MEMORY IS FRAGILE GARBAGE LASTS FOREVER INDEX CONSTANZA MACRAS |DORKYPARK SHOWS OPEN FOR EVERYTHING HERE/AFTER ELSEWHERE THE OFFSIDE RULES MEGALOPOLIS OEDIPUS REX HELL ON EARTH BRICKLAND I´M NOT THE ONLY ONE SURE, SHALL WE TALK ABOUT IT? NO WONDER BIG IN BOMBAY BACK TO THE PRESENT UPCOMING PIECES PIECES FOR TOURING TOURING CONTACT CONSTANZA MACRAS

Constanza Macras was born in , , where she In 2008 Constanza Macras received the GOETHE-INSTITUT Award for an outstanding German studied and fashion design, at the Buenos Aires University production for her piece Hell On Earth. (UBA). She continued her dance studies in and New York (Merce Cunningham Studios). In 1995, Macras moved to Berlin and In 2010 she was awarded with the Arts at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) William danced for various companies. In 1997, she founded her own first L. Abramowitz Residency. Since 1961, the series has brought renowned performing artists and company TAMAGOTCHI Y2K. writers to MIT to perform, present public lectures, and collaborate with students in free Between 1998 and 2000, TAMAGOTCHI Y2K presented four pieces: programs. Wild Switzerland (1998), Face One (1999), In Between (2000) and Dolce Vita (2000), a site-specific live music performance that com- In the same year Constanza Macras was awarded the national German theater-prize DER FAUST bined artists from various disciplines. It was created as a one-time for best for the piece Megalopolis. event for each specific location. Next to her productions with her company Constanza Macras | DorkyPark, Constanza Macras From 2001 to 2002, Macras developed and presented the trilogy MIR: has also created: A Love Story. In 2002, she also curated the project ‘PORNOsotros’, where she per- - Paraíso sem Concolação (2008) a commission work of the GOETHE-INSTITUT São Paulo with formed together with Lisi Estaras ( C. de la B.) under the direc- dancers from the company and a Brazilian cast. Premiered in São Paulo. tion of different directors four short pieces dealing with the subject of - Ein Sommernachtstraum (2006) together with Thomas Ostermeier, the Schaubühne ensemble pornography at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin . and dancers from Constanza Macras | DorkyPark. Premiered at the Hellenic Festival. She taught workshops and master classes in Japan, the United States - Pegarle a la Bolsa (2004) a commission from the GOETHE-INSTITUT Cordoba (Argentina). (Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, ‘On the Boards’ in Seattle, India - Happiness (2003) for the of the Saarländisches Staatstheater. Atakalari Dance Center), , Italy (Rome University for Perform- ing Arts), Belgium (Antwerp University), the (Henny Jurriëns Foundation), Switzerland and (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ Berlin and at the University of Arts UdK Berlin). CONSTANZA MACRAS | DORKYPARK

In 2003 Constanza Macras | DorkyPark was created by Constanza Macras and dramaturge Carmen Mehnert. The company integrates dancers, actors and musicians with performers that range from 4 to 72 years old, combining text, live music, dance and video.

Constanza Macras | DorkyPark has toured in Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, South Africa, The United States of America and has been invited to various European venues and festivals like Festival d’Avignon in France and Aarhus Festival in Denmark. The company and its productions are supported by Capital Cultural Fund and the Govern- ing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs and the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Furthermore, the company works regularly with HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden and Berlin based venues such as Hebbel am Ufer and Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz.

Constanza Macras and her company have been supported by and collaborating with the GOETHE-INSTITUT since 2005. Photo: Constanza Macras OPEN FOR EVERYTHING Photo: Thomas Aurin OPEN FOR EVERYTHING is a travel through the stagnation of Roma communities in Europe to “In the show’s programme, Macras whom chances to work like any other citizen are rather low, where itinerant traditions have been claims to hate the “theatre of commis- replaced by sedentary life beside the uprootedness of the group of dancers that move around the eration”, and she manages to tread the world following working opportunities. fine line between being deeply moved and falling into commiseration without Since 2010 Macras has been researching the different ways of life, dance styles and music of the ever stepping over it. Her two years of Roma in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the course of this work she has brought research have resulted in an evening full together a large ensemble comprising Roma musicians and performers, amateurs of different of lust for life and music, a Roma revue ages, and dancers from her company DorkyPark to perform in her new show Open for Everything. that nonetheless refers to poverty and It is with great aplomb that these very different people recount their lives and their dreams, their dearth of opportunity in powerful images despair and their passions. This journey uses music and dance to lead us through the lives of the and with a sense of self-irony.” European Roma of today, seizing upon, playing with, and depicting with humour the prejudices, Wiener Zeitung, May 2012 clichés, misunderstandings, similarities, traditions, discrimination, poverty and violence. Who is making use of whose prejudices? And just who are the true nomads of the 21st century? “A disparate, non-folkloristic picture of life emerges, one that is full of difficulty The production was created by Constanza Macras in cooperation with 18 Roma musicians, and yet life-affirming. Macras looks at dancers and amateurs of different ages from Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and her subject head on – she doesn’t want with six performers from the dance company CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark who come from victim art or romanticising, what she Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the Czech Republic and South-Korea. wants is for all performers on the stage to be equal, and this she achieves.” dradio Kultur, May 2012 A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and the GOETHE-INSTITUT. In co-production with Wiener Festwochen, New Stage of National Theatre Prague, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts Budapest, Interna- tional Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, Dansens Hus Stockholm and Zürcher Theater Spektakel. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs and the Open Society Foundations- with contribution of the Arts and Culture Program of Budapest. HERE/AFTER

Agoraphobia is the fear of certain, especially public and vast spaces, as well as of masses of “Agoraphobia is a rather healthy people. In the Western world agoraphobia is actually the phobia that is diagnosed most often. response to a rather unhealthy It causes panic attacks, in many cases people no longer dare to go out of their homes. environment, says Macras, and her Although medicine has a tendency to consider it as a psychological, even physiological defect performers confirm that with charm of the individual some critical studies point out to a necessity to look for the reasons for this and crackling persuasiveness.” illness in the nature and in the circumstances of the space itself – meaning to analyse the city Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 2011 as a possible cause. In HERE/AFTER Constanza Macras along with four performers and one musician seeks to find “For Macras, Here/After is a down- out more about this clinical pattern with all its peculiarities like hyperventilation, panic attacks, right concentrated work. Instead of dizziness and disorientation. Does everyday life in a metropolis pose a threat to the people? fraying the scenes into a whirlwind Are panic attacks in a shopping mall not a natural human form of defense, and why do they of multiple parallel actions, like in have to be treated in a therapy? This play explores the relation between anonymity and growing “Megalopolis”, most of the images and isolation, of the individual and urban life, of public spaces and their pathological manifestations. situations are quite clearly We will see flats with nightmarish narrowness, we will encounter two women who live together structured.” and who come up with all kinds of excuses to convince one another not having to leave home www.tanznetz.de, December 2011 anymore. There will be a lonely musician whose only dream to become a rockstar ends with his terrible fear of big gatherings of people; a foreigner who never speaks; and a delivery man who is the only link between these people and the dreaded “outside”. Never before has it been so easy to be “by oneself” in a society which makes a confrontation with the “outside” avoidable through the sheer endless possibilities of communicating via the internet, chatrooms and delivery services. And actually what is it out there that one absolutely has to experience live? A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and HAU Berlin. Funded by Hauptstadt- kulturfonds and the Regierenden Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle

Angelegenheiten. Aurin Thomas Photo: Special Thanks to: BERLIN ELSEWHERE

Photo: Thomas Aurin In BERLIN ELSEWHERE strangers meet at a place of mental captivity. They’re suffering from com- „’Berlin Elsewhere’ has everything that mon social maladies, neurosis, bipolarity, fetishism, and fetishism of commodities. A place that is a good theater play needs: esprit and somewhere between exclusion, madness, and struggle. Madness and segregation are presented drama, irony and profound significance.“ as a consequence of one another and mirroring factors. Segregation is a form of madness and Berliner Morgenpost, April 2011 madness promotes segregation. What kind of Madness does our society permit before someone is confined? What is confinement in the era of medication? Our society still shares the assumption “So far no one has linked the marks of with the classic era that the loss of civil rights are akin to madness, immigration, and poverty. eastern Germany with Amsterdam, Sin- There is a strong parallel in the random questions that are posed in the evaluation of a patient on gapore, Tokyo and Curitiba, as confident the verge of being sectioned as »mad« and those posed to an immigrant applying for residency in as the Argentinean Constanza Macras the EU after marrying a European partner. The daily mechanisms of exclusion start in childhood who lives in Berlin. And obviously no and are an expression of the society we live in. As one character says: »You can’t just do yoga all one is capable right now of such secure the time, you need to greet the doorman once in a while«. Interdependencies between poverty, intuition like this choreographer, who is madness and civil rights have not changed for centuries, it seems. The city of Berlin is the perfect curious and strong in statements.“ example of a »locked up« and »excluded« city, where segregation, madness, and confinement Neues Deutschland, April 2011 have historically played a strong role: Unemployed people from the new federal states who were unable to get a foot in the door in the years following reunification; Immigrants who studied in “Berlin Elsewhere sugessts that the East Berlin and were able to live in the city legally but lost their civil rights with the fall of the prototype city is somewhere else. The Wall, were stranded without the option to return to »their« countries. Passengers par excellence, girl from Korea, who dreams of Korean like the medieval ships of fools, whose passengers did not fit the fixed social norms and were becoming a universal language, the abandoned to the endless waters. Who can tell for certain who was on board of those ships? Brasilian man who has escaped the We’re left with the uneasy presentiment that a long lost ship might one day return, or that such favelas with dance, the destitute woman ships might again be created, clandestinely, and set off anew, again and again. As a consolation from the ex-GDR, who wishes that she we will always have the BBC to show that it is much worse somewhere else. The madness can could turn back time, none of them are begin, in BERLIN ELSEWHERE. interpreters anymore, but fragments of a A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz contstantly changing world. Sometimes Berlin and in co-production with HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, Maison desperate, sometimes hopeful.“ des Arts de Créteil, the Perspectives Festival Saarbrücken and tanzhaus nrw. Supported by the Hystrio, January 2012 Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs THE OFFSIDE RULES

In this special collaboration, three performers from Constanza Macras’ company will team up “The Presentation is compelling and with dancers from Johannesburg to reflect on the first African World Cup. unusual. There are parts you might not Macras sees Johannesburg as the country’s premier urban landscape, representing the space like. There are parts that will confuse where the evolving story of the new South Africa is most fully played out. The city is represen- you. But what is undoubtedly the tational of both the Utopian dreams of the reconciled Rainbow Nation and the dystopia of an delight in this work is the unexpected urban space under siege. Typical of such a growing metropolis is that an integral part of urban clash of imagery, the excitement of society can be seen in the divide between the anxious rich and the desperately poor. Patterns “what’s going on now?” that keeps you of differentiation reinforce structural inequalities deeply integrated in the cityscape – but also watching.” reflect an emergent spatial logic governing the organisation of the uses and meaning of the Times LIVE South-Africa, May 2010 urban space after apartheid. The piece looks at the meeting of characters promoted by the public transport system and the “These are the “Offside Rules” – rules role of football in politics and economy. It is not the first time that a soccer World Cup is taking that are far offside the wide streets place in a socially or politically charged environment, where it could play a role in covering, ac- for those who want to fit in with the celerating or confronting the actual situations in the country. Another example is the 1978 World social norm. Here, dance develops a Cup in Argentina where Macras was born. Will the euphoria of the event reconcile differences? strong sense of its own political force Or will it accentuate existing conflicts? How accessible are its benefits to everybody? beyond complaints about petty griev- ances. And when all of the dancers These are the questions at the heart of The Offside Rules, which forms part of the ‘Football drum that powerful rhythm together, Meets Culture’ programme being promoted by the Goethe Institute, the German Embassy and one simply cannot escape their fierce their partners. energy as they assert themselves.” Badische Zeitung, February 2011

A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark, the Market Theatre Johannesburg and the

GOETHE-INSTITUT South Africa. Theatre Johannesburg Photo: Market Photo: Thomas Aurin MEGALOPOLIS

MEGALOPOLIS is not a specific, but a metaphorical place. The scene is the city under the impact ““Having many dancers with diverse of globalism. The city is characterized by the illegibility of today’s megacities, born into chaos. Its ethnic backgrounds, the show by Dorky features are unbridled growth, decay and endless disbandment. The city’s density and tightness Park also presents an interesting over- dissolve the borderline between private and public sphere, it almost disappears. At the same time, view of the stereotypes and clichés of this boundlessness forces us to perceive the city as collage which consists of countless bio- ethnic minorities. (...) graphical scraps. The fight of two street vendors for the best spot is an existential confrontation The Korean Herald, October 2011 today – but will be forgotten tomorrow. Megacities are a paradigm for spaces in which people live without knowing each other. The ever present surveillance system not only constantly creates su- „With „Megalopolis“ the choreogra- pervised beings; it also produces a new form of self-perception. Thus, a person’s body transforms pher strikes out to her global coup and into an expressive device that creates as well as destroys systems and rules. Which correlations her “DorkyPark” – performer are the are still valid here? Will the urban development follow principles unknown to us? Is the discern- perfect instrument for it. As fast as able decay of social relations a cause or an effect of our city’s apparent deterioration? they change trousers, shirts and high MEGALOPOLIS is a promise and a curse. heels, they modify the colors of their MEGALOPOLIS is a beaming city. figures.” MEGALOPOLIS is an uncontrollable construct, constantly in motion. Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 2010 Constanza Macras was awarded with the German national theater-award DER FAUST for best „Between the athletic, dynamic choreography for MEGALOPOLIS in November 2010. pictures of the ensemble Constanza Macras choreographs solo scenes full of melancholy, depression and rebel- lion. (…) Constanza Macras doesn’t want to teach the audience a lesson, A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, in co- but what she has to say, she communi- production with HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden and MESS Sarajevo. cates precisely and impressively with Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for humor and sensuality.” Cultural Affairs. Märkische Oderzeitung, January 2010 OEDIPUS REX

Around 400 B.C. Sophocles created a stage play based on the ancient Myth of Oedipus tyrannous. “(…)One visual exclamation mark after 2400 years later this play is still relevant. Not at least inspired by Freud and his work on Oedipus, another was once again supplied by along with the ideas of Modernity, Igor Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau created their own version the choreographer Constanza Macras’ of the myth in Paris in 1926. dance ensemble DorkyPark, who The forlorn, fallen and hollowed out industrial set design parallels the archaism of OEDIPUS REX have already performed in Dresden as witness to a past epoch. Constanza Macras designs tableaux vivants in her choreography that numerous times. Beneath a tangled-up Aurin Thomas Photo: are inspired by the photographic hyperrealism of Gregory Crewdson and the staged photographs stage design by Chiharu Shiota, from of Jeff Walls. which items of furniture on ropes were The protagonist Oedipus is embodied by different performers, both male and female, in different gradually dropped, the piece deals with scenes, which amplifies the disassociation of OEDIPUS REX. OEDIPUS REX, consciously con- incest, betrayal, prophecy and conflict.” ceived by Cocteau and Stravinsky as musical theater beyond the confines of opera, is predestined Sächsische Zeitung, November 2009 to examine new forms of presentation in new places. At the same time, Macras’ production has been a premiere: none other than Hans Magnus Enzensberger specifically for this performance “One can however certainly congratu- translated the narrator’s lines. late the Hellerau team on this pilot The stage design is created by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota with whom Constanza Macras production: the dancers have a brilliant also collaborated in the project IN SILENCE at the Kanagawa Art Foundation Yokohama in 2008. presence, strong and tender, even moving, for example, in one moment of great vision, when they carry each other and suffer each other so delightfully.” tanznetz.de, November 2009 A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden and Dresdner Philharmonie. In co-production with Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Théâtre de la Place Liège. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs. HELL ON EARTH

The district of Neukölln houses more migrants than natives and is one of Berlin’s trouble “(…) Constanza Macras’ new dance hotspots. For years, the social problems have been suppressed and concealed. However, the riots piece “Hell on Earth” in Berlin’s HAU in the suburbs of Paris in 2005 have also drawn attention to troubled neighborhoods in Berlin, Theater is full of scenes in which cli- such as Neukölln. chés about immigrants and their strong Based on her experiences with the young dancers in the production SCRATCH NEUKÖLLN at ideas of gender roles are simultane- HAU1 Berlin in 2003, Constanza Macras offers the now teenagers of Neukölln another stage ously exhibited with aplomb, brought in HELL ON EARTH. They tell from their live experiences, not from a children’s perspective, but to their logical conclusion, and then rather from a young adult’s point of view: of hopes and troubles becoming adults. recoded – all so laid-back and free from Of daily endured discrimination. Of the wish to adapt. Of the problems accompanying that wish. pedagogical twitches so that the only Of particular interest is the development of a gender identity in this production, one of the main thing remaining from everything that points in adolescence. It especially focuses on the evolvement of young women since they have makes life difficult between cultures to face more limits than their male counterparts. An additional theme is the interference of and in the lower margins of society is female and male concepts of the body and of gender. joyfully exploited material. (…) And Thus, the question is: How do adolescent teenagers with an immigrant background cope with the exactly as the people onstage piece multilayered feeling of foreignness. HELL ON EARTH therefore affords them room to thrive and together their sense of self and self- present themselves an option they are often deprived of. dramatization from many cultures, so too are Macras’ elements of style a mix of pop culture, smatterings of theory, choreographed scenes and moments of real feeling. The ravishing evening is a hybrid beyond the German purity law.” Süddeutsche Zeitung, April, 2008 A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and HAU Berlin. In co-production with Kampnagel Hamburg. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin

– Department for Cultural Affairs Aurin Thomas Photo: BRICKLAND

The journey is finished, it is time to settle down, to find a place where to plant a tree and build a “Constanza Macras’ choreographies house. A piece of land surrounded by security cameras isolated from the violence of the city. unpredictable powers are at work. Right at the beginning of Brickland there is a The new setting is the eponymous BRICKLAND. Named after a vacant residential development in powerful ensemble scene, nine muscular Buenos Aires, birth place of Constanza Macras we see this venue not as a concrete location, but bodies collapse rhythmically, their arms rather as a symbol for many other cities in the globalized world that are, in essence, interchange- stretched to the sky, their hands folded able: gated communities as we know them from the United States, South America, India or China. as if in prayer. (...) The sound of angels Similar to Atom Egoyan’s film The Adjuster (Canada, 1991), in which an insurance agent named sighing and in this brash performance we Noah visits refugees in a boat-like motel, these cities are not a home, but rather a hopeless ref- see a heretical rite for our post-religious uge. BRICKLAND oscillates between the impression of wretchedness and desperate attempts at epoch, and above all shines in bright the idyll; it can and should be understood as a metaphor for the increasing “ghettoization” of our letters: “Fog of Confusion”. This preludes world and the rapid increase in urban slums, in which sayings like “there’s no place like home” the evening: It is about nothing less than are sheer derision or nothing more than vacuous platitudes. In these places, you can only travel mankind’s futile search for a place in the virtually, similar to the journeys you can do in Second Life but physically nobody leaves. universe, a place in history and an aim in life.” – Die Zeit, December 2007 BRICKLAND is a facade that conceals chaos, despair, social isolation, madness and bourgeois ennui. “With jumps and dislocated movements, the bodies shrink back and expand into the space. Macras’ visual language is full of power, full of vitality and strength. The dance is energetic, partners form duets Photo: Thomas Aurin that are affected by the force they evoke, A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin in with their arms cutting through the air co-production with DuoDijon, Kampnagel Hamburg, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara and Théâtre de and legs lifting up and falling down with la Place, Liège. a crash on the floor. (...), her dancers rise Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, and fall in an almost brutal way.” Forschung und Kultur. El Espectador, Colombia March 2010 I´M NOT THE ONLY ONE

What drives one to leave one’s homeland, and what is a homeland? Is it one’s family? Animals? „Macras understands embarrassment Is it the smell, the food, the air? Is it the exhaust? The contradictions of our childhood that the to be genuine pain and trashes stale folklore of today is made of? rules (line separation, for example) These questions are dealt with in mythology and target group analyses alike. Constanza Macras in her new piece. Yes, drama doesn’t and her international ensemble approach these and many other themes, these inner and outward happen any more, as we know from trips, in their production I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE. As always with their works, at issue are the theater. (…) Part of Constanza Macras’ consequences that result when various cultures clash; we assimilate and integrate everything, success story is that, together with but how much do we really understand? her dramaturge Carmen Mehnert, she I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE develops a piece of fiction that takes the actors’ various motivations beads together all things lapidary from for departure as a starting point. Like the heroes in fairy tales and myths, they are subject to her neo-musical with as much precision a transformation, each in his own individual way. In this way, myth and reality, archetypes and as any soap opera – indeed so much autobiography mix. And again and again we are faced with the question: what and where was that she can deliver a sequel.” home anyway? Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 2007 Aurin Thomas Photo: I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE consists of two parts shown on two different evenings, each part with a different cast. “Constanza Macras has succeeded in Both may be viewed on their own. producing a very personal work that creates its power through the autobio- graphical experiences of the dancers. (…) These stories of foreigners; so deeply sad and desperately funny.” Der Tagesspiegel, January 2009 A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin. In co-production with the Schauspielhaus Vienna, Theater Chur, Fondazione Musica per Roma and Duo Dijon. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs. SURE, SHALL WE TALK ABOUT IT?

SURE – SHALL WE TALK ABOUT IT? is a piece about the expectations put over “Feminine energy and self-irony, as the female body related to fitness, wellness and brands performed by 11 female well as women’s ability to look in each dancers from different countries accompanied by three musicians. other’s eyes regardless of competi- tion. “Sure – shall we talk about it” The value of a thing is as much as it will bring a commodity appears a very is a successful piece which widely trivial thing. But it is certain, in reality, a very queer thing. It is clear as noon- expresses the inborn irony of Argentin- day. That man by his industry changes the form of the materials furnished by ean choreographer Constanza Macras. nature in such a way as to make them useful to him. This exploding artist is currently one The form of wood, for instance, is altered by making a table out of it value of the most intriguing choreographers necessarily implies exchange riches do not. on the dance scene in Berlin and all over Europe. Macras’ skill in structur- A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark. Supported by NIKE. ing pieces is apparent in the striking rhythm of “Sure” and in its perfectly appropriate timing. Her dance theatre is focusing both on dramaturgy and on a generous breath of choreography. Movement is finally back. There is something to learn from this Argen- tinean artist, she is showing us that can have rhythm Photo: Sara Montali and be fun.” Il Manifesto, October 2005 NO WONDER

NO WONDER marks the second collaboration of Argentinians Constanza Macras and Lisi Estaras “In her piece “No Wonder”, Macras per- who research in the piece the gender roles in the superlative from the 70s till today. Four per- forms a self-examination and pushes sons by themselves crashed and stranded in an undefined environment. Is this the garden they it to the limits: a pitiless and stark exposure of herself.” have been looking for? Now, the transformation begins: into heroines, into superheroes. And Die Zeit, October 2006 with it comes the fear and the deconstruction of their innermost. What makes an ordinary woman turn into a superhero? “Constanza Macras is the fury of the Photo: Paul Keller What are the significant parameters for this transformation? Devotion? Emotionality? Intuition? contemporary dance scene. (…) The Poetry? Or is it the highest form of omnipotency, the suicide? This is how true heroines look like: piece deals with a woman as such, with her enigma and the eroticization of her They are vulnerable, angry, desperate and on the verge of breakdown. On their search for identity body, her desire to be an object, the through the small everyday occurrences they hear God talking on the radio. artificiality of gender constructions. But how does one use this knowledge if carnival always takes place at the same time, whether At issue is also how one can fall to one likes it or not. shambles with the roles that demand these constructions.” Berliner Zeitung, August 2005 “With Macras, bodies take what they want. (…) For them, there exist only vehemence, excess, the orgiastic, burn-out, and this strange dream of paradise.” Ballettworks, September 2005 A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | Dorky Park with HAU Berlin and Théâtre Le Maillon Strasbourg. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs BIG IN BOMBAY Photo: Paul Keller A waiting room which at first sight looks like any waiting room somewhere in “In using scenarios of terror such as the world. People are hanging around, waiting and killing time. Each of them those, the Argentinean choreographer shares this time of waiting with total strangers. An eclectic mix of pop music, presently most in demand, Constanza political slogans, delusion of consumption, Bollywood-choreographies and tele- Macras, puts an end to the culture of novelas unleashes in the tradition of Bollywood. joy. In doing so, she managed to create All you discover here as brand-new is already established in other parts of a highly amusing and clear sighted the world. Slogans like „no pasarán“ only decorate Che-Guevara-T-Shirts, their collage, dealing with the global spirit of meaning got completely lost. Though all persons are in one room, they seem to the age, covering all its cynicism.” exist in different places all over the world. Wiener Zeitung, March 2005 Maybe everything is just the result of individual imagination. Here starts the paranoia. Their respective worlds clasp around them, keep them imprisoned in “(...) Defiant, even amused, she their anxiety state, in their mental leaps and guilty consciences. Why is nothing [Constanza Macras] is targeting the happening to me while everything in the world around me goes wrong? Disney subculture and terrorism, Time accelerates or stands already still. Everybody tries desperately to stand subconsciously with a loving humanism. out from the crowd, to flee from his own reality and cultural identity. The rhythmic science of the show and We appropriate contexts, identities and images to find out that finally every- the urban chaos how the choreographer body is doing the same. Everybody knew everything right from the start, and operates it is breathtaking.” haven’t we met somewhere before? Le Monde, November 2006

A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin and spielzeiteuropa /Berliner Festspiele. In co-production with sophiensaele Berlin, Schauspielhaus Vienna and Teatro Comunale di Ferrara. Funded by Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur. Kindly supported by GOETHE-INSTITUT Max Müller Bhavan Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi and Madras. BACK TO THE PRESENT

With her site-specific performance BACK TO THE PRESENT, which was performed in June and “What distinguishes “Back to the September 2003 in a former department store in the centre of Berlin, Constanza Macras goes for Present,” apart from a particularly a journey into the Past. Memory as looped feedback. Live-performances, dance, music and videos personable, sexy cast, is the manic form a space installation, wherein the audience moves around. There was also a tea-salon run by good humor of the entire enterprise. the ladies from the Ground Control and a bar hidden somewhere in the labyrinth of abandoned (...) No wonder it’s been so popular (deserted) rooms. Where do you go when you don’t want to deal with the past or the future? at home. And here, as well: Dance The performers of BACK TO THE PRESENT find themselves in a common space; a casting for a re- Theater Workshop was packed on ality show like Big Brother, Survivor or Miss right. These shows are constantly recreated around Thursday, and erupted with cheers.” the world sometimes with different names and they all have in common that they only exist in the The New York Times, September 2006 present, in the flatness of everyday little struggles. In the end, every mission - ancient Rome, old relationships, the space station MIR - ends in garbage, ruin, and debris. Often, the debris lasts “Dance la vie, dance” (...) These far longer than the original project. There is garbage orbiting the earth from 35 years ago, from a adults who have not grown out of mission that lasted a day. Getting back to the present means living on top of layers of yesterday‘s their infancy yet, but are entangled throwaways, or underneath them, or between them. BACK TO THE PRESENT: How do you recycle in funny or pseudo-dramatic situa- the stuff that never decomposes, like love letters, flags, old props, old ideas? As history becomes tions, get wild on stage and bring it increasingly digital, what is the difference between storage and memory? Can you use memory - to life. This corresponds absolutely to with all of its faults and imprecision - to make life experiences richer, rather than poorer? Macras’ concept: she likes to show BACK TO THE PRESENT lives in a sort of limbo between the layers of its own history. Like the the real, the living rather than the MIR itself, like the sweet life itself, it will be leaving behind medals, uniforms and costumes, old performance, the show. props and programs, video recordings, broken and useless pieces of the set. Extend this further, Life brings up more emotions than the debris of past self destructive relationships: Torn cinema tickets, old phone numbers, love banal imagination.” letters, cards from Valentine’s Day. All of these build the ruins that are the context and physical Bien Public, December 2006 setting for BACK TO THE PRESENT. A production by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DorkyPark and Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin.

In co-production with sophiensæle Berlin, Lille 2004 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas and Maison Thurn Aurel Photo: des Arts de Créteil. Photo: Manuel Osterholt UPCOMING PIECES BRANCHES: THE NATURE OF CRISIS –site-specific (2012) In the forests of north Wales. BRANCHES: THE NATURE OF CRISIS will explore the mythological and contemporary drive towards transformation through a simultaneous event in the forest and the city centre.

A production with the National Theater of Wales in partnership with the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. PIECES FOR TOURING

OPEN FOR EVERYTHING OEDIPUS REX NO WONDER 2012. Wiener Festwochen 2009. Festspielhaus Hellerau Dresden 2005. Hebbel Am Ufer Berlin, 24 performers, 9 staff 16 performers, 11 staff Tanz im August Minimum stage: 15m x 15m Choir (min. 28 persons), orchestra 4 performers, 5 staff and 8 local Minimum stage: 15m x 15m male extras. HERE/AFTER Minimum Stage 10 x 15m 2011. Hebbel Am Ufer Berlin HELL ON EARTH 5 performer, 7 staff 2008. Hebbel Am Ufer Berlin HAU1 BIG IN BOMBAY Minimum stage: 10x15m 11 performers, 10 kids, 9 staff 2005. Schaubühne am Lehniner

Photo: Constanza Macras Minimum stage 10m x 15m Platz Berlin, BERLIN ELSEWHERE spielzeiteuropa - 2011. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin BRICKLAND Berliner Festspiele 10 performers, 2 musicians, 8 staff 2007. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin 14 performers, 7 staff Minimum stage: 20m x 15m 12 performers, 7 staff Minimum Stage 15 x 15m Minimum stage: 20m x 15m THE OFFSIDE RULES BACK TO THE PRESENT 2010. Market Theatre Johannesburg I´M NOT THE ONLY ONE 2004. Schaubühne am Lehniner 9 performers, 6 staff 2006. Volksbühne im Prater Berlin Platz Berlin Minimum stage 16m x 13m Part 1: 7 Performers, 5 staff 12 performers, 6 staff Part 2: 8 performers, 5 staff. 1 local person Minimum Stage 11 x 11m MEGALOPOLIS Minimum stage 14m x 7m 2010. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin Note: venue has to provide living flies. UPCOMING PIECES 13 performers, 9 staff Minimum stage 20m x 15m SURE, SHALL WE TALK ABOUT IT? 2005 Hebbel am Ufer. Supported by Nike 14 performers, 5 staff Minimum Stage 18 x 14m CONTACT TOUR DATES SUPPORTED BY CONSTANZA MACRAS | DORKYPARK GMBH Klosterstr. 44, 10179 Berlin Fon +49 30 280 424 20 Fax +49 30 280 476 74 www.dorkypark.org [email protected] ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PERFORMERS & COLLABORATORS CONSTANZA MACRAS Almut Lustig, Aminata Oelßner, Anna De Carlo, Ana Mondini, Alexa Gräfe, Alissa Kolbusch, Angela [email protected] Schubot, Anouk Froidevaux, Arik Hayut, Assem El-Moustapha, Athena Mazarakis, Bruno Renne, Carmen Mehnert, Chiharu Shiota, Christel Friedrich, Claus Erbskorn, Claudia Catarzi, Christian PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Buck, Constanze Hoffmann, Damir Zisko, Denis Kuhnert, Diane Busutti, Dikeledi Modubu, Di- KATHARINA WALLISCH onisos Tsantinis, Domenick Mashishi, Elik Niv, Fatma El-Moustapha, Fernanda Farah, Florencia [email protected] Lamarca, Franz Rogowski, Fritz Feilhaber, Gail Sharrol Skrela, Gilvan Coéhlo de Oliveira, Hansel Nezza, Hilde Elbers, Hiltrud Ellert, Hiromi Iwasa, Hyoung-Min Kim, Hyun-Jung Wang, Ingeborg Ide, PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE Janina Schmidt, Jared Gardinger, Jill Emerson, Joanne Stone, Johanna Lemke, John Sithole, SOPHIA ROMA WEYRINGER Jonas Kilian, Jonathan Trinh-Bomme, Joris Camelin, Jörg Bittner, Josephine Reinisch, Julia Weis, [email protected] Juliette Collas, Kai Ingo Rudolph, Katharina Wallisch, Kevin Slavin, Kristina Lösche-Löwensen, Lebang Monnahela, Lial Akouch, Lisa Boeffgen, Lisa Rennebaum, Lisi Estaras, Lulu Akouch, TOURMANAGEMENT Mahmoud Zayab, Manuel Osterholt, Magdalena Emmerig, Maike Möller, Maradona Akouch, RICARDO FRAYHA Margaretha Barck, Maria Onis, Max Luz, Max Renne, Miki Shoji, Mmakgozi Kgabi, Muhammed El- [email protected] Moustapha, Nabih Amaraoui, Nadine Hutton, Nicolas Vladyslav, Nikeata Thompson, Noel Ndinisa, ADMINISTRATION / FINANCES Ntombifuthi Sengwayo, Tal Drieschner-Shacham, Tamara Saphir, Toby Cornish, Tomoko Fujimura, Tonatiuh Diaz, Rahel Savoldelli, Ricardo Frayha, Ronni Maciel, Sabine Neumann, Santiago Blaum, AMINATA OELSSNER Sergio Pessanha, Sophia Roma Weyringer, Stephan Wöhrmann, Stéphane Lalloz, Tatiana Eva [email protected] Saphir, Toby Götz, Tomasz Wija, Ulf Pankoke, Welko Dimitrov, Yeri Anarika Varges Sanchéz, ... TOURING INQUIRIES KOEN VANHOVE GRAPHIC DESIGN by STUDIO SUPERBLAST [email protected] WWW.DORKYPARK.ORG

MEMORY IS FRAGILE IS MEMORY GARBAGE LASTS FOREVER LASTS GARBAGE