How do our convictions move—or fail to move—us? In Question of Belief, choreographer Kareth Schaffer examines the relationship between belief and action and all the detours and in-between spaces that may arise in the translation from one to another. The earliest Christian monks had to conquer the very same obstacles that today’s entrepreneurs of the self must face: how to keep going when time stretches out before one like the unchanging desert sand?

 

In the slowly inflating stage landscape of Dan Lancea, at times reminiscent of a snail, a monstrosity, or a limp phallus, dancers Mădălina Dan and Manon Parent launch an unrelenting battle against the very ordinary demons of everyday life. Whether engaged in sugar-powered self-improvement fantasies, smartphone-induced contactless improvisation, or lethargic yawning competitions, Dan and Parent deftly navigate between actionism and sloth, distraction and apathy, procrastination and compassion fatigue: they dance a demonology of the contemporary that is only too recognizable. To the subtle synthesizer rhythms of sound designer Jean P’ark, audience members are privy to a danced odyssey through the more or less productive obsessions of contemporary life.

 

 

Artistic direction, concept, choreography: Kareth Schaffer | Performance, choreography: Mădălina Dan, Manon Parent | Lighting design: Joseph Wegmann, Elliott Cennetoglu | Set design: Dan Lancea | Costume design: Lauren Steel | Sound design, composition: Jean P’ark | Press and public relations: Michael Ludwig Tsouloukidse | Production management: M.i.C.A. – Movement in Contemporary Art 

 

A production by Kareth Schaffer funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and supported by Tanzfabrik Berlin, EDEN Studios, and Uferstudios Berlin. Media partner: taz. die tageszeitung

 

 

 

                    “This choreography is not only cleverly conceived and staged with the perfect means, such as the often eerie synthesizer soundtrack, it is also very funny, occasionally silly and grotesque, and it is honest.

—Frank Schmidt for rbbKultur

 

                    "With [this] work, Kareth Schaffer has created a mirror for the pandemic-ridden society. Without ever oversimplifying, she points out what many probably know about themselves from the past year. Fatigue, anger, and spasmodic self-preoccupation dominate our current time, and it's nice to see that one is not alone”.

—Greta Haberer for Tanznetz