About me

photo © Marcus Staab-Poncet

 

I am a Berlin based and international working performer/director.  My focus lies on intimate performances, dance-theatre/bharatanatyam and works around decoloniality. 

My projects are . . . often co-produced and -managed by myself – & – mostly international and intercultural collaborations—&—involve site-specific and stage setups—&—took place in over a dozen countries in and outside Europe—&—range from autobiographic, intimate forms to classical bharatanatyam—&—like to dance with decolonial perspectives . . .

 

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studies:
Theatre-School ACTEA/ France, Normandy 2000-2002
Cultural Anthropology (BA) at Freie Universität/ Berlin 2006-2010
Bharata Natyam/ Berlin,Chennai and Bangalore 2006-2013 . . .

Decoloniality&meet MIMOSA
In 2012 I initiated the collective „meet MIMOSA“ together with Andre Vollrath and Laura Werres. „meet MIMOSA“ works about the state we experience, when our perception of the self or the world is shaken. It focuses on the deconstructions of the idea of „own“ and „other“ and other themes in relation to decoloniality. The first series of work  researches and stages the discourse of Critical Whiteness under the project title: blank. Since april 2012 I am teaching the series of workshops blank1. These workshops focus on the perception and permeability of one‘s own identity. The first performance „blank2:ich weiß“ has been premiered in February 2013. The third project in this series is the performance „blank: wer_weiß?“. It was premiered in December 2013 at Rathaus Schöneberg/Berlin and is still touring. The most recent project is „Earthport„,  – an intercultural experiment to shift borders, transgress labels and recreate a healing human connection through performance. Earthport is a German-Egyptian Co-production with Nora Amin and the Cairo based „Lamusica Independent Theatre Group“.

Intimate and human specific Performances:
Since 2008 I am performing regularly with the Danish Theatre Cantabile2 in human specific performances; especially the one-on-one labyrinth-performances Venus Labyrinth and Seek to Seek. With Maria Stoyanova (Barcelona/Sofie) I am creating Human Specific Installations in the project: BalzerStoyanova. The experiments with intimate and autobiographic aspects run like a thread through all my works.  2016 I  co-directed „Earthport“ – a human specific performance-collaboration with the Egyptian Theatre Lamusica Independent Theatre group (Nora Amin) and meet MIMOSA. (http://earthport-project.blogspot.de/)

Decoloniality&Classical Indian Dance-Theatre:
Besides the study of cultural anthropology (BA 2010), I studied since 2006 Classical Indian Dance Theatre (Kuchipudi/Bharata Natyam) in Chennai and Berlin, with Rajyashree Ramesh and other teachers. Thereby I am working on questions of Hybridity, the definition of „own“ and „other“ and the challenges of post-colonial perspectives. This research resulted in performances such as the Berlin Margam (with Rajyashree Ramesh, Dr.Avanthi Meduri and Manickam Yogeswaran), Hybrid Identities, and Santosham. My Solo „BalaPina2“, that was created in that context, was chosen to be presented in the final of the competition „Germany‘s best dance solo“. Since 2014 I am touring „Raga-Abhinaya“ together with Manickam Yogeswaran.

Other  Collaborations:
Since 2006 I have been working closely with the Egyptian theatre-maker/writer Nora Amin/La Musica Independent Group in Cairo/Alexandria. I performed in Amin`s shows „Cat Dying“ and „My Country“. The autobiographic solo „My Country“ toured in Denmark, Egypt, Morocco, Albania, Ukraine, India and Spain. Our most recent project is Earthport.
Since 2012 I am dancing and collaborating with the Johanna Devi Dance Company. Johanna Devi works on the edge of contemporary Dance and Bharata Natyam.