "Person - space - machine" in the Bauhaus Dessau.
Our 1988th recording of the "mechanical Excentricity" is a component of the actual exhibition "Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts" in the Plug in institute of Contemporary art in Winnipeg (Canada), before it shall be seen from June, 2014 on in the Bauhaus archive in Berlin.
This increasing interest with priority in our employment of the Bauhaus stageworks does not pass without tracks to us, so that we deal topically ourselves creatively with this subject again more intensely...
Our whole digitized video-archive, audio-archive, photo archive and document archive is stored on the servers of the "digital archive of North Rhine-Westphalia". This year parts of this Digital documentation will be make accessible online for the public.
Our to date 40 Cases counting DVD-edition is as a long-term loan component of the library of the Thetermuseum Dusseldorf. |
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Exposition "Sensing the future" |
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| Conveyor association "sound theatre" founded |
09.04.2014 |
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Supporting members in request |
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Still in November, 2013 supporting members of the "THEATER DER KLAENGE" decided to found a conveyor association for our theatre.
The former long-standing private sponsor of our association Guenther Goldmann was chosen as chairperson of the new association. In the meantime, the conveyor association has been registrated in the Dusseldorf association register and has been recognised by the tax office as of benefit to the public.
This new association became necessary for three reasons:
On the one hand our theatrical activities need the support of private sponsors, because the support of the public authorities becomes increasingly doubtful.
On the other hand it needs own basic conditions of a continuous support, which does not want to react sporadically just with donation receipts to unsolicited payments.
The third reason is the decisive reason: While the public subsidy givers require any gained profits immediately and permit no reserves for us, they let it be our problem if we attack losses and they demand account on how we think to compensate for these losses in the subsequent year.
By the existence of a conveyor association we have at the turn of the year the chance of a well-balanced end of our financial year, provided that this conveyor association is liquid enough to help us with the in each case necessary sum.
So that this liquidity is produced, we ask everybody which estimates our work and is able in addition financially to become a member of the conveyor association, or to make at least a donation in this.
Membership applications can be addressed shapelessly to our office. With pleasure we lead these further to the conveyor association. Also the account connection of the conveyor association can be asked about our office. As a charitable association the conveyor association is to be issued entitled tax effective donation receipts for donations or membership fees. |
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Contact adress |
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| Rameaus nephew |
20.02.2014 |
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Scenic reading the 7th of March, 2014 in the Neuberin museum in Reichenbach (D). |
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Diderot and Goethe were guests in the house of Jacobi in Dusseldorf-Pempelfort. Today the former summer house of the house Jacobi accommodates the Dusseldorf theatrical museum.
Hence, in the virtually "historical space", it came in connection with the exhibition on 25 years THEATER DER KLAENGE in 2012/13 to a scenic performance of parts of the unforgettable discourse from "Rameaus nephew" between the nephew of the famous composer Rameau and Diderot, how it was written by Diderot in the translation of Goethe.
In 1999 the THEATER DER KLAENGE devoted itself to a famous german predecessor of the "fringe theatre": Friederike Caroline Neuber.
With by and for the ensemble of the THEATER DER KLAENGE written piece "The Neuberin – The passion of a German theatre director" our theatre worked out a fulminating and much-noticed premiere which was performed in 1999 in Dusseldorf, in the National Theatre in Weimar, at the castle theatre of Gotha and at the theatre of Zwickau - in each case with great success and big public resonance. The valency of the theatrical text is understandable till today in shortened form in an audio book under the same title.
Both actors of the Diderot Dialog Kai Bettermann and J.U.Lensing were also already involved in 1999 in the development of the material "Die Neuberin".
On the Friday, 7th of March, 2014 - at7:30pm - played by Kai Bettermann (Diderot) and J.U. Lensing (Rameaus nephew) - is once more to see and hear the reading of extracts from "Rameaus nephew" in the Neuberin museum in Reichenbach (D). |
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Rameaus nephew in Wikipedia |
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| The mechanical Excentricity |
20.02.2014 |
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Our Videodocumentation is part of a Moholy-Nagy exhibition in Canada |
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From the 8th of March 2014 on a shortened montage from the videodocumentation of our version of "Die mechanische Exzentrik" of 1988 shall be seen within the scope of the exhibition "Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts" in the Plug in institutes of Contemporary arts in Winnipeg (Canada). The exhibition there - devotes itself above all to the media work of the Bauhaus master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy - runs up to the 1st of June, 2014 and will be shown afterwards in the Bauhaus archive in Berlin.
Now after the publication of a shortened montage of a videodocumentation on our "mechanical ballet" (absolut medien) this is the second publication of a videodocumentation from our works on the Bauhaus stage. |
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Sensing the future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts |
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| CODA - a full success in Dusseldorf, Dortmund and Schwerte (D) |
16.01.2014 |
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Our newest creation "CODA" has been performed for the first time with great success in Dusseldorf, Dortmund and Schwerte. Four times sold out house in Dusseldorf and full house in Dortmund and Schwerte, a very good public resonance and good press and broadcasting criticism confirm the success of this work.
For the moment we are working on possible guest performances in other cities... |
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Press review on CODA |
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| CODA - première series from Wednesday, 8th to Saturday, 11th of January 2014 |
06.01.2014 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach - cello suite in C minor |
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From Wednesday, the 8th of January to Saturday, the 11th of January, 2014 our new creation CODA is to be seen and to be heared at 8pm in each case in the FFT-Juta Dusseldorf. The evening interprets in two parts with music, dance, light and interactive video the conversion possibilities of the baroque Bach's suite in a contemporary interpretation.
In the first part the cello suite is interpreted in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach live by the cellist Beate Wolff. The light structures the space and the illuminated dancers in such a way that it handles to a space educationally, on the other hand segmenting by illumination the dancer's bodies.
In the second part the music by Bach is further electronically live composed by the composer Thomas Neuhaus, as well as the videospace and light space on the stage is augmented. This enables to both dancers Nina Hänel and Phaedra Pisimisi in a real-time choreographic composition to handle with the dance material exposed in the first part. This choreographic improvisation, compiled by Jacqueline Fischer in cooperation with the dancers modulates directly also the electronic music and the interactive video (Tobias Rosenberger) about movement dynamisms.
The artistic directing has J.U.Lensing |
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Videoextract from CODA (Courante I) |
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| CODA |
13.12.2013 |
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Cultural breakfast in the FFT Dusseldorf |
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the forum for free theatre offers a cultural breakfast in cooperation with the THEATER DER KLAENGE on friday, the 20th of December, 2013 at 11am in the FFT-Juta Dusseldorf.
The guests have the possibility to get into conversation with the artists and the FFT team. This offer is directed to everybody who want to have more of the theatre!
The Dusseldorf theatre of sounds gives with the cultural breakfast in December an insight into the piece "CODA – Johann Sebastian Bach – Cello suite in C minor". This piece concerns a multimedia composition on the basis of brook dance compositions. The theatre of the sounds interprets this in different media interactions: Two dancers and a cellist operate on stage with videoprojections and electronic music. A play full of tension between baroque and modern age. |
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Forum Freies Theater - Kulturfrühstück |
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| CODA - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello suite in C minor |
13.12.2013 |
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"Who loses his culture, loses himself." - Mario Vargas Llosa |
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The THEATER DER KLAENGE employed to itself since several years by intermedia forms of dance, electronic music and interactive live video as a logical advancement of the Bauhaus beginnings of the twenties.
As a continuation of our own works like "HOEReographien" and "SUITE intermediale" the premiere of a new work with the title "CODA - Bach´s cello suite in C minor" has been developed for 2013/14 which bring the intermedia penetrations concentrated, specified and by enlargements to a new level.
The focus of the work in "CODA" lies within the dancer's broads interaction possibilities with light and video. Logically the music is classically at first temporal structure for the dance. But in the second part of the program the 6 dance sentences of the cello suite are repeated. However, in the repetition the dancers are by their movements at the same time also musicians for an electronic music which takes the Cello music as musical material and which is controlled electronically by movement dynamism. The media music resulting from this steers directly also the interactive Video.
The premiere of this 21st theatrical production of the Dusseldorf THEATER DER KLAENGE is on Wednesday, the 8th of January, 2014 in the Dusseldorf FFT-Juta.
Till the 11th of January, 2014 there will be with three other performances a total of 4 first performances in Dusseldorf.
Financially this work is supported by the city of Dusseldorf, the country North Rhine-Westphalia, the Funding Darstellende Kunste and the endowment van Meeteren. |
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Forum Freies Theater |
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| The mechanical ballet and the Bauhaus stage works |
06.12.2013 |
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Double DVD published |
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"The mechanical ballet" of the THEATER DER KLAENGE has been published for the first time with representative extracts of his 5 acts on DVD. On the occasion of the topical exhibition "person space machine" in Bauhaus Dessau publishes the endowment Bauhaus Dessau in cooperation with "absolute media" a double DVD with the title "Bauhaus - stage and dance".
One DVD is dedicated to the work of Oskar Schlemmer and there above all to the reconstructions of his "triadic ballet". On the second DVD there are found reconstruction stage works of Kandinsky, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and in our case of Kurt Schmidt.
"The mechanical ballet" was choreographically and musically new created in 1987 by the THEATER DER KLAENGE together with the first conversion of the "Mechanical Excentricity" - based on draughts of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. In 1987 both pieces were brought out under the program title "the mecanical Bauhaus stage" in Dusseldorf. This double programme travelled internationally with great success till 1992.
In 1993 the THEATER DER KLAENGE created the piece "figure and sound in space" in cooperation with the Bauhaus Dessau. This work dealt with the "stage laws" of Oskar Schlemmer in a new and electronically interactive manner. "The mechanical ballet" remained in the repertoire and was shown from then on partly all alone, partly with the intermedia works of our theatre within the scope of festivals and guest performances.
Topically the "mechanical ballet" together with our last intermedia production "SUITE intermediale" was performed within the scope of the jubilee festivities for the 25 years of THEATRER DER KLAENGE in October, 2012 in the tanzhaus nrw.
On the DVD of absolute media are published extracts of our "mechanical ballet" coming from a recording of the "mechanical ballet" performed on the stage of the Bauhaus Dessau in 2009. |
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DVD - bauhaus stage & dance |
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| VANITAS Dance Clips on TV in NRW Vision |
21.09.2013 |
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Film students of the university of applied scieneces and arts in Dortmund produced in 2012 dance clips from the THEATER DER KLAENGE production VANITAS. These clips run this week on german Cable-digital TV and in the web as a Stream in the boradcasting station nrwision.
These clips were filmed in the choreography by Jacqueline Fischer and under direction of J.U.Lensing after the theatre-performance series of VANITAS in spring, 2012 in Locations in Dortmund and Wuppertal in cooperation with the film students. Afterwards the clips were edited and set to music from Thomas Neuhaus in the recording studio of the university.
The clips were published in January, 2013 on the "Reflector IV" DVD of the university and they are now are emitted public for the first time in TV.
The dance performance "VANITAS – sound and smoke" from the theatre of the sounds in Dusseldorf - produced by film-students from Dortmund: In the clip "Bitter Moon" a man and a woman meet in a magnificent hall. They get closer to themselves - they touch and embrace themselves. The passion is only from short duration. In "princess & vanity" a couple flirts in familiar togetherness in a park, however, at the end the girl is alone. As finale in "vanity" follows a danced gender fight. |
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NRW Vision |
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| CODA - working presentation within the scope of the dance congress in 2013 |
04.06.2013 |
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CODA - Bach cello suite in C minor |
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From Thursday, 6th of June until Sunday, 9th of June the dance congress 2013 takes place in Dusseldorf. Within the scope of this congress, there is a supporting program of the Dusseldorf stages. The THEATER DER KLAENGE is part in this on Sunday, 9th of June, 2013 at 19:30 o'clock at the Dusseldorf FFT-Juta with a working presentation of single parts of the newest piece "CODA - Bach´s cello suite in C minor".
In pre-tests in March and April this year we have compiled a total of 5 dance sentences to the C minor cello suite of Johann Sebastian Bach. Other 5 sketches enlarged to electronic forms of this suite exist. The premiere in January, 2014 will show a total of 12 sentences which is intended as a reflexion about Bach, Baroque, Feuillet and a contemporary, intermedia continuation of these bases.
The contemporary dilemma of "Anything goes" led us - after long works about improvised forms of dance and intermediality - now come back to the roots of our culture. In the baroque the search for contrived forms to the education of beauty in music and dance was just with Bach and Feuillet the uppermost aim. This back meditation on this forms delivers enough material for another contemporary contact of dance with interactive electronic music and video.
We present parts of this work in the Forum Freies Theater - Juta in Dusseldorf at 19:30 o'clock Sunday, 9th of June in form of 3 dance sentences to cello, dance and video and one sentence with electronically processed cello, dance and interactive video. After this presentation the possibility for a public conversation exists. |
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tanzkongress 2013 |
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| End of the jubilee year |
07.05.2013 |
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Digital archiving |
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Our jubilee year on the occasion of the existence of our ensemble for now 25 years finds his end the 10th of May, 2013 with the 26th anniversary.
After numerous activities last year till February 2013, the jubilee is concluded with the handing over of the complete digital data to our folder supplies, photos, videos and audio-files to the "digital archive of North Rhine-Westphalia".
Thanks to a generous support of the country North Rhine-Westphalia we worked in parallel with many performances, the exhibition and the publications in 2012 - partly together with companies specified on digitization and institutions - on the scan and the capture of a total of 367 videos, 19683 photos, 136 paper folders and more than 100 sound carriers from 25 years of work. The whole continuance in the extent of 3TB of PDFs, TIFFs, AVIs and WAVs is handed over on the 10th of May to the university of Cologne who develops the digital archive system for the country of North Rhine-Westphalia. |
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DA-NRW |
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| THEATER DER KLAENGE Soundtracks |
07.05.2013 |
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Filmmusic concert in the university of applied sciences and arts Dortmund |
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Looking back and forward there is on Monday, the 27th of May 2013 a film music concert in the faculty of Design of the university of applied sciences and arts of Dortmund. 4 films are shown which were realized in cooperation with the THEATER DER KLAENGE including works of the composers, who work for the TdK.
To the winter semestre in 2013/14 a new bachelor studies program "film & sound" starts in Dortmund. In the approach there have already been film activities for films of the FH Dortmund.
Thus a total of 5 compositions of the former ensemble member Thomas Wansing (actor and musician) were recorded in autumn, 2012 for the student documentary film project "... and I still see their faces..." by the Sinfonia Dortmund (Johannes Marks) with the Alinde String-Quartett. The film was published in January, 2013 on the "reflector IV" DVD of the faculty of design / FH Dortmund.
Topically the TdK composers Thomas Neuhaus and J.U. Lensing wrote compositions to two of the "VANITAS dance clips" which were also realised by film students of the FH Dortmund in 2012.
In the film music concert, which starts on Monday, the 27th of May 2013 at 8pm in the auditorium of the faculty of design of the FH Dortmund takes place the film "... and I still see their faces..." in the final mix, as well as the three "VANITAS dance clips". Two of these dances clips are performed for the first time live by the Alinde Quartett with compositions of Neuhaus and Lensing.
The dance film "Soundness" from Harald Opel - which is based on parts of the production HOEReographien from 2005 - rounds the programme with a total of 5 sound films with an electronic composition from J.U.Lensing. |
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FH Dortmund |
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| Edition - The intermedia works of the THEATER DER KLAENGE |
08.02.2013 |
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Publication for the end of the exhibition in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf |
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Saturday, the 9th of February 2013 the exhibition "25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE" closes with a Finissage and the final program "The next generation - Pänz en de Bütt (unplugged)" -> see below
On this Saturday we publish on the occasion of our silver jubilee also for the first time a double DVD in a limited edition of 25 copies in a silver metal box.
Contents of the DVDs are Multicameradocumentaries of our intermedia productions from 1993 to 2011 each one in full length: Figure and sound in the space, Modulator, HOEReographien and the SUITE intermediale, as well as some interesting video-bonus material as for example scenic short films from modulator videos in film-locations.
The numbered and signed boxes are acquireable for the golden price of 50.-€ per copy and are orderable from Monday, 12th of February 2013 in our on-line shop.
The sales serves proportionately the financing of our coming intermedia work in 2013 with the working title "Coda"! |
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| The THEATER DER KLAENGE is nominated for george tabori prize in 2013 |
08.02.2013 |
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The Fonds Darstellende Kuenste nominated six successful professional free theatrical- and dance-ensembles of for both categories of the george tabori of prize in 2013. For the first prize which is endowed with 20,000 euros, the child and youth theatre marabou (Bonn), the intermedia music and dance theatre THEATER DER KLAENGE (Dusseldorf) and the figure theatre of Wilde&Vogel (Leipzig).
For the conveyor prize at the rate of 10,000 euros which is connected, in addition, with a residence of the association «Mecklenburg inspired» to the value of 10,000 euros are nominated the comic theatre half past selberschuld (Dusseldorf) the Tanzcompagnie Anja Konjetzky (Munich) and the mask theatre in public space of TheatreFragile (Berlin).
The jury for both prizewinners is with Jürgen Flügge (director, author and chairperson of the management of the fund), Gerti Köhn (curator for theatre and dance of the Tafelhalle Nuremberg and acting committee chairperson of the fund), Ilka Schmalbauch (lawyer of the German stage association and acting chairmen of the board of the fund), Manuel Schöbel (director of the land stages Saxony, director, author and chairperson of the committee of the fund) and Werner Schretzmeier (leader of the theatrehouse of Stuttgart, director, author and filmmaker).
With the presentation in the Berliner Sophiensaele, on the occasion of the birthday of George Tabori on the 24th of May 2013, the "fund for performing arts" reminds at the same time of the life work of the director and author who produced up to his death in 2007 in the Berlin ensemble.
The fund receives his appropriations at the rate of one million euros from the Kulturstiftung des Bundes Germany. |
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Fonds Darstellende Kuenste |
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| The last 10 days of our exhibition |
26.01.2013 |
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Theatermuseum Duesseldorf - 25 years of THEATER DER KLÄNGE |
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In ten days - on carnivals saturday, the 9th of February, 2013 - our exhibition "25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE" will be closed in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf. On occasion of the Finissage we will publish a double DVD "The intermedia works of the THEATER DER KLAENGE" in a limited edition. For the first time in the history of our theatre we will publish the unabridged videorecordings of our productions "figure and sound in the space", "Modul|a|t|o|r", "PCI", "HOEReographien" and "SUITE intermediale" on two DVDs and publish this in a specially designed metal box in an edition of only 25 numbered copies.
To the above mentioned date of the publication of this edition there is a small carnival program in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf in form of three short appearances of three children from the Dusseldorf program "Paenz en de Buett". Under the title "The next generation - Paenz en de Buett (unplugged)" Paula, ROGI and Lukas present without fuss, without microphone and without flourishes their carnival speeches and specially for them composed songs. The children are between 12 and 14 years old and they are real stage talents! |
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Paenz en de Buett |
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Photographer: Philipp Haas |
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| Lecture: 11th of january 2013 in the Theatermuseum Dusseldorf at 6pm |
04.01.2013 |
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The in time fixed works of the Theater der Klaenge |
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The French media theorist and composer Michel Chion, who was recently translated and published in german with his standard book "audio-vision" by Prof. J.U.Lensing, speaks of an art form allowed by media bearers, which allows exact chronography and remaining fixation of composition of a picture and sound courses in a certain time on just those bearers (film, tape recorder, digital media).
The THEATER DER KLAENGE has hardly dealt during the first ten years by this form of creation, but has created brief works which had already passed at the moment of the performance.
Since 1997 and increasingly since 2000 books, CDs and DVDs have originated. The plays of the Theater der Klaenge were transformed in media and with this transfer into works to be remained. Besides, it is not about the bare recording of a theatrical performance on video, but rather about a transformation of the stage material in forms independent audio-visual media forms.
The artistic director of the theatre and author of all books, radio plays and films of the Theater der Klaenge – J.U.Lensing reports on this transformation process of brief dramatic works to in time fixed pieces of art. |
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Theatermuseum Dusseldorf |
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| Rameaus nephew |
21.11.2012 |
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Scenic reading in the thearical museum of Dusseldorf the 6th of december |
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Scenic reading of extracts from Diderots RAMEAUS NEPHEW in the translation of Goethe:
Actors: Kai Bettermann & J.U.Lensing
Diderot and Goethe were guests in the house of Jacobi in Dusseldorf-Pempelfort.
On Thursday, the 6th of december it will come In the "historical space" in the context of the actual exhibition on the THEATER DER KLAENGE to parts of the unforgettable discourse between the nephew of the famous composer Rameau and Diderot, as it was written by Diderot in the translation of Goethe.
Rameaus nephew is a Pulcinella of the rich society, however sees himself as a misjudged genius. With "Rameaus nephew" Diderot discloses the soul of a failed artist: arrogantly and extrem in his passion, at the same time depending on the favour of his funders. This desperate dispraiser is faced by a philosopher-narrator. The progressive charity of the philosopher meets the world consideration free from illusions of the cynic. In both figures thoughts of Diderot can be seen. Diderot choose the dialogue as a playfull form to handle cultural-critics and philosophical thoughts.
An intimistic play in the purest meaning – a two-person piece, the dialogue novel "Rameaus Neffe" translated by Goethe in 1805 of Denis Diderot. By the way - by no means a side work - it counts to the most famous translations of the world literature and is the last commun project with Schiller.
"I" is a man of the better society, "He", the nephew of the famous musician, a dilapidated tramp, a sponger at the tables of the empires which he maintains with his jokes, his witty Apercus, his philosophical thoughts and delivers in the conversation with "I" of it tastes. How this nephew of the big Rameau amused the decadent nobility society, was the shining however witty cynicism with which he reproached the mirror to his funders. He lies when he is honest and he is honest when he lies. If his intellectually inferior interlocutor reacts sometimes shatteredly, the nephew to him hastens with his mother-witty tramp's philosophy to prove that they think, nevertheless, everybody basically as cynically as he:
Everything is vanity, he declines. He sprays only thus from examples of the depravity of the public morality, the subjects hunt themselves, they are lined up like pearls in a string. It is an amusing evening at high intellectual level always, a dialogue like "a bomb", judged Schiller and he is surely right:
In a time in which the parasites are growing, becoming audacious and sillier in addition and appear in legions, the cynical comment has kept his actuality. |
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click on Program |
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| 25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE |
06.11.2012 |
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Exhibition in the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf / Catalog / DVD |
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On the 11th of October, 2012 the exhibition "25 years THEATER DER KLAENGE" was opened in the Dusseldorf theatrical museum. On the same day a 100-sided exhibition catalogue and the DVD "Gregorius" was also published. Since the 1st of November, 2012 there is available the DVD also separately in a DVD cover together with small booklet.
The catalogue and the DVD are available in our web shop (link see below).
Accompanying to the exhibition until the 9th of February, 2013 we plan every month an event in the theatrical museum Dusseldorf.
The artistic director of the theatre of the sounds - J.U.Lensing - makes the prelude on Friday, the 9th of November, 2012 in the Dusseldorf theatrical museum.
This evening starts at 6pm with a commented guidance threw the exhibition, followed by a media presentation at 7:30pm based on the following questions:
- What is fringe theatre?
- How does an independently working and financed theatrical group organise themself?
- How do new pieces originate in a writimng by a whole ensemble?
- How do sections and media penetrate to themselves in new music theatre?
- Why are historical / formal attempts as important, as the development a contemporary intermedia theatre? |
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DVD and Catalog |
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| GREGORIUS on the rock |
18.10.2012 |
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Movie Premiere the 1st of november 2012 |
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In the course of our jubilee festivities "25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE" all pictures, all the paper documents, our sound archive and our videoarchive were digitized.
By doing these works, a cardboard with 20 videocassettes was found, which were filmed in 2004.
Contents: Filmed on Locations in castles, woods and by the sea - with the ensemble of that period - the material of "Gregorius on the rock", our music-theatre-production from 2004.
After viewing these cassettes, the decision was immediately taken to edit this material and set it to music and a Sound-Design in 5.1 Surround. The very intensive editing-works devoted themselves the editor Gunar Meinhold together with the director J.U.Lensing from december 2011 until June 2012. In June the actors and speakers Clemente Fernandez and Matthias Weiland could be won after 8 years for ADR... A following intensive sound creation process with the crafts sound-design, Music-Editing, Foley and 5.1 mixing led to the production of a DVD, which from now on can be found in the catalogue to the exhibition "25 years THEATER DER KLAENGE". It is also possible to order this DVD in a separate DVD-Box.
Actually we work on a digital cinema copy which will have its premiere in Dusseldorf on Thursday, the 1st of November, 2012 at 5pm in the "Atelier cinema" in the Savoy Dusseldorf. This cinema is equiped for a digital picture projection, as for a good 5.1 Surround sound for 190 possible guests.
The resultant film tells the story of Gregorius leant to the music theatre performance at that time to the music of ESTAMPIE and Thomas Neuhaus. "Gregorius the poor sinner" from Hartmann von Aue and above all on the novel "Der Erwählte" from Thomas Mann are the bases for this medieval story, a fairy tale for adults. The film is piled up on the picture like in the soundtrack polyphonic, what leads to a kind of Art-House-Cinema, comparatively only by films from Peter Greenaway.
At the moment no other film evaluation is planned, so that this presentation the 1st of November 2012 will be for the moment the only opportunity to see the film in an optimum of picture and sound quality! |
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GREGORIUS Trailer |
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| 25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE |
23.09.2012 |
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Performances and an exhibition |
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The time has come: In october the festivities to "25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE" start with performances of "The mecano-electronic Bauhaus stage" followed by an exhibition opening of "25 years of THEATRE OF SOUNDS".
On Tuesday, the 9th and Wednesday, the 10th of october 2012 - both evenings at 7:30pm - we show the double program of the "mechanical ballet" (1987) together with the "SUITE intermediale" (2010) in the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf. This program confronts on one hand a reconstruction of a stagework of the classical moderne of the german Bauhaus with a modern electronic advancement, as it also connects the beginnings of the Theater der Klaenge from 1987 with a today's creation from 2010. Both pieces were very successful in the history of our theatre and present representative experts from the creations of this new music theatre ensemble.
Directly after, on Thursday evening, the 11th of October 2012 at 7pm, an exhibition will open in the Dusseldorf theatrical museum with the title "25 years of THEATER DER KLAENGE".
This exhibition focussed on new media in 7 rooms and the library of the theatrical museum of Dusseldorf was curated by Prof. J.U.Lensing and scenographicaly designed by students from the FH-Dortmund. This exhibition gives on the basis of masks, costumes, figurines, photos, press extracts and above all - sounding videosequences on canvases, curtains and in the rooms an overall audio-visual impression of the creations from 25 years of THEATRE OF SOUNDS.
The exhibition runs from the 12th of October, 2012 to the 9th of February, 2013 in the Dusseldorf theatrical museum and contains an accompanying programme with a live event per month in this museum.
www.duesseldorf.de/ Theatrical museum |
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tanzhaus nrw |
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| International dance fair 2012 |
27.08.2012 |
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25 years of THEATRE OF SOUNDS from and in Duesseldorf |
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In autumn / winter we celebrate our 25-year-of existence and survival in the city of Duesseldorf which is our native city, our sponsor, our production location and our place for premieres.
Treated occasional from this town as showing-wise and occasional as a stepchild, the relation to the city and the also in this region working curators and responsables is naturally ambivalent. But thus is what one has matured by childhood and adolescence up to the young adult of 25 years we are now...
We started our festivities for the 25th birthday with a very successful premiere and a performance series of "VANITAS - sound and mirrors" in May / June 2012.
First we continue this very humble within the scope of this year's "international dance fair nrw" in the Dusseldorf Ehrenhof Buildings, where we exhibit from the 29th of August to the 1st of September in the frame of the North Rhine-Westphalia Booth. Our choreographer Jacqueline Fischer will be present all days on the dance fair and is accessible there.
Parallel in addition the whole september until the 7th of October we work with high pressure on the activities for autumn / winter:
25 years of THEATRE OF SOUNDS
Performances with "The mecano-electronic Bauhaus stage" in tanzhaus nrw on the 9th and 10th of October, 2012 – in each case 19:30pm
Exhibition in the Theatermuseum of Duesseldorf of 10/12/2012 to 2/9/2013 incl. publication of a 100-sided catalogue
"Gregorius" - the film / premiere in October / November, 2012
Digital archive North Rhine-Westphalia: 455 videos - 17642 photos - 36739 documents |
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International Dancefair NRW |
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| VANITAS |
11.06.2012 |
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provisionally the last performance in Dortmund |
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after we have filmed last week three scenes from VANITAS (see studio picture) , there will be provisionally for the last time a complete performance of our jubilee production on Saturday, the 16th of June
Saturday, 16th of June, 2012
20 o'clock
Theatre in the depot Dortmund |
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Theatre in the depot Dortmund |
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| SUITE intermediale |
22.05.2012 |
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in Hannover |
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Vanitas became allready "Smoke and Mirrors"...
This week there is the possibility to see again our "SUITE intermediale"! This composition is invited to the festival "Visionen" in the Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover - Ballhof Eins.
Parallel to our performances of Vanitas last week we rehearsed SUITE.
If you want to see and hear (again) this intermedia composition in 7 parts - travel to Hannover.
Friday, the 25th of May 2012 - 8pm
Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover
Ballhof Eins
Ballhofplatz 5
Festival "Visionen" |
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Ballhof eins |
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| VANITAS - Smoke and mirrors |
27.04.2012 |
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Premiere on 10th of may 2012 in FFT Duesseldorf - performances until 19 May |
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We have worked hard the last few months, sweating, worrying, deciding, discarding, newly creating - just everything that belongs to compose a new piece.
We are now straight on the run to reach the finale getting nervous but also excited about our joyfully premiere on Thursday, 10 May 2012 in the FFT-Juta Düsseldorf.
Despite the fact that we often have played in the "Young Theatre of the old city" of Duesseldorf - Juta this is a special date. 25 years ago, in 1987, we were rehearsing in that very Juta our "Mechanical Ballet", which then had together with the "mechanical eccentricity" in November 1987 there the opening night.
This attachment to this place was for both, the current operator of the FFT, as for us, reason enough to show there our current production
VANITAS - smoke and mirrors.
The three leading creativs of Theatre of the sounds worked already in 1987 together and they still do today the choreography - Jacqueline Fischer, the directing - J.U.Lensing and the music - Thomas Neuhaus !
The 20th Production of the THEATER DER KLAENGE will continuously played from 10 May to 19 May in the FFT Juta (not on Monday and Tuesday). The 16th of june we will perfom that play in the Theatre at the Depot in Dortmund. |
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FFT-Juta |
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| History and present |
27.03.2012 |
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25 years THEATER DER KLAENGE |
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- Since the end of February we have been working every day on our new creation "Vanitas - Schall und Rauch" (Vanitas - smoke and mirrors). This music and dance-theatre piece will be premiered the 10th of may in the Forum Freies Theater (FFT) - Juta Duesseldorf at the Theater der Klaenge foundation‘s anniversary day. We have a new member of the ensemble who is as old as our theater - born in 1987!
- The Interactive Intermedial Performance (IIP) research report has been published on the "Research Projects 2011 Book" by the Dortmund University for Applied Sciences and Arts. This report was the preparatory study for the production of "SUITE intermediale". The detailed version of the project is available to download on the Dormund University for Applied Science‘s website (see link below).
-In addition, on the occasion of our 25th anniversary, we have already digitized all of our archives (videos, pictures and documents). The complete archive is expected to be available from June onward on the Digital Archive North-Rhine Westphalia (DA-NRW)! At the same time, the German Dance Film Institute keeps a copy of all the digitized videos for its own archive. The German Dance Film Institute in Bremen is actually creating a digital copy of a total of 576 videocassettes. The 40 most important videos will be available to see in full length in the context of our planned exhibition in the Theater-Museum Duesseldorf for autumn 2012.
- Thanks to the funding by the federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia, several videos have been finished in this process. These half-finished videos had been stored in a cupboard to date. Among them we can find the first movie of the Theater der Klänge:
"Gregorius auf dem Stein" (Gregorius on the Rock)
A copy on DVD of this 100-minute film will be attached for the exhibition opening in the Theater-Museum to complete the exhibition catalog. A cinema premiere (without further distribution) is planned for September 2012 in a Düsseldorf cinema.
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IIP Research Report by Prof. J.U.Lensing |
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| Composed Theatre |
15.02.2012 |
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Aestehitcs, Pratices, Processes |
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This title includes a unique contribution to an emerging field. It combines aspects of theory and practice, process and product. It provides first hand information from some of the key artistic representatives of the field. It includes contributors that span four countries (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Greece) and several of the contributors work creatively or academically in an international arena. 'Composed Theatre' aims to map the field of a form of 'composed theatre', which uses musical strategies of organization in the composition of all theatrical means. This book will provide interviews and discussions with key practitioners as well as scholarly articles on historical and theoretical aspects of composed theatre. While the focus of the book is on the European part of the field, the questions and methodologies are currently being discussed beyond Europe, e.g. in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
An extensive article of J.U.Lensing describes in addition the creative working process at the THEATER DER KLAENGE (theatre of sounds).
Composed Theatre: Aesthetics, Practices, process [hardcover] - Intellect (UK) - 57.99€ - also as Kindle-e.book at a price of 16.99€. |
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| New available Publications |
08.12.2011 |
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A Book and a DVD |
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You find an worth reading arcticle from our artistic director, Professor Lensing about our latest production, "SUITE intermedia" in the book
"Inszenierung und Vertrauen"
Border Crossings of scenography
in the transcript Verlag
ISBN 978-3-8376-1702-3
New published from the
Folkwang University of the Arts
is the DVD "November Music 2010". You can find there a total of 16 minutes of videoclips from the premiere of the "SUITE intermediale". The double DVD contains in addition to the Video from the THEATER OF SOUNDS also video recordings of concerts and other New music theater Performances of the Festival "November Music 2010"
The double-DVD is obtainable via the:
Folkwang AGENCY GmbH
SANAA building
PO Box 164 428
45 224 Essen |
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Transcript Verlag |
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| DANSER SA VIE |
18.11.2011 |
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Centre Pompidou Paris |
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On Wednesday, the 23rd of november 2011 happened the opening of the exhibition "DANSER SA VIE" at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which will be shown there until the 2nd of april 2012. On the same day opens the exhibition "Videodanse, une histoire de la danse en 250 films", which will be shown until the 2nd of january 2012 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
In both exhibitions, the THEATRE OF SOUNDS is represented with his "Mechanical Ballet" from the year 1987, which goes back to sketches and photographs from 1923 from the Bauhaus Weimar.
Specially for the Centre Pompidou, a 5-minute video clip was edited in HD, which was made out of recordings of the performance of our "mechanical ballet" in the Bauhaus Dessau the 28th of november 2009. This video runs just in both exhibitions, such as a photo of our "mechanical ballet" will be published in the exhibition catalog (Photographer Oliver Eltinger). |
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Centre Pompidou |
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| SOLO from our SUITE intermediale |
02.11.2011 |
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Festival NOW - 10. November 2011 |
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As part of the "Festival NOW", which is a collaboration between the Essen Philharmonics and the Folkwang University of the Arts, organized as part of an evening concert in the new auditorium of the Folkwang University in Essen, the "Solo" from our "SUITE intermediale" will be shown in Essen.
Location: New Hall of the Folkwang University in Essen-Werden
Time: Thursday, 10 November 2011 at 8pm
Contributors: Jacqueline Fischer, Fabian Kollakowski, J.U.Lensing, Thomas Neuhaus, Arthur Schopa
The complete SUITE intermediale will be shown again in May 2012 in Hanover. For fall 2012 we plan performances with this production in Düsseldorf and Erfurt. |
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Festival NOW |
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| 25 years |
13.10.2011 |
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We have a lot of plans for 2012 |
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We have a lot of plans for our upcoming anniversary year 2012.
In fact the 10th of May 2012 it is allready 25 years ago, that we came together with 12 like-minded people in the former office of NEUE TOENE (NEW SOUNDS) in the Ackerstrasse in Duesseldorf, to form the association of the THEATRE OF SOUNDS.
Three of those present at that time are still leading the way of the THEATRE OF SOUNDS involved: Jacqueline Fischer, Joerg Lensing and Ernst Merheim. Shortly after its foundation in 1987 Thomas Neuhaus came to us, even today, still working as a composer for us and co-directs the Board of our Association (among the other three mentioned)! We believe that such a long lasting 25 years working friendship can search for an equal!
We want this friendship, but also the 20 productions that mean 25 years of work, the more than 200 members of our ensemble, the more than 600 performances, the 25 countries in which we played, our collaboration with artists, groups, theaters, venues, museums, labels, publishers, printers, etc. have to be celebrated! And we want to invite our patrons, supporters, critics, beneficiaries and opponents to three events:
First: The premiere on the 10th of May 2012 our anniversary production titled:
"VANITAS - smoke and mirrors"
Second: The opening the 11th of October 2012 of an exhibition on the theme "25 years THEATER OF SOUNDS - 25 years of fringe theater work in North Rhine-Westphalia" in the Theatre Museum in Duesseldorf.
Third: The publication of a 100-page exhibition catalog, along with the first theatre-feature film from our THEATRE: "Gregory" - on DVD.
And if all goes well (and in this respect, it looks good), our entire photo and video archive, fully digitized - be archived - and partly open to the public in 2012!
An even better gift for this anniversary would be an own venue ... (But we had also hoped to have that in 1997 - our 10-year-anniversary)
Unfortunately, we were always and still are dependent by votes of individuals in the cultural administrations and political bodies, when it comes to the funding of our projects. Culture itself is not able to finance itself in Germany, if it is not about big names or the events going to be hyped in TV...
So, we are dependent on the allocation of tax funds, state lottery winnings, guest fees or donations. The normal course of our activities has been funded the last 20 years, passable by these sources, though we never employ someone who could be qualified as an employer and our professional performers have to work as freelancers!
Our ambitious plans for 2012 are now considerably beyond this normal context, since both our new work, as well as the exhibition catalog and the media have to be financed. Three projects cost just three times.
The "politics" also pray or just repeat the mantra of the crisis, savings, reductions, in ignoring their own succesfull story in the mid-eighties to the early days of several fringe ensembles and venues, led to work for the most part still successfully . We are one of these groups from the "golden 80s" and - we are still living!
The possibilities of Web 2.0 with its offer "one-click payment" option gives us the option of "crowd-funding" for financing of projects by many small individual amounts. Or in the words of the eighties:
"Have a mickle makes a lot of crap."
Money is unfortunately not so easy to get like crap. Much small change adds up to an amount, but possibly with this our projects can be realized without that Nero´s thumb is going up or down.
Hence our demand today goes out to you. You can support us with a donation in form of a PayPal payment of any amount in our planned projects.
We can not promise great counter values or even profit sharing.
But: Who can help us is welcome to our debut of "Vanitas" on 10 May 2012, or to visit one of the subsequent performances, the opening of the exhibition on 11th of October 2012 or later to come to March 2013 in the Theatre Museum Duesseldorf, including a catalog and a movie DVD to get from us as soon as it is available printed and packaged.
We hope that we have a value for you, so that you throw something into the virtual collection box. |
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Crowd Funding |
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| Writings |
26.06.2011 |
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The resonances on the SUITE intermedia |
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Up to now our project "SUITE intemediale" had experienced the last performance on 19th of February in Dock11 - Berlin .
Since then, this piece has generated quite a bit of resonance in the scientific world.
Even before the performances in Berlin the german magazine "Tanz" publishes an interesting and the dimensions of work understanding article:
http://www.kultiversum.de/Tanz-tanz/dortmund-theater-der-klaenge-suite.html
The beginning of the gleanings was made initially by a report by Prof. J.U.Lensing in the proceedings of the 26th Audio Convention in Leipzig:
26th TONMEISTERTAGUNG
VDT INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
25th - 28/11/2010 · Congress Center Leipzig
CONFERENCE REPORT / CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
ISBN 978-3-9812830-1-3
In March, an extensive article appeared about the interactive technology used in the SUITE in the in the March issue of the journal "pma":
http://www.p-m-a.de/7912.0.html
In May, as a result of our work presentation in Dortmund,k was published the book "Staging & Trust", also with an article by Prof. J.U.Lensing, including an analysis of the composition "Black and White" from the SUITE:
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts1702/ts1702.php
The preliminary final point is an editorial in the current edition of the "Buehnetechnische Rundschau" with extensive interviews of J.U.Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus. This article is, as has been the a.m. Book, beyond the purely technical aspect of working out and clearly explains the philosophy, the artistic potential and the new ways of creation for such an inter-media work.
http://www.btr-friedrich.de/de_DE/article/detail/special/45432/146628
Further releases will follow. A comprehensive research report on this project is currently under construction.
Otherwise - behind the scenes - some promising things happen, that affect our work after 2012. Since actually much remains to be spoken to each other, we will only say something in official if it becomes clear that it also can be something real ...
In this sense, we wish you a nice summer break and we promise to report back if it goes into the new season. |
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| Pause - SUITE - Future |
25.03.2011 |
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2011/2012 |
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With shows in Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Berlin our series of premiers of "SUITE intermediale" was concluded on 19 February 2011 in the very sold out hall in Dock 11 in Berlin.
Both - the audience and the press - received the piece very positively and it is now included in the list of success stories at Theater der Klänge.
There have been quite a few in our nearly 24-year-old history and, in the opinion of the artistic core —who was there from the very beginning— many pieces now belong to a collection of quotes, full of good and also curious memories, and they are also a source for new projects.
There will be a new piece to celebrate the 25th anniversary in May 2012, which will make use of the wealth of experiences. We also plan to publish – if we find the necessary financing for it – a full edition of ALL pieces in video and text!
For autumn/winter 12/13, we plan to organize a large exhibition about the 25-year anniversary of Theater der Klänge at the Theatermuseum in Duesseldorf.
But: At present, the group is enjoying a well-deserved break until the first rehearsals for the new production start in May/June. The office is still open and is currently working on the bases for our future creations… |
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| SUITE intermediale |
08.02.2011 |
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Dortmund und Berlin |
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The german dancemagazine "Tanz" published a critique about the premiere of SUITE intermediale in its February issue. Here are a few extracts of this critique:
The Theater der Klaenge does credit to its name. (...) (...) The Duesseldorf ensemble, which was founded in 1987 consisting of musicians, dancers, actors and frequently referring to the Bauhaus stagecraft, developed the so-called "HOEReografien" (listenographies) in 2005. They offer a scenario that combines dance with film and sound, as cameras and other technical sensors "take it down" and computer programs convert the bulk of information into moving images and sounds.
"SUITE intermediale" (...) scores thanks to its variety. Under the direction of the stage director J.U.Lensing, the choreographer Jacqueline Fischer and the composer Thomas Neuhaus as well as the video specialists Fabian Kollakowski and Falk Grieffenhagen, six dancers and a large rear screen present about twenty different ways to turn dance into film images. And into electronic sounds, which seem to be less diverse, with moderate or vibrating fast bangs that remind the audience sometimes of a marimbaphone and sometimes of a cello. The dancers improvise in the fixed frame of the SUITE, alone or in a group, vary scope, number and dynamics of their limb movements, and combine themselves in contact improvisation. (...) However, the sequence is presented in a dramaturgically clever way, it particularly charms in its quiet moments, in which the wittiness of the interactive game becomes apparent: when dancers cast only normal shadows, an extended arm slowly covers the entire rear wall in the film reproduction in the form of a black shape, when the flickering colours suddenly stop and turn into an abstract painting, or when the screeching of naked toes on the floor is distorted and then reproduced as creaks coming out of the loudspeakers.
In the last and most beautiful scene one of the dancers sings a song. She is on her own and dances simply like the girl in the traditional folk song "Es führt über den Main eine Brücke von Stein, wer darüber will gehen, muss im Tanze sich drehen" (Over the river Main there is a bridge made of stone. If you want to cross it you must turn around in dancing). At the same time, little echoes of her voice reverberate through the room.
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Dates |
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| SUITE intermediale |
21.01.2011 |
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Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Berlin |
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A nearly sold out "Tanzhaus nrw" and an enourmous applauding public within the festival "Temps d´images", were last tuesday the successfull starting for our tour .
Press-Extracts:
...this harks back directly to Oskar Schlemmer's figure and sound concept and applies present-day technical resources to Classical Modernism..
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung 2010
Dreamlike sound sculpture... Experimental dance theatre in the truest sense of the word. The innovative body language makes you want more and long for autumn to be here...
Rheinische Post 2010
The Theatre of Sound is a truly unique ensemble that makes sounds, images and people interact.
Neue Rhein Zeitung 2010
The Media-transformatioon of choreography in a wide range of sounds and pictures were more than only new ways of seeing. They were astonishing and breath taking...
Ostseezeitung 2010
With "Suite intermediale" the Theater der Klaenge delivers a brilliant masterwork.
WAZ/NRZ 2010
Far away from simple dance for camera, which is often boring in theaters, the Theater der Klaenge allways surprises with unexpected transformations.
RP 2011
After the premiere in Tanzhaus NRW in Duesseldorf, the two men controlling pictures and sounds behind the two Computers, received as much applause as the six dancers. It is a miracle of digital picturemaking!
NRZ 2011
Further performances:
27. until 29. January 2011 allways at 8pm in the
theater of the Rudolf-Steiner-School in Duesseldorf
11. February 2011 at 8pm in the
Theater im Depot in Dortmund
17. until 19. February 2011 allways at 8:30pm in
Dock11 in Berlin
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SUITE intermediale |
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| Time for Pictures / Time for Sounds |
11.01.2011 |
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SUITE intermediale - the 18th of january 2011 in "tanzhaus nrw" - Duesseldorf |
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Does experiment/electronic media and digitized "Modernity" automatically imply inevitably excessive demand, perfomative autism and ugliness?
We have ourselves worked hard for two years to prove the opposite against these nearly to a dogma raised connection. It is possible to bring the classical stylistic idiom of music together with both - classical and also modern generated stylistic idiom for dance into an aesthetic agreement with video art !
"SUITE intermediale" is an example of Intermedia, which sets on a harmonization of the different media with a clear focus on the physically of human bodies performed by dancers. This example of a non provokative* aethetics and a work which is searching for beauty, can be seen and heard from next week on:
The 18th of january 2011 at 8pm in the context of the festival; Temps d´images" in the "dance house North-Rhine/Westphalia" in Duesseldorf and afterwards further in Duesseldorf (theatre of the Rudolf Steiner school), in Dortmund (Theater im Depot) and in Berlin (Dock11).
Time for pictures/time for sounds/time for aesthetics.
We hope that you take yourselves the time!
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* Nowadays to speak about aesthetics and beauty and to have this as a goal for the artistic work… is - in Germany - unfortunately seen as provocation at all - |
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Tourdates |
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| SUITE intermediale - successfull opening |
22.11.2010 |
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The 12th of november 2010 we presented finally our long worked "SUITE intermediale" in 7 acts. The "neue Aula" of the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen/Werden was the ideal place for this premiere. The stage size and the optimal double-quadrophonic Soundsystem framed this work in a size which gave the SUITE the needed dimension.
The press WAZ/NRZ wrote:
"With the Suite intermediale the Theater der Klänge delivered a brilliant Masterwork."
Actually we make a creative pause.
The 18th of january 2011 we will present this work within the Festival "Temps d´images" in the tanzhaus nrw in Duesseldorf.
One performance is not enough Duesseldorf. For that we organized three more performances from the 27th to the 29th of january 2011 in the theater of the Rudolf-Steiner-Schule in Duesseldorf.
We will have more perfornances in Dortmund and in Berlin in February 2011. |
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Tour Dates |
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| SUITE intermediale - PREMIERE |
29.10.2010 |
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12th of november 2010 within the festival "novembermusic" in Essen (D) |
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also creatives are realizing when they fullfill a very good work. We are very, very proud to present with our "SUITE intermediale" a dance-concert which combines dance, live-electronic music and interactive videoart on a level, which creates a contemporary form of "Gesamtkunstwerk".
The Pre-Premiere of three compositions within the festival "Tanztendenzen" the 23rd of october had such a press-reaction:.
"The media-transformation of choreography in a wide range of sounds and pictures showed more than only new points of view. They astonished, were breath taking or evoced spontanious and thankfull applause." (Ostsee Zeitung)
In five compositions, framed by an introduction and a final Coda, our six dancer/musicians from the THEATER DER KLAENGE, together with the video-artist Fabian Kollakowski and the composer Thomas Neuhaus present a Realtime-Composition, which is directed by J.U.Lensing and choreographed by Jacqueline Fischer.
The opening evening is friday, the 12th of november 2010 at 8pm within the festival "Novembermusic", which is organized from and in the Folkwang-University of Arts in Essen-Werden (D).
More performances are booked from january 2011 on in Duesseldorf and Berlin. Performances for Dortmund and Dessau are in the planning stadium.
We are very happy to share this work with our public in one of our performances.
For ticktes for the opening evening please contact:
+49 (0) 201_4903-231 or karten(at)folkwang-uni.de |
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festival "novembermusic" in the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen |
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| SUITE intermediale as part of the festival "Tanztendenzen 2010" |
08.10.2010 |
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23rd of october in Theater Vorpommern in Greifswald |
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Actually we work with high pressure on new compositions for our SUITE intermediale. The 23rd of october - 8pm, we will present three of these nearly finished compositions within the festival "Tanztendenzen" in the Theater Vorpommern in Greifswald. This high reputated and international festival exists since 18 years. The same evening the french compagnie "Black Blanc Beur" plays after our performance in the same theater.
We will play the follwing compositions:
Traces
Black - White
Syn-A-Syn textures
Two of these compositions from last year are now further developed, "Traces" will be shown for the first time.
For friday, the 12th of november we plan to show 6 compositions and two Soli, which will form the final programm (90 minutes) of the SUITE intermediale.
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Tanztendenzen 2010 |
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| SUITE - Part II |
03.09.2010 |
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Rehearsals startet for the finishing |
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Since the 31st of august we work again in our studio for the final creation of our "SUITE intermediale". Three of our interprets from the first phase of working (Bernardo Fallas, Catalina Gomez, Nina Hänel) meet actually three new interprets (Sarah Biernat, Alex Carrillo, Arthur Schopa). Our Video-Artist Falk Grieffenhagen works together with the assistant Fabian Kollakowski on the further development of the interactive Videopatches for the "SUITE". Back from her "Babyyear" is Miriam (now Pankarz) again activ in our office. She works together with production-assistant Rosa Rühling. Both are reachable Monday to Friday in our office daily between 10am to 2pm.
The leading trio is stable:
Jacqueline Fischer - Choreography
J.U.Lensing - Directing and artistic supervising
Thomas Neuhaus - interactive Music
The final result will be shown for the first time the 12th of november 2010 within the festival "Novembermusic" in the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen-Werden. The premiere in Duesseldorf is previewed in january 2011 within the festival "Temps d´images" in the "tanzhaus nrw" in Duesseldorf. We plan actually from january on a tour going to the german cities of Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Berlin, Dessau and Bielefeld. |
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SUITE Intermediale |
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| Suite intermediale - Part II |
26.05.2010 |
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Pre-Rehearsals startet in may 2010 |
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Since Wednesday, the 19th of may we are again rehearsing. Every Wednesday and Thursday we are working in our studio on pre-rehearsals for our second part of "Suite intermediale". This is necessary to develop choreographic material for the coming main-rehearsals, but also to find new dancers for our ensemble.
Finishing these pre-rehearsals the 24th of june we are shure to have our ensemble together for the final work on "Suite intermediale". August, the 31st we start the main-rehearsals, which will rework the three allready existing compositions, but also develop 3 to 4 new compositions for the whole program. All together the "Suite intermediale" will be a program concluding 6 to 7 intermedia-compositions. The premiere of the whole program will be the 12th of november in the big theater of the Folkwang University within the festival "Novembermusic". |
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Suite intermediale |
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| THEATER DER KLAENGE in the Web 2.0 |
22.04.2010 |
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Communication |
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Fitting to our actual artistic work with our "Suite intermediale", working with Computers and Media, which react on acting bodies, we worked the last month on our Web-Communication possibilities going into the Web 2.0.
Starting with our Weblog (in german) which is allready existing since years. In fact it is not a real Logbook, but you can find all dates concerning our artistic work, starting with the foundation of the THEATER DER KLAENGE in 1987.
www.theater-der-klaenge.de/haus/ensemble.php?pa=5&lang=1
Last year we made an upload of short-videos to nearly all our productions on YouTube. These videos can be seen, but also you can leave comments.
www.youtube.com/user/theaterderklaenge
Our entry in Wikipedia is also readable, but you can work on it in adding text or comment it.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_der_Klänge
Since a few weeks we are also on Facebook. There you can clic to be a "Fan", but also only to say that "you like it". Of course you can comment it and leave also videos, text, pictures to the "Fan-community".
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THEATER-DER-KLANGE/330268501148?ref=ts
Of course we keep the possibilities of communication which are offered since the Web1. So we have a Guestbook on our Website, we keep our e-mail adress and we work continuesly on our website and send Newsletters.
And over all we are existing!
So you can reach us with a letter, telephone us or make a visit in our studio.
But because we are only present in theaters on certain dates, the wish to communicate outside these possibilities is growing more and more.
Please use these possibilities to visit us, to speak with us, to send a message, or to look our online media, comment it or make adds.
And the most important!
Plan to visit one of our next public performances.
We love the sound of a full theatre,
the strong applause,
the talking after a performance in the Foyer of the theater...
(again from the 12th of november 2010 on) |
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contactpossibilities to the THEATER DER KLAENGE |
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| Suite intermediale - Part I |
21.01.2010 |
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The last three "work in progress presentations" of the first part in Duesseldorf |
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The first part of the interactive intermedia Performance under the title "Suite intermediale" was presented with a good resonance within the frame of the "2nd international Scenographers Symposium"
the 13th of december 2009 in the faculty of design in the university of apllied sciences and arts in Dortmund (D). Before this presentation was done with good critics as reactions in the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau (D).
The first performance of the whole work is planned for mid of november 2010 in the Folkwang University in Essen within the frame of the festival "Novembermusic" (Ruhr 2010).
Actually this work in progress presentation will be done for the last time on three evenings in the "Forum Freies Theater - Juta" in Duesseldorf (D):
Thursday and Saturday, the 4th + 6th of february 2010 at 8pm
Sunday, 7th of february at 6pm.
In the "Suite Intermediale - Part I" dancer are playing with the room as a sort of an audio-visual instrument. In a collectiv creation from the Choreographer, the director, the video-artist, the dancers and the musicians is build a dance-concert consisting of three full compositions. The visuals is the dance-performance in a Light- and Video-Setup. The Sound is an electronic transformation of live-sounds also as electronic generated sounds, controlled and played by the movements of the performers.
The classical "Suite" is a chain of Compositions for dances. The "Suite Intermediale - Part I" is a chain of audio-visual compositions, played by dancers. In this form electronic music melts together with "musique concrete" also as with "absolute and expanded cinema" in a realtime transformation done by computer-instruments. |
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Forum Freies Theater Duesseldorf |
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| Suite intermediale |
02.12.2009 |
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we show a first part in form of a "work in progress presentation" |
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we worked a first part for our "Suite intermediale" , which is consisting of three compositions. This nearly 40-minutes lasting programm was shown with success the 21st of november 2009 in the "Anhaltisches Theater Dessau" within the festival "Raumfiguren - Figurenräume" curated by the Bauhaus Dessau.
The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung wrote: ...but the most surprising part of the Triptychon ... was a work in progress presentation: For the first time parts of the "Suite intermediale" were shown, which directly refers to the figural and Sound Conception from Oskar Schlemmer using contemporary technical means on concepts of the classical Avantgarde. How exiting it could be to use the body of a dancer as sound- and picture giving media, catching shadows and blured movements on a screen and transfering the kinetic impulses in acosutics was deeply demonstrated...
Another occasion to see this first work in progress presentation also in the land of NRW/Germany is friday, 11. December 2009 at 8:30pm in the auditorium of the faculty of design from the University of applied sciences and arts in Dortmund - Max-Ophüls-Platz 2. Within the 2. international scenographers symposium you can see and hear the compositions
Black - White
Dancing Sprites Solo
Syn-Asyn Quintett |
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Scenographers symposium in Dortmund |
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| Performances in november and december 2009 |
07.11.2009 |
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"Suite intermediale - Part I" and "the mecanical ballet" |
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the 1st of september until the 7th of november we have worked on the development of new possibilities for an interactive, intermedia dance-performance. The result is a first part of 35 minutes for our previewed program "Suite intermediale". This first part we will present as a "work in progress presentation" in november and december 2009 and previewed in february 2010.
Also you can see our "mecanical ballet" within the activities for "90 years of Bauhaus" in Jena and Dessau.
The dates:
13. November - "The mecanical Ballet" in Theaterhaus Jena
21. November - "The mecanical Ballet"" (Acts 1 + 5) and "Suite intermediale I" in the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau
28. November - "The mecanical Ballet" in the Bauhaus Dessau
11. Dezember - "Suite intermediale I" in the University of applied sciences and arts in Dortmund (Faculty of design)
Preview: 4.-6. Februar - "Suite intermediale I" in FFT-Juta Duesseldorf |
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all dates |
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| The Bauhaus 90 years on |
03.09.2009 |
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The THEATRE OF SOUND has once again been invited to give a performance of the "Mechanical Ballet" in Dessau and Jena in November. The "Mechanical Ballet" and part of the "Mechanical Eccentricity" will also be shown on video
at several exhibitions, such as the permanent exhibition at the Bauhaus Foundation (Dessau); "The Bauhaus comes from Weimar" sponsored by the Classical Weimar Foundation at the Bauhaus Museum and the New Weimar Museum (Weimar); "The Bauhaus in Jena" at the Jena City Museum Art Collection; and the "Bauhaus Model" at the Bauhaus Archive (Berlin).
In addition, numerous publications have appeared, including our "Mechanical Ballet", which has already become a standard reference work about the Bauhaus stage.
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Bauhaus 2009 |
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| Suite intermediale |
03.09.2009 |
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Interactive intermedia performance |
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On Tuesday, 1 September 2009, the THEATRE OF SOUND began rehearsing a new work: "Intermedia Suite" (working title). As its name suggests, this latest production explores the possibilities of live intermedia performance. In fact, "Intermedia Suite" forms part of a scenographic research project at Dortmund University of apllied sciences and arts. The project, known as IIP (Interactive intermedia Performance), is accompanied by a doctoral candidate from Kiel’s Musenius University of Fine Arts. Another partner in this joint venture is the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) at Essen’s Folkwang Academy of Art.
"Intermedia Suite" continues one of the THEATRE OF SOUND’s main lines of development dating back to "Figure and Sound in Space" (1993) and including the productions of "Megalopolis" (2001) and "Modulator" (2002), as well as the "Performer Computer Interaction (PCI)" research project (2004) and "HEAReographics" (2005). But the approach developed in "PCI" and "HEAReographics" has now been extended to include larger forms of composition. The project’s semi-improvised structures allow performers / dancers to become musicians within an interactive video set design.
Largely for financial reasons, the current project is being developed in two parts. The results of the first stage will be presented at Dortmund Technical University in December 2009 and again at the Forum Freies Theater- Juta in Dusseldorf in February 2010. The second stage will take place in autumn 2010. A full-length evening performance of both parts is planned for November 2010 onwards.
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Suite intermediale |
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| IIP research project approved |
17.06.2009 |
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The THEATRE OF SOUND will cooperate with the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) from the Folkwang University (Essen) in an IIP research project. IIP stands for "Interactive Intermedial Performance" and this project at the Dortmund University for Applied Science will centre on developing the PCI / HEAReographics performance approach.
We already use Max-MSP software to analyse movement captured on special cameras and convert it into electronic music within an interactive multi-sensory environment. IIP aims to expand this approach to the video and lighting environment using a three-dimensional video projector such as Moving Lights.
The project will serve as a testing ground for the production of the "Intermedia Suite", an evening-long performance that is due to be premiered in 2010. It will also enable the THEATRE OF SOUND to incorporate an experienced programmer and video artist into the project. This will probably be a student doing an MA in Scenographic Design and intending to write a thesis on interactive lighting design.
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PCI Research report |
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| Redesigning our website |
17.06.2009 |
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Our website will change from July onwards. Since the 18th production of "Johnny Jihad", the 18 photos previously chosen by the designer are to be replaced with 20 new ones ... Originally designed for the small screen, the pages on this site are to be enlarged now that hardly any Internet monitors use a PAL screen. The sub-menus have grown over the years and in future will be grouped together in a more logical manner with different photos appearing on the German and English versions of each page. There will be 12 pictures for each of our productions.
Our video clips were converted to Flash last year and will soon be available on a separate channel on YouTube. All these video clips will also be enlargeable.
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| Summer Break |
17.06.2009 |
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We will be taking a summer break from mid July to late August. During this time, there will be no newsletter. In September we will be starting work on the IIP project together with the first tests for the "Intermedia suite". More from us in September - until then, we hope you have very nice Summer holidays.
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| Lysistrata`s feast |
18.05.2009 |
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| Between February and May 2009, J.U.Lensing of the THEATRE OF SOUNDS held a total of 20 afternoon workshops with 12th graduate pupil at the Rudolf Steiner School in Düsseldorf. These young men and women, aged 17 to 19, were asked to create their own version of Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata. The text of "Lysistrata’s Feast" resulted from improvisations during the first five weeks. Over the next five weeks, 27 pupil performers and two pupil musicians turned the text into an hour-long performance. The piece was performed four times at the school’s theatre from 14 to 16 May and was a great success. |
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| "Dance in schools" is invited to France (Danse au coeur) |
18.05.2009 |
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France has invited "Dance in schools" to participate in the International exchanges in Chartres from 22 to 24 May 2009
15 children from the Adam Riese School in Meerbusch have been chosen to represent German dance- on stage at the Theatre de Chartres with an original choreography entitled "One morning". The performance will take place within the framework of the 23rd "Rencontres nationales et européennes de danse à l’école".
Representatives from Germany, Sweden and Spain have been invited to take part together with 25 professional dance companies from France and 100 amateur dancers as well as a large number of students. This invitation should therefore prove invaluable for extending our European network.
Founding member and longtime choreographer at the THEATRE OF SOUND, Jacqueline Fischer, has developed the choreography together with the class from the Adam Riese School. This tour has been possible thanks to the support of the school, the School Assistance Association and, in particular, the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (MUSe). |
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| Gregory on the stone - a scholarly analysis |
18.05.2009 |
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Andrea Schindler was awarded the Graduation Prize of the University of Bamberg for her M.A. dissertation: "My songs will live on ..." Medieval reception in contemporary musical theatre.
In addition to analyses of Wolkenstein. A Ballad of Life (W. Hiller/F. Mitterer), King Rother (D. Rother) und Parsifal (S. Werle/Wang Fei et al..), the book also contains an extensive and very detailed analysis of our production Gregory on the stone where it iis compared with Thomas Mann's The chosen and Hartmann von Aues Gregory, the poor sinner.
The original GGerman edition of Andrea Schindler’s dissertation "Mittelalterrezeption im zeitgenössischem Musiktheater" is available from Band 23 Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden 2009 |
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| Suite intermediale |
18.05.2009 |
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| From 28 May to 26 June we will be holding a total of 10 preliminary tests for our next production "Intermedia Suite". These tests will be held every Thursday and Friday and will also serve as rehearsals to select the new ensemble for this project from among almost 60 pre-selected candidates. The content is linked to our production "HEAReographics" from 2005. Two shorter works - both self-contained – are due to be completed later this year. These will then be combined with two or three more compositions to make up a full evening’s performance in 2010. The first results will be presented in Düsseldorf in November / December 2009. |
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| Intermediality in compositions for theatre: |
18.05.2009 |
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the example of the THEATRE of SOUNDS |
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Another dissertation is under way: "Intermediality in compositions for theatre: the example of the THEATRE of SOUND". Its author, Sven Lütge, is a former student and current employee of the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel.
Sven Lütge will be researching the preliminary tests and development stage of our "Intermedia Suite" and his extensive dissertation project will also include research into our compositions on the subject up to 2011. This dissertation will be published together with a complete edition of the medial works of the THEATRE of SOUND in 2012 to mark our 25th Anniversary. |
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| Imogen Nabel joins our Office |
18.05.2009 |
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| On 1 May 2009, Imogen Nabel joined the THEATRE of SOUND’s Artistic Administration Office, replacing Miriam Raether, who is currently taking time out to be with her first baby. |
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| The mecano-electronic Bauhaus-Stage |
17.03.2009 |
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Celebrations will be held in the Bauhaus cities of Weimar and Dessau this year to mark the 90th anniversary of the Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919.
Because the THEATRE OF SOUND is probably the only group in the world that still performs a reconstruction of an original Bauhaus-stage production, we have been invited to the opening ceremony of the festivities at the German National Theatre in Weimar on 1st April 09.
Of course, we no longer limit ourselves to reconstructions of other people’s work, and so we have combined the "Mechanical Ballet" and our inter-media dance and musical theatre work "HEARographcs Suite" into a feature-length programme titled "The Mecano-electronic Bauhaus Stage". We will be performing this double bill on 3rd April at the e-werk Weimar.
However, we will be performing the "Mechanical Ballet" on its own this autumn in Dessau and Jena. |
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| Suite intermediale |
17.03.2009 |
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| We will be beginning rehearsals for our next production "Inter-media Suite" at the end of May 2009. Four years after the premiere of "HEARographcs" and especially after reworking this material into the "HEARographcs Suite" last year, we are looking forward to exploring new possibilities of composition of dance, sound and movement. The programme planned will be similar to a concert with several self-contained audio-visual compositions, and should be premiered in 2010. This composition has been conceived by three veterans of the THEATRE OF SOUND - Jacqueline Fischer (choreography); J.U Lensing (production, movement); Thomas Neuhaus (sound composition). |
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| Klangfilme DVD |
17.03.2009 |
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| The univesity of applied sciences and arts of Dortmund has published a DVD "Klangfilme" (Sound-Movies) in its design-magazin called "Reflektor". Published on thias DVD is "Herr Toluh geht in die Stadt", also as our new dance-movie from Harald Opel & J.U.Lensing called "Soundness", which was made by scenic material from our production "HOEReographien". |
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Reflektor |
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| Johnnys Jihad - American Taliban |
17.11.2008 |
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Since end october we work on a new theater-piece. This time we decided to work on an allready written text of the young writer Marc Pommerening with the title "Johnnys Jihad".
1999: John Lindh, a young US-Citizen, who has lost the trust in western ethics and found a new believe in the Islam. John, looking for a real understanding of the holy book of the Koran, also looking for adventure goes to Jemen, later to Pakistan and founds himself later on in a training camp of the afghan Taliban.
2001: Captured in the early weeks of the fights between the afghan Northern-Alliance and the Taliban, he survives the combats of the Kala i Janghi rual. After this he sees himself eye in eye with another US-Citizen, the CIA-Special-Forces Agent Tyson. Tyson doesnt´t believe that he found an "american Taliban" and is now in the situation to decide whether he let him torture by the northern alliance genaral Dostum...
An exiting political theme, a text reminding on Shakespeare, directed in a concentraded music-theaterform making the spoken word combined with indian tabla-music to a sort of rhythmical-spoeken-word poetry.
For the first time the THEATER DER KLAENGE will perfom in the "FFT-Kammerspiele" situated in Duesseldorf. The opening night will be wednesday, the 7. th of january 2009. The plan is to perform this piece for 12 times in Duesseldorf, Cologne, Essen and in Switzerland. |
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| Mr. Toluh goes to town |
17.11.2008 |
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| Once again there will be a possibility to see our short-movie "Herr Toluh geht in die Stadt" (Mr. Toluh goes to town). The 26th of October this movie will be shown in the frame of the "Filmfest" at the university of Duesseldorf. The block it is programmed is between 5 an 6pm in the Konrad-Henkel-Saal of the Uni Duesseldorf together with other short films which are programmed in this festival. |
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Filmfest Düsseldorf |
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| Klangfilme DVD |
17.11.2008 |
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| The univesity of applied sciences and arts of Dortmund has published a DVD "Klangfilme" (Sound-Movies) in its design-magazin called "Reflektor". Published on thias DVD is "Herr Toluh geht in die Stadt", also as our new dance-movie from Harald Opel & J.U.Lensing called "Soundness", which was made by scenic material from our production "HOEReographien". |
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Reflektor |
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| Studio 209 |
17.10.2008 |
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was opened at the Clara Schumann Music School in Düsseldorf in February 2008. From the very beginning, the THEATER OF SOUND has sponsored this project, which is funded by the city of Düsseldorf, The recording studios themselves are intended to be a venue for training young people in electronic composition and sound-design using the very latest computer technology. They were designed and equipped by Christian Banas, J.U. Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus as part of the THEATRE OF SOUND’s "City-Sound Network" activities.
Now, you can judge for yourselves how successful this venture has been so far. On 17 October 2008, a concert will be given at the Clara Schumann Music School to showcase work recorded at these brand new studios by undergraduate students. The concert starts at 7pm and will also include electronic compositions by J.U. Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus. |
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Clara Schumann Musikschule Düsseldorf |
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| Mr. Toluh goes to town |
17.10.2008 |
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A few days later, you will also have a chance to see "Mr. Toluh goes to town" - a short film produced last year at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the THEATRE OF SOUND. The film will be shown at the UCI cinema world in Düsseldorf on 19 and 26 October 2008. Both performances will begin at 5pm. The film forms part of the "Live Reading" programme
"Mr. Toluh goes to town" will also be appearing together with the THEATRE OF SOUND’s dance film "Soundness" (J.U.Lensing & Harald Opel) as a DVD sound film. This DVD will be included as a supplement in the design magazine "Reflektor", appearing in November 2008, and will be available at all bookshops. |
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UCI Düsseldorf |
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| The Mechanical Ballet |
17.10.2008 |
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| will be returning to the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau as part of the celebrations to mark the Bauhaus’s 90th anniversary in 2009 Also, we have been invited to perform the ballet in Jena in November 2009 - in the same theatre the original premiere was given in 1923. |
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90 years of Bauhaus |
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| Johnnys Jihad |
17.10.2008 |
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| Finally, on 29 October 2008 we begin rehearsals for our latest theatrical adventure "Johnny Jihad", based on the text by Marc Pommerening (and directed by J.U.Lensing). This exciting and highly topical piece is written for a cast of 3 actors and a drummer. The premiere will take place at the FFT Kammerspiele in Düsseldorf on 7 January 2009. Don’t forget to make a note of it in your diary! |
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Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf |
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| THEATRE OF SOUND - OPEN STUDIO - DANCE FAIR 2008 |
20.08.2008 |
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| The Düsseldorf Theatre of Sound’s rehearsal studio will be open for all four days of the International Dance Fair in North-Rhine/Westphalia. It will show extracts from its repertoire, short dance films and the new work by fellow artists working with interactive multimedia. -- 27 to 30 August 2008 - Düsseldorf - Winkelsfelderstr. 21 |
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| HEAReographics Suite |
20.08.2008 |
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| This compressed and shortened version of the interactive, multimedia HEAReographics dance concert from 2005 has been specially written for the dance fair. The new HEAReographics suite for 3 dancers will be shown daily. |
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HEAReographics Suite |
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| Hype Cycle |
20.08.2008 |
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| Frieder Weiß and Emily Fernandez are "Hype Cycle, the Agency for Interactive Multimedia Dance". They will be presenting their work in the form of a lecture-performance. An entertaining mix of informative presentation of video-interactive techniques and performance excerpts. |
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Hype Cycle |
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| Harald Opel / J. U. Lensing |
20.08.2008 |
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Soundness (Dance for camera) |
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Material from dance and interactive video screening from the HEAReographics production distilled by filmmaker Harald Opel into a seven-minute independent dance film with a new sound track by J.U.Lensing.
This dance film will premiered at the end of August 2008. |
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| Harald Opel / Jacqueline Fischer |
20.08.2008 |
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| I is another from a quartet choreographed by Jacqueline Fischer for the 2007 dance theatre production of the same name. "I is another" has been made into a 15 - minute dance film, deconstructing and remixing the images and soundtrack from the original stage production. This dance film will premiered at the end of August 2008. |
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| ChrisZiegler - forest 2 - another midsummernight`s dream |
20.08.2008 |
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The new production is based on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ovid's Metamorphoses.
The play is set in an interactive environment, which is based on Ziegler "wood - forest" and combines radio play elements with soap opera, dance and musical theatre. |
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| The International North-Rhine/Westphalia Dance Fair in Duesseldorf |
10.06.2008 |
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The HEAReographics Suite |
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The THEATRE of SOUND will be partnering the International Dance Fair in North-Rhine/Westphalia in August 2008.
We will have our own open studio where we will be staging three PREMIERES!
The event will last for four days and you will have a chance to see our new HEAReographics Suite at 5pm each day.
Based on our 2005 production of the same name, this 30-minute interactivemultimedia composition is a substantial adaptation, both visually andacoustically, of the original HEAReographics production withchoreography reduced to its essentials for a trio.
Each day we will be also showing two short dance films based on pieces by the Theatre of Sound:
Soundness– produced by Harald Opel in co-operation with J.U.Lensing.
This film is made up of material from HEAReographics and lasts seven minutes.
I is another ? - produced by Harald OPEL in co-operation with Jacqueline Fischer.
This film is composed of material from the dancework I is another, and will probably last about ten minutes
In addition, you will have a chance to meet some special guests who inspired us with their work, in particular during the development stage of HEAReographics, and who continue to help and inspire us:
Frieder Weiß and Emily Fernandez will be showing their latest interactive multimedia dance compositions "hypecycle" at our open studio.
Chris Ziegler will also be presenting his most recent interactive multimedia work with the video "Forest 2". |
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| Open studio |
10.06.2008 |
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THEATRE of SOUND – Winkelsfelder Sr. 21 - 40477 Düsseldorf-Pempelfort
Daily programme from Wednesday, 27 August until Saturday, 30 August 2008:
HEAReographics Suite
Dance films - Soundness & I is another ? as Forest 2
Interactive multimediawork by our guests Frieder Weiß, EmilyFernandez and Chris Ziegler |
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| I is another |
10.06.2008 |
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the dance-theater Production from our choreographer jacqueline Fischer was a success.
The music from Michael Sapp for this piece is available in our store.
This creation had 7 performances in the FFT-Juta in Duesseldorf, as in the Theater of the Rudolf-Steiner-School in Duesseldorf.
The press reaction, like the public was positiv up to enthusiastic.
We sold 98% of the available places in the FFT.
We are a litle bit sad about the fact, that we don´t know about further performances of ths very beautiful piece.
We work on that, as on a new dance-movie. |
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Theater of Sound Shop |
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If you want to order a CD of the music, click here |
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| Johnny’s Jihad |
10.06.2008 |
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Our next piece which is scheduled to receive its premiere in January 2009 is a play on an absolutely upto date topic. It is about those people who once sympathized with the US butwere then seized during the campaign in Afghanistan and interrogated by UStroops.
The young Berlin author Marc von Pommerening has turned their interrogations intoan exciting theatrical text in verse which serves as a libretto for thischamber-music oratorio interpreted by three actors and a musician.
The piece is directed as usual by J.U.Lensing and we are pleased to welcome back Kai Bettermann, who is joining us for this production.
Kai was an actor in our ensemble from 1992 to 1998!
Premiere at the FFT studio theatre Düsseldorf on 7 January 2009 (to be confirmed) |
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| Bauhaus |
10.06.2008 |
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Next year marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, which will be commemorated in Weimar, Jena,Dessau and Berlin with a number of ceremonies and retrospectives.
The THEATRE of SOUND is the only professional theatre ensemble in the world that hasreconstructed a Bauhaus work for the stage and has included it in itsrepertoire.
The Mechanical Ballet will be staged as part in Weimar on 1 April 2009 and inJena on 13 November 2009 as part of the jubilee celebrations. Our complete mechanicaland electronic Bauhaus stage can be seen at E-Werk in Jena on 3 April 09.
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| I is another |
10.12.2007 |
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The paradox "I is another", first formulated by the poet Arthur Rimbaud, was to become a byword for modernity, expressing as it did the difficulty, the impossibility even, of continuing to assume a stable "I" —whether it be the author’s own ego or that of a fictional character— as a basis for story-telling and narration.
Starting from the question of what defines an individual, this latest stage production by the Düsseldorf Theatre of the Sound reflects and comments on a series of characters from different angles as the actors explore and play with various personality prototypes through the medium of dance.
To cite a well-known film, plays are "the business of show." Players must embody ‘roles’ and act their ‘parts’ convincingly. In this sense, we may ask: Does acting require expensive masks and costumes, or are verbal, facial and bodily expression enough —with just a few iconographic costumes— to create immediately recognizable and credible characters and attitudes?
But this "play" is not just about how stage actors manage to manipulate posture, Habitus, voice or social gestures for artistic effect. Rather, it is about noticing and becoming aware of a range of stereotypes that society makes available to us for modelling and distorting our own bodies and personalities.
Today, "soft skills" seminars offer advertisers, job-seekers and politicians more ways of presenting themselves than ever before. This inevitably raises questions about how the "I" or the ego is projected and about its effect on others. What sort of I’s are formed in these seminars? Occupational I’s? Genuine I’s? In what way does a person’s position or job, or the feeling "I can do nothing", shape their sense of self? And what do character, ethos and outlook mean in a world of stage-managed egos?
"I is another" mirrors at the level of theatre and media, a phenomenon that is widespread in contemporary society with its training courses and assignments in self-projection and social role-playing! In doing so, it raises questions about social class, status, wealth, poverty, power and helplessness. Are these to some extent "genetically determined" - or are they simply a reflection of the way our egos have been moulded in the past. If so, who am "I" and what constitutes "me" ? Physical appearance? Attitude? The soul? Character? Education and what are often called "core capabilities" ? A philosophy of life? And what drives people to change their previously uneventful lives?
Through a process of improvisation and triall and error, the actor-authors together with the choreographer have developed not only the texts and multi-media effects, but also the body language and choreography for this audiovisual dance theatre evening.
This new production allows us to witness a range of typical interactions that transform five seemingly well-defined people into "others" as they constantly change occupations. In it you will find the Theatre of the Sound’s usual mixture of highly aesthetic professional dancing, comic scenes, specially composed live music and interesting video effects. |
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| I is another |
10.12.2007 |
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Premiere - Wednesday, 9th January 2008 - FFT Juta Duesseldorf |
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Choreography: Jacqueline Fischer; Sound/video: J.U.Lensing; Music: Michael Sapp; Staging: Simona Lotti; Costumes: Margit Koch; Lighting: Jeannot Bessière.
Actors: Jose Andrade-Lopez, Catalina Gomez, J.U.Lensing, Francesco Pedone and Hana Zanin
Other performances in Düsseldorf:
10th to 12th January 2008 at 8 pm at the FFT Düsseldorf;
31st January to 2nd February 2008 - at 8 pm in the auditorium of the Rudolf Steiner School, Düsseldorf – Diepenstraße 15 – Düsseldorf-Gerresheim
Sponsored by the City of Düsseldorf and the North-Rhine/Westphalia Arts Council |
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| City Sound Net Duesseldorf |
10.12.2007 |
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Computer music studio planned for February 2008 |
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The City Sound Net project began in 2006 on the initiative of the Arts Councils of the cities of Bonn, Düsseldorf and Cologne within the "Rhine countries AG" framework. The first results of this partnership between cities to provide "electronic music for children and young people" were meetings for teachers at primary schools in Bonn, at the Jazz House School in Cologne and at the Humboldt High School in Düsseldorf.
Concerts given by pupils from schools in Düsseldorf have proved so successful that this project has been taken up by the local council. The City of Düsseldorf has approved the setting-up of a computer music studio in Düsseldorf. The Clara Schumann School of Music is currently working on this project in co-operation with the Düsseldorf THEATRE OF SOUND.
The studio will be located in the Clara Schumann School of Music in order to grow a network of young composers of electronic music, instrumentalists and music teachers and students. By promoting awareness of currently available instrumental sounds and techniques, it is hoped that participants will integrate them into their own compositions. This initiative is aimed particularly at middle school and high school pupils as well as those studying at the Robert Schumann College of Music.
The aim is to open up opportunities for new musical forms of expression and a broad-based exchange of information. But the main focus of the project is on promoting the access of young people to the full creative range of computer music. Experience shows that pupils from this age group quickly gain a grasp of all sorts of computer art and multimedia expression.
Accordingly, there are plans to showcase pupils’ work at the end of the first semester with concerts of electronic music in the Udo van Meeteren Hall at the Clara Schumann School of Music. |
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| NEW ELECTRONIC TONES |
10.08.2007 |
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A concert to be held in the auditorium of the Rudolf Steiner School, Düsseldorf |
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Last year saw the start of CITY SOUND NET, a project involving various cities in Germany sponsored by Rheinland AG. So far, this has resulted in a series of concerts with electronic music by Bonn primary school and Cologne secondary school pupils as well as music by final year students from the Humboldt High School in Düsseldorf. A CD with compilations of this live concert music is currently available from the TV co-ordination offices in Cologne. - www.stadtklangnetz.de
This initiative – headed by the Düsseldorf Theatre of Sound – has proved extremely successful and is the model for an advanced teacher training workshop that will take place on Saturday, 1st September, 2007. This workshop is for music teachers from secondary schools (levels I and II) in Düsseldorf as well as technical colleges and schools providing vocational education and is offered in conjunction with a mentoring programme run by composers Christian Banasik, J.U.Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus for schools interested in teaching music. The Theatre of Sound is also planning to set up a computer music studio at the Clara Schumann School of Music in Düsseldorf. This will be open to pupils from February 2008. The teacher training workshop on 1st September, 2007, will be followed by a public concert of live electronic music, including two works by pupils as well as works by the three composers already mentioned - www.stadtklangnetz.de
Planned concert programme:
Jan-Wellem-Platz - Yesie Kim
Rails - Pablo Brandecker and Nicola Hein
Glass Cutter - Christian Banasik
Dkrkrrkrrrrr - Thomas Neuhaus
Metamusic - J.U.Lensing
Selected sequences from HEAReographics - Jacqueline Fischer, J.U.Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus
Performers:
Yesie Kim: Violin
Catalina Gomez and Jelena Ivanovic: Dance
Christian Banasik and Thomas Neuhaus: Sound direction
J.U.Lensing: Video
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| Mr. Toluh goes to town |
10.08.2007 |
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First Soundfilm realized |
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The Theatre of Sound - Sound Film is co-producer of the short film "Mr. Toluh goes to town" which won last year’s European Prize for Film Music in the category of "Sound Design". The film was made by students of Art and Design at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences as part of a course in Television Film Studies. The prize is a professional Dolby digital sound recording for a short film at the Ruhr Sound Studio, Dortmund. The prize-winners naturally seized this opportunity to write a special short film, which was shot in and around Düsseldorf from 12th to 15th July 2007.
As Television Film Studies course director, Professor J.U.Lensing was responsible for the script, as well for directing the film and supervising the sound production.
Our former actor Kai Bettermann stars in the leading role and some of the smaller roles are played by former and current members of our ensemble: Catalina Gomez, Sascha Hardt, Carlos Martinez Pas and Matthias Weiland. The film will be premiered at the end of November as part of "Soundtrack Cologne" and then released on DVD. –> Stills from the shooting |
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| I is another |
10.08.2007 |
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Dance-theatre production under the directing of Jacqueline Fischer is planned |
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Rehearsals for this new production, directed by Jacqueline Fischer, co-founder and current choreographer of the Theatre of Sound, will begin on 16th October 2007. The premiere is due to take place at the FFT Juta on 10th January 2008.
The ensemble is made up of dancers Catalina Gomez and Hana Zanin, together with Francesco Pedone, all of whom worked together in our last production. "Vicious Circles". Another male dancer has still to be chosen. Internal auditions for this part will be held on 17th -18th August. J.U.Lensing, who has composed the music for this dance theatre production, will also be its producer. From 1st September the new production assistant and contact person for this production at the KBB will be Miriam Raether. (Office hours: Monday to Friday. 10am to 2pm). |
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| The Theatre of Sound is 20 years old |
11.05.2007 |
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On 10 May 1987 a new theatre was born when 10 artists got together in a backyard studio in Düsseldorf. The studio, located at Ackerstraße, 22, was to become the theatre’s first office. Since then, we have staged 500 performances with 220 different dancers taking part in 17 full-length productions. And yet that first meeting might almost have been yesterday... It is hard to believe that we are now into our 20th year.
Anyway, we decided to mark the occasion by sharing some of the memorabilia from these years with the general public. So, on 10 May 2007, we presented the Düsseldorf Theatre Museum with all the contracts and accounts, requests for performances and other correspondence, as well as press reviews, brochures and other printed matter from our theatre for the years 1987 to 2002. These are now on display to the public at the Theatre Museum in Düsseldorf
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| vicious circles |
01.12.2006 |
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Tonight sees the premiere in the FFT Juta Düsseldorf of our new theatre production "The Devil’s Circles". This production will run until 17th December with a total of 12 performances. Performances start at 8pm every evening except Mondays and Tuesdays and last for two hours. (see dates)
The opening night coincides with the release today of the audio book of the same name published by HörZeichen Verlag at € 9.95. The audio book, which will be on sale at the theatre, contains comprehensive excerpts from all the interviews in the play.
On 8th December a public meeting will be held at the FFT Juta to discuss the topic of "Poverty in Düsseldorf. The guest speakers will be Hubert Ostendorf from Fifty Fifty, Mr. Rademacher from the Friedrich Naumann-Haus (Diakonie) and Mrs. Pantel, a local government politician from Düsseldorf. The discussion will be chaired by Professor. J. U. Lensing, the director of the Theatre of Sound.
The discussion will be introduced by a multimedia lecture entitled "Future Markets". This lecture has been produced by students from the vocational universities FH- Dortmund and FH-Düsseldorf, the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, and the Folkwang College for the Fine and Performing Arts in Essen, under the supervision of Professor Thomas Neuhaus and Professor J. U. Lensing and developed in the context of the Audio Visual Academy of the Universities of North-Rhine Westphalia. The lecturer, Dr. Reiner G. Schefftler, will be represented by our actor Thomas Heidenreich.
From 18th December our theatre group will be taking a well-deserved break. We hope to see you before then at the FFT-Juta!
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| April showers bring May flowers |
20.05.2006 |
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On 10th May 1987, eight musicians, dancers and actors got together in Düsseldorf at the invitation of locally–born composer Jörg U. Lensing to found the Düsseldorf Theatre of Sound. We are now in our 20th year!
This month we have several pieces of news. A dance and theatre workshop with carefully chosen participants will be held in the Theatre of Sound’s rehearsal studio from 10th to 13th May.
We already have new actresses for our coming play and —if we are lucky— some possible actors. If all goes well, a new collective creation by the ensemble is due to be staged in December 2006 or January 2007. The provisional working title is "Dwellers in hell" and the work is a reflection on the exploited, excluded and damned members of our society.
Our last production, HEAReographics, has been invited to the "Szene 1" congress at the Fachhochschule (FH) Dortmund, as well as to "Siggraph" in Boston. "Siggraph" is the most important conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques in the world. "Szene 1" is a congress about Sceneography, i.e. set design and stage lighting. We shall be giving presentations of our work in Dortmund on 7th July and in Boston from 30th July to 3rd August 2006.
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| HEARographies |
15.09.2005 |
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Since its creation in 1987, the Theater der Klänge (Theater of Sounds) from Düsseldorf has been dealing again and again with modern artistic trends, concretely with Bauhaus. They started 18 years ago with the mechanical Bauhaus stage, including a "Mechanical Ballet" by Kurt Schmidt and the "Mechanical Eccentric" by Laszlo Moholy Nagy, which later developed into the "Figures and Sounds in Space" (1993) and "MODUL|A|T|O|R" (2002), until this year’s production, "HEARographies". A liaison between art and technology, as well as the connection among space, movement, shape, light, colour and sound, were the basic ideas of the Bauhaus artists, although, as from a technical point of view, these ideal elements were hard to implement on the stage.
In a previous research co-operation with the ICEM of the Folkwang University in Essen and the FH-Dortmund, the Theater der Klänge developed a stage environment, "HEAReographies", in which the dancers produce sounds and images through their own movements and react as a result of the same. Thus, a technical environment was assembled in which, by means of sensors, computers and Surround sound, as well as a video projector and screen, a reactive and interactive stage was made available.
The starting point was wondering about the classical dependence of dance upon music. If music is developed from dance movements and, consequently, the compositional structures are not going to be developed, written and played any more by means of musical composition work, then, to what extent does the dancer take over the composition task? What effect does this have upon the dance? Furthermore, if the dancers’ bodies on the stage are filmed and transferred, in real time, into video-sculptures that are assembled into a whole moving single unit with the human bodies on the stage —an actual and virtual dance occurring in real time?
Every movement on this stage leads inevitable to music and video scenes. A cycle of individual pieces (solos, pas de deux, trios, quartets) in the form of dance, electronic dance-produced music, dance on the basis of video-sculptures developed on-the-spot and dance of live music in the form of structured improvisations, as well as combinations of these constellations of images, which produce an overall audio-visual composition as "autonomous" stage art resulting from what has been named "autonomous music".
This piece —presumably lasting 75 minutes— will start to be played at the Düsseldorfer FFT Juta at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, 27 October. Subsequent performances have been scheduled in Düsseldorf on the 28, 29 and 30 October. One week later, the project will be played at the Folkwanghochschule in Essen. On the 23 October, part of the play will be shown, as an avant-première, in Hamm (Westf.) in combination with the "Mechanical Ballet".
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| THEATER DER KLÄNGE is now a grown-up! |
01.05.2005 |
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Founded on the 10th of May, 1987, we have been working for 18 years and, up to now, we have produced 15 complete shows, following the impulse that brought this ensemble to life. Musicians, dancers, actors and plastic artists go through intensive collective processes for months to become authors and interpreters of musical and danced theatre plays, who must face issues related to the formalities and the contents in theatre in order to attain a dialog with our audience and to counteract the permanently varying theatre fashions with our own aesthetics and our own topics.
Since 1997, we have expanded our production to books, CDs and videos.
Along with our 18th birthday, we celebrate the launching of our first DVD, "18 Jahre Theater der Klänge", including 90 minutes of excerpts from all the productions performed until now. This refers mostly to material that was never published before.
At the same time, we got rid of all the office papers. After applying an electronic document management system in our offices, on May 10, we handed over all the paper work referred to 18 years of continued work to the files of the Düsseldorf’s City Hall.
18 years are not a reason to quit, but quite the opposite. We feel we are sufficiently mature and that we have grown a lot, although problems keep arising that reaffirm what inspired us already in 1987:
A free and independent selection of the subjects, facing formal challenges and the assembly of more and more creative groups that, every year, for a certain time, work and eat together, argue with each other, love each other, reach the limits that one can reach and share a good time together.
For the first time this year, we will be producing a performance including only music and dancing, entitled "HOEReographien". The opening night has been scheduled for the 27th October, 2005, in Düsseldorf.
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| PCI was presented to the public. |
08.02.2005 |
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"HOEReographien" is planned |
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On Thursday, 26 January 2005 we showed in the lecture-room of FB Design of FH Dortmund 4 pieces as examples of handling electronic interaction, developed of us, by movement in the stageroom. The whole was moderated by J.U.Lensing and Thomas's Neuhaus and interpreted by Jenny Ecke, Jelena Ivanovic and Hana Zanin by dancing, musical (demonstrated). In April is it continuations of this research presentation in Essen, Bremen. Freiburg and perhaps also Dresden give.
Starting from June then in newly found ensemble composition on the development of a new piece with the title "HOEReographien" one works concretely. Premiere of this pure music and dance evening is to be in October 2005. We hold you up to date.
In February is the DVD "theatre of the sounds - stage works" become finished, on which in DVD Videoqualitaet cutouts from all past productions will have to be heard to see and. We hope that in March/April then the publication of the DVD "module|A|t|o|r "to follow can, in order to be able to off there then dedicate us fully the new piece |
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| PCI (Performer Computer Interaction) |
20.10.2004 |
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Since the 24thSeptember, we are rehearsing again! At the moment, in a "research project" entitled PCI (Performer Computer Interaction). This research project continues with the original idea of an interactive stage installed with sensors used in "Modulator", which was developed during the last 10 years through the production of "Figure and Sound in Space " and, later, of "Manifesto" and "Megalopolis".
In its productions between 2000 and 2003, Theater der Klänge developed an engineering ambient, creating an interactive environment by means of sensors, computers and space sound equipment, as well as a video projector and a screen.
In this "sensored" interactive stage, there is no movement that doesn’t involve sound and images, so that, necessarily, all the actors’ movements on the stage lead to music and video scenes.
Within the scope of the 3 above-mentioned projects, that original idea was always related to certain subjects and its results were embedded in the semantic statements made in the mise-en-scene of the various plays. Because of this working strategy, little room was left for free purposeless developments of the aesthetic possibilities that can arise from this engineering constellation for human use, such as new forms of "dance concerts" or "videodance".
This is what the new Project deals with. We are very pleased to have dancers with great musical skills in our team and, therefore, we won’t miss the opportunity of developing —along with our director, choreographer, composer and video artists— interactive dancing solos and duets. Thus, artists can freely devote themselves to the possibilities offered by a medium allowing them to develop music and video scenes resulting in a unique, absolutely new, way of dancing. Of course, we are not satisfied with the results obtained from this development but are looking forward to performing better artistic and aesthetic stage approaches.
The people involved in this project are: Prof. Thomas Neuhaus (ICEM-Folkwang), from our core ensemble, in engineering environment and sound development; Jacqueline Fischer (TdK), as a dancer and choreographer; freelancer Christian Ziegler (ZKM Karlsruhe), as the video artist; and dancers Alice de Souza Singer, Jelena Ivanovic and Nick Mansfield. The project management is in charge of Prof. J. U. Lensing
J. U. Lensing will present selected examples of the DVD "Modulator", with Surroundsound, during the 23rd Sound Engineers Conference to be held in Leipzig on 5-8 November, 2004. The first practical results will be shown at the FH Dortmund and at the Folkwanghochschule in late January, early February and, later, in mid April. Presentations may also be made at the Fine Arts College in Dresden, the Bremen University and the Music College of Freiburg. It is yet unclear whether there will be any possibilities for a presentation in Düsseldorf.
Nicholas Singer, a camera student in FH Dortmund is currently filming the whole development work and will edit a documentary film in the Spring of 2005.
On the basis of this dance-video-music work, a completely new piece is being scheduled for presentations in Düsseldorf and other sites in Germany to take place in October 2005.
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| Gregorius on the stone |
08.06.2004 |
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is now over |
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We are not only sorry for this, but also for the fact that our theatre activities might be hindered until Summer 2005. We have just learned from the Cultural Office of Düsseldorf City that our subsidy will be further reduced. This means that, should things remain like this, we will only be able to start a new project by the end of 2005 and that it will only be on stage in early 2006. We want to play theatre but decisions like this keep impairing us!
Concerning this issue, we want to make a fundamental request:
Since its foundation in 1987, the Theater-der-Klänge team was receiving a subsidy equivalent to 40,000 German Marks as a support from the City of Düsseldorf. This amount was 30,000 in some years and 50,000 in other. In addition to the above, since 1991, state subsidies have been received for operating costs, as well as donations from other cultural organizations. (Please, see the leaflet). Additionally, also since 1991, the City of Düsseldorf has been providing us with funds for partially covering the cost of renting rehearsal premises. The variations of the above cooperation from the City of Düsseldorf resulted from the advice received by the authorities from the City’s Theatre Council.
When the euro conversion took place, the Theatre-der-Klänge was granted a fixed amount of 40,000 German Marks from the City’s budget, which, in the year 2002, resulted to be equivalent to 20,452 euros. This remained unchanged for several years, which was convenient for planning purposes. Without any compelling reason —except for the savings policy— this subsidy was reduced to 14,322 per year as of 2003. Moreover, we were affected by a reduction of about 5,000 euros in the subsidy from the State.
As a result of those strong reductions, the team was weakened (Megalopolis had 9 actors) and new productions could only be released every two years.
Officially, the City Hall has proudly pointed out that the city’s budget figures have balanced for years and that plans are being made to provide art and culture with further millionaire sums in the future. Considering the aforementioned reductions by which we were affected, these plans appear as doubtful.
The same applies to the cultural policy, as compared with other fields, that is being enforced by the North-Rhine/Westphalia State.
Please, give us a hand by writing to the Mayor of Düsseldorf City or to the Culture Department of Düsseldorf City indicating what you feel about this situation:
Inactivity is not our style. Therefore, our Modulator dance video will be complete by next week and will be burn into a DVD in the coming fall. Three scenes are still to be filmed "on the stone" and they will be run in Greece in early August. In the fall, we will proceed to the assembly, sound design and music recording activities. If everything goes all right, this work will result, on one hand, in the film premiere at a movie cinema in Düsseldorf and, on the other, in the publication of a commercial DVD.
Regarding the "intelligent stage" from "Modulator", in October, we will build the system in our rehearsal facilities for its further development and, at the same time, to perform experimental work on solo dancing. Within the framework of the FH Dortmund’s research work, the basis will be established for a smaller project referred to solo dances that —if the Gods of finance are favourable to us— would be ready for performances to be held in the Spring of 2005. Interested dancers and musicians are asked to get in touch with us in order to get acquainted with the project, without any commitment, rather than going through Auditions.
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| The mecanical ballet in Jena |
19.11.2003 |
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After 80 years the Theater der Klaenge brought the "mechanical ballet" back to the city of the first performance. 1923 created from the former students Kurt Schmidt and Georg Teltscher of the Bauhaus in Weimar was this ballet performed in the - from the architect Walter Gropous - new build theatre of Jena. In the context of the festival "Theater in Motion" the Theater der Klaenge" from Duesseldorf had a guestplay with the reconstruction of the "mechanical ballet" from 1987 in the "Volksbad Jena". While In 1923 the ballet was received with a lot of distance and bad critics in the local press, this time the performance was a big success.
"Cool triumph for geometry - That asks high disciplin in an absolut precise performance of unnatural movements. The group from Duesseldorf is a master of this art. Before the eye of the viewer starts a process of kalaidoskopian variations, based on an astetics on forms and clear colors. One can even understand such an action as a form of art, so as you are there when a big collagist is working in an improvisation process with preformed elements. (...) To see this performance one time is an aboslut must for every in art and culture interested person and will never be forgotten."- Thueringer Landeszeitung
"Exiting festival beginning - Exiting in the true meaning of the word presented the Theater der Klaenge from Duesseldorf its view on this ballet, where the dancers are not to be seen. (...) This play with forms and colours, funny moments and precise movement sequences never made the impression of hard work, which was done by the dancers behind the figurines.(...) An exiting performance, which fitted fantastic in the "alternative" theater of an ancient swimming bath." - Ostthüringer Zeitung |
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| "The choosen" from Thomas Mann |
19.11.2003 |
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For the moment the Theater der Klaenge is working together with the musicgroup ESTAMPIE from Munich on a new music-theatre piece on the base of the book "the choosen" from Thomas Mann. A first work in progress presentation with short extracts from the actuell work will be shown thursday the 4th of december at 8pm in the "Theatermuseum" Duesseldorf.
The evening will be a scenic concert together with the two leading singer from ESTAMPIE in around one hour. Who has seen the successfull collaboration in 1995 to the project "LUDUS DANIELIS" can imagine what the actuell work will look and sound like. New in this project is the integration of live-electronics as developed in the last two productions of our theatre by the composer Thomas Neuhaus. Old music is meeting live-electronic music, together with theater and dance. The final result of this unusual constellation will be presented after easter 2004 in Duesseldorf in form of a new-music-theater production. Until than it must be enough to see and to hear the scenic concert the 4th of december. Ticket-Hotline: ..49-211-899-4660 |
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| Megalopolis Audio-Book |
19.11.2003 |
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In this year we are condammed NOT to be able to develope a new theatre piece. The city of Duesseldorf cutted our subventions about nearly 30% !!! Thanksfull that we get this year extra money from the Foundation "Stiftung Kunst und Kultur NRW". But that will not be enough to compense the lost from the decision of Duesseldorf. For the moment we try to communicate with responsable politicians, also as with administrative responsibles of the city. If there will be no other decision until spring, we don´t have any further hope for this year. But for the moment we hope that there will be a solution...
— But that doesn´t mean that we don´t work any more! But we need help. If you can help us financially, please go to the german site and pres the button "Spenden". You will be taken to a pdf-document which can be printed, so that you can make an international money transfer. As soon we get your money on our account, we will send you a receipt and as a little "thank you" one of our brandnew "MEGALOPOLIS" CD´s.
— For the Frankfurt Book Fair in october 2003 we present a new audio-book (double-CD) "MEGALOPOLIS", including the whole soundtrack of our theaterproduction from 2001. The theaterpiece of 90-minutes duration was shortened to 82 minutes for the CD, but it includes the 10 "Songs" with all the texts in the original-language and of course in our german textversion, spoken by Clemente Fernandez and Kerstin Hoerner, as the sopran-voice from Birgit Wegemann in a composition from Thomas Neuhaus. Directing and music concept: J.U.Lensing
The soundtrack from"MEGALOPOLIS" will also be the base of a film under the same titel. We plan to do a movie on the base of the sound-poems. It will be an extra project, because we will travel to the cities which are theme of the whole project. This "documentary" will be a "Sound-Movie". |
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| Modulator is finished |
01.12.2002 |
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| "Modul|a|t|o|r": This step is also now past. In 14 beautiful performances in Essen, Gent (B), s´Hertogenbosch (NL), Landsberg and Duesseldorf there were around 1600 people looking and hearing aur youngest production. The presse and specially the radio resonance was mostly good up to very good, so was the public response. We liked that a lot of you wrote little letters and e-mails with from time to time very long comments to our piece. In the FFT-Juta, but also in the week after students of the University of applied sciences, the FH-Dortmund/Stg. Film/TV took a video-documentary of that piece. Now will follow Editing and Sounddesign, whre we are involved. Result will be on the one side a dance movie, as on the other side a DVD-Video, which will come out in winter 2003. |
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| Audio-Book "Die Neuberin" is published |
01.05.2002 |
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The CD of the radioplay "Die Neuberin" is finished since april 2002. You can buy this CD including a 28-page booklet from the publisher "HoerZeichen" or online.
The play is about 63 minutes (F.C. Neuber lived 63 years) and contains 10 scenes from the theatreplay, like the whole cantata "Ach wie fluechtig" from Johann Sebastian Bach in the arrangement from J.U.Lensing and Tobias Schlierf. The original cast from the theatre-production - Kerstin Hörner (Neuberin), Clemente Fernandez (Müller, Koch, Schönemann), Francesco Russo (Harlekin) is also the cast for the radioplay. Kai Bettermann (Neuber) and Eva Garg as speaker complete this cast as guests. Directing, Sounddesign and Mixing was in the hands of the director J.U.Lensing. The music is sung by Tobias Schlierf.
The radioplay is neither a conventional spoken word play nor experimental "Acoustic art". It is like a Sound-Movie with the for movies usual mixing of spoken dialog, Voice over, music and sounddesign. |
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| THEATER DER KLÄNGE in India |
01.03.2001 |
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German festival in India |
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From february the 10th until the 27th the Theater der Klaenge toured in India. The german festival in india organized by the german Goethe-Institut invited us. This tour led us with our productions "the mechanical ballet" and "LUDUS DANIELIS" in 6 indian cities. Following this tour we did two workshops. The first one was in the Nrityagram Dance Village near Bangalore. The second one was leaded in the Max Mueller Bhavan in Chennai (Madras) for actors, dancers and martial Arts Performers
Some Press following our tour in India:
The formations though strange and slightly bizarre were eminently likable and the
accompanying music helped in creating the right ambience. (...) The flavour of
the original manuscript from the French monastery of Beauvais is successfully
recreated and the merger of theatre and concert elements keep up a non-verbal
dance-mimic that gets through to the audience.
The Pioneer
One, become suggestive of human figures and it is truly amazing how the forms
begin to assume an idendity through repetitive moments, the actions evoking
humour and emotions too. (...) Costumes were exellent and dance consultant
Nirupama Nityanandan had enabled a simple language of hand gestures and
footwork to narrate the story. The music composition by Muchael Popps
Estampie in ist reminiscence of Gregorian Chant and Middle Eastern Arabian
melodies was brilliantly put together.
The Hindu
It came as an apt and welcome surprise to learn that the Klaenge constitutes not
exclusively a German team, but a truly European body in the spirit of the
European Union. (...) the experiment succeeds, unlike the Indo-German
"Tempest" last year, since KLaenge internalises their Kathak and
Bharatanatyam training, whreas in "Tempest", the Indian forms and performers
came off as decoratively superimposed and separate from the rest of the
production.
The Telegraph
Guess what... this is ballet. So to be seen yesterday in the overcrowded
Kalakshetra Auditorium in Bangalore"
The Times of India
The ingenuity of the concept and its dramatic presentation in a performance
lasting 40 minutes was widely appreciated. (...) The dancing, the music from
Estamoe was brilliant as were the costumes.
The statesman |
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