Christine Matschke
Dance Journalist
It migt not feel unusual for choreographer Tomi Paasonen to be alone on stage for “Retrospectrum – 5 Solos for 5 decades”. The now 50-year-old danced as a soloist at the Hamburg Ballet, Lines Ballet in San Francisco and Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. What is new, however, is that Paasonen, who founded the transdisciplinary company KUNST-STOFF in San Francisco in 1998, is now for the first time reviewing his aesthetically diverse works with his own body in a solo. The review of his life’s work is to be understood less as a sober reproduction of familiar content than as a subjective-transforming act. Anne-Mareike Hess, who is interested in physical and psychological threshold experiences, also uncovers hidden things. In her first full-length solo “Warrior”, the choreographer charges mental protective armor both vocally and physically to the breaking point: A fragile battle of opposing emotions courageously permeates the interfaces between inside and outside.