I am [not] Giselle

I am [not] Giselle

i am [not] giselle

"

Premiere03.11.2023, Theater im Pavillon Hannover
artistic direction / choreographyMónica García Vicente
DancersCamilla Matteucci, Laura Garcia Aguilera
cdc-DancersEmma Hesse, Laura Schepers
compositionMaewen Forest
VoiceSimi
dramaturgy Christina Rohwetter
Light Design / ScenographyKristina Schmidt
CostumeLuzie Nehls-Neuhaus
Artistic production managementRat & Tat Kulturbüro
PressHanna Ehlers
Social Media / VideoLaura Nicole Viganó
GraphicMaïté Müller
photography Peter Hoffmann-Schoenborn
Assistant DirectorCarolin Chantal Schaefer
sponsored byLANDESHAUPTSTADT HANNOVER KULTURBÜRO, STIFTUNG NIEDERSACHSEN, Sparkasse Hildesheim Goslar Peine, Stiftung Edelhof Ricklingen – V. J. V. der Osten, Ballettgesellschaft Hannover e.V.

„Giselle is considered a masterpiece of classical ballet. Created in the era of early Romanticism, it is still part of the repertoire today. As in other ballets of the time, the titular female character, with whom the male protagonist, not befitting his station, falls in love, appears as a sexless, virtuous, innocent and dependent being. Admittedly, this image corresponds more to contemporary male fantasies and patriarchal ideals of femininity than to the realities of life for women and dancers in the 19th century.

„I am [not] Giselle“ is a choreographic experiment in search of the real woman in romantic and contemporary ballet. The two dancers embody the complex and contradictory aspects of womanhood and femininity: on, behind and beyond the stage. They explore their own longings and passions and those projected onto them, states of dependence and autonomy, their own bodies as voyeuristic objects of display and subjects of female desire. Choreography, musical composition, costume and scenography create an aesthetic and expressive formal language of self-exploration, not least to give Giselle a stage as a real, complex woman.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMME!

In addition to the performances, there will also be an Open Rehearsal (on 25.10.2023), audience talks following the Premiere (03.11.2023) and Dernière (06.12.2023), as well as Opening Acts before some performances (09./10./12.11.2023):

Audience talk with choreographer and ensemble

On 3 November (premiere) and 6 December 2023 (dernière), the mónica garcía vicente DANCE PROJECT invites all audience members and interested parties to a post-show talk with Mónica García Vicente and her ensemble, to discuss ,,the complex and contradictory aspects of being a woman and of being female” . On, behind and beyond the stage. Duration approx. 30 min.

Opening act by CDC dancers

What is an Opening Act?
Artists performing before the main act.

The idea for the opening act came about through Mónica García Vicente’s Connection Dance Center (CDC). Two dancers from CDC 2023 have the opportunity to create their owninterpretation of the choreographic process of „I am [not] Giselle“ on stage.

What is the CDC?
The CDC is an annual project lasting several months in which young dancers have the chance to gain professional experience in the world of dance under the eye of choreographer Mónica García Vicente.

Cast: Emma Hesse, Laura Schepers.

6:30 p.m. Opening act by CDC dancers
7:00 p.m. Break
7:30 p.m. Main act: I am [not] Giselle

trailer

i scratch at the surface of ballet blanc, removing layer after layer to give real women a stage in their diversity.

i scratch at the surface
of ballet blanc,
removing layer after layer
to give real women
a stage
in their diversity.

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Mónica García Vicente

tanzsichten

We showed a piece from ,,I am [not] Giselle“ at the TanzSichten open-stage format in the Kunsthalle Faust/Hannover Laura was unable to perform on the day due to an injury, so Camilla danced her part “with” the video of the performance projected on the wall.

Mary Frankenstein

Mary Frankenstein

mary frankenstein

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Premiere22nd of October 2022, Theater im Pavillon Hannover
artistic direction / choreographyMónica García Vicente
DancersMalin Bornemann, Maria Chariskou, Kino Luque, Alina Mohr, Emma Luise Möllmann, Daniel Smith
music & compositionMaewen Forest
dramaturgy Christina Rohwetter
costumes Trixxi Theis
lighting designChristoph Lubrich, Helen Berthold, Clemens Römeth
stage elements Gerhard Merkin
assistance Loris Zambon
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENTSophie Thuma
Videomaker / editLaura Nicole Viganó
photography Peter Hoffmann-Schoenborn
sponsored byLANDESHAUPTSTADT HANNOVER KULTURBÜRO, Region Hannover, STIFTUNG NIEDERSACHSEN

The dance performance Mary Frankenstein is an artistic exploration of the multi-layered and contradictory facets of the human and the monstrous. The choreography embarks on a search for an aesthetic and dance language of the monster as the “enclosed excluded” and questions our concepts of normality and order, of humanity and being human, as well as how we deal with the repressed and the alien in ourselves and our society.

The reference point is the author of the Frankenstein novel, Mary Shelley, who in our dance performance Mary Frankenstein merges into one with her two literary creatures, the egomaniacal scientist Viktor Frankenstein and his “monster”.

trailer

i was very touched by the novel “frankenstein” in its complexity and advocacy for the “monster”, also because it gave me a somehow intimate approach to its author mary shelley.

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Mónica García Vicente

remember that i am your creature.
i ought to be your adam,
but i am rather the fallen angel,
whom you drivest from joy for no misdeed.

i was good.
misery made me a monster.
make me happy, and i will again be virtuous.

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EDITED EXCERPT FROM Mary Shelley, Frankenstein*

dance installation

The dance installation with the subtitle „Making Monsters“ shows poetic images of the monstrous and questions its origins and conditions of origin.

Three 12-minute performances were shown simultaneously at three stations in the Kesselhaus/Hannover.

open rehearsal

In the context of TANZtheater INTERNATIONAL festival we gave insights into the current rehearsals for the dance performance “Mary Frankenstein” at the “Audience Whisper” (at Ballhof Eins, Hannover).

Immobilità

Immobilità

immobilità

"

live stream premiere29th of April, 2021, Theaterwerkstatt Hannover
artistic direction / choreographyMónica García Vicente
dancersSimone Deriu, Bettina Paletta, Loris Zambon
dramaturgy Christina Rohwetter
costumes Trixxi Theis
light designRuben Schöls, Clemens Römeth
STAGE ELEMENTS, COLOR CONCEPTGerhard Merkin
VIDEOINSTALLATIONBoubker Moussalli
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENTSophie Thuma
TECHNICAL DIRECTIONChristoph Lubrich
DIRECTION TEAM STREAMINGLeon Meier, Louis Schneider
CAMERA TEAM STREAMINGNico Deppe, Paula Lehrke
photography Dorit Schulze
sponsored byLANDESHAUPTSTADT HANNOVER KULTURBÜRO, NIEDERSÄCHSISCHES MINISTERIUM FÜR WISSENSCHAFT UND KULTUR, STIFTUNG NIEDERSACHSEN, STIFTUNG EDELHOF RICKLINGEN V.J.V. OSTEN

Being restricted – and yet free. Immobile in body – flexible in mind. The artists Jean-Dominique Bauby (writer), Ezio Bosso (composer) and Frida Kahlo (painter) were each physically limited in one way or another and still managed to break out of their immobility with the help of art. With their biographies, their art, and their strength, they provide the inspiration and the starting point for this dance performance.

“Immobilità” shows a collage of impressions and images on the subject of physical limitation and the mobilizing potential of art. The dancers act in a black and white world of thoughts from which they cannot break out. The colours of the video installation, which was developed with the help of aleatoric techniques, offer a colourful ray of hope. An interplay of emotions of inner turmoil and tension is created. The illustration of heaviness and lightness of our imagination.

The uncertain time of the pandemic has also influenced the creation process of the piece. It has made clear, we can feel immobility on an individual, social, on a physical or spiritual level. And yet, we can find joy in life in times of restriction and stasis. The certainty remains, no matter how constricted we feel, our creativity makes it possible for us to be mobile.

Press comment: HAZ – 25.10.2021
(original article in german)

Dance of the people and the letters

Mónica García Vicente has composed a great evening at the Theaterwerkstatt. […] She has cleverly subdivided her production into a series of miniatures instead of offering a grand narrative. At the center of the hour-long dance performance is what Loris Zambon, one of the three dancers, right at the beginning, hoarsely and cautiously asks, both to confront and to come together, in speaking and in dancing: corps et esprit, body and spirit. The title of the evening “Im/Mobilità” gets to the point. It is about how the struggle of the body can look like when the head wants to force it to return to life. […]

Vicente presents her audience with an enchanting poetics of suffering and the desire to live. […] This is what this touching evening tells us about, about loss of meaning and the efforts to find it again. by Frank Kurzhals

Press comment on the video stream: HAZ – 30.09.2021
(original article in german)

[…] Immobilità is ambitious dance theater. It sparkles with inventiveness and dynamism.

And: Choreographer Mónica García Vicente […] has been able to engage excellent dancers. With Simone Deriu, Loris Zambon and Bettina Paletta an experienced and technically highly skilled trio creates the evening. […] by Kerstin Hergt

trailer

IMMOBILITÀ is a collage inspired by the biographies, vitality, strength and works of the artists frida kahlo, ezio bosso and jean-dominique bauby. i am fascinated by the ability to move and travel that these three artists had through their art without limits and restrictions, in contrast to their immobile bodies. in the word immobilità we find move and no-move. i choose these topics because i want it to speak about a duality from flow and restriction, and where do they come from? from our body or from our mind. we are living in a historical moment where our mobility is restricted but our creativity gives us the possibility to continuously be in flow.

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Mónica García Vicente

rehearsals

trailer from rehearsals

Forma

Forma

forma

"

premiere5th of september, 2020, Theaterwerkstatt Hannover
artistic direction / choreographyMónica García Vicente
dancersBettina Paletta, Denis Piza, Laura Nicole Viganó, Loris Zambon
musicMark Polscher
dramaturgy Christina Rohwetter
costumes Trixxi Theis
photography Dorit Schulze
light designChristoph Lubrich
sponsored byLandeshauptstadt Hannover Kulturbüro, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Region Hannover, Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover Stiftung

_on the tracks of mary wigman

With “FORMA” we explore the liberating potential inherent in dance as an art form in the 21st century. Choreography, dramaturgy and musical composition are based on Mary Wigman’s concept of the body that has become an instrument and a mirror of the inner emotional experience.

In “FORMA” Mary Wigman’s artistic concept is updated and expanded. Starting from the self-bodily exploration of the basic emotions fear, anger, joy, sadness and shame – with creative media such as spontaneous writing and painting in different places – ways of liberating the body from domestication and reification to living movement and encounter are sought.

Press comment: HAZ – 07.09.2020 (original article in german)

“Mónica García Vicente moves her four excellent dancers in the footsteps of a legend: Mary Wigman […] great details about a world that seems so much in motion that many lose their footing. […]

The entire team succeeds in Forma surprising and convincing images.” by Thomas Kaestle

trailer

forma means to me: vessel of feelings. and so FORMA is primarily about the emotional quality of movement and body expression, and less about dance virtuosity.

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Mónica García Vicente

Move a performance

Move a performance

move a performance

"

Premiere8th of november, 2019, within the framework Of FrauenORTE in Bewegung, Lister Turm Hannover
artistic direction / choreographyMónica García Vicente
dancersEleanor Freeman, Lauren Anne Murray, Bettina Paletta, Loris Zambon
live musicEmre Kesim
photography Peter Hoffmann-Schoenborn
sponsored byLandeshauptstadt Hannover Kulturbüro, Stiftung Edelhof Ricklingen V.J.V. Osten

Three soloists, three choreographies, three spaces… and one composition. The theme: female creativity in art, politics and science. The place: three rooms in the Lister Turm, on different levels of the building, in which the three eight-minute solo performances are shown simultaneously. The audience moves from room to room, from level to level, and becomes, as it were, part of the overall performance. The choreography becomes a mediating instance between performers and audience, which is challenged to position itself again and again and to look for perspectives beyond the traditional view of a stage dance.

The viewers of the video “Move a Performance” can track down this aesthetic experience of the diversity of perspectives in the various body images and intersections and perhaps even empathize with them.

video

move a performance: movement, music and space in polylogue

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