Longing For Exuberance

Christine Matschke
Dance journalist

Dancing under the stars and in the light of hundreds of torches one night, visiting the theatre the next, and the opera the night after that: The Baroque was considered the age of multidisciplinary productions and lavish festivities. But what makes a festive gathering today at the end of what is, in many respects, an extraordinary year? This is precisely the question the laborgras duo also found themselves asking. Renate Graziadei and Arthur Stäldi have been creating dance in Berlin for 20 years now. Idea, concept and choreography are their joint effort; she dances, he handles the dramaturgy. Their latest piece, “Das Fest” (“The Festivity”), encourages people to escape from their (Coronavirus-influenced) everyday life on the last three days of the year. Together with the music ensemble CONTINUUM, five laborgras performers will then delightfully wander through disciplines to selected compositions of Georg Friedrich Händel. Definitely a necessary and – considering the rules regarding distance and hygiene due to the pandemic – sensually exuberant transition into a new year, one that will, hopefully, feature a lot less physical distancing.