Performers: Nina Niermann, Kathrin Keusch, Radja Juschka, Michael Neuber, Helene Heuser, Marc Carrera
Music live: Nikola Malidžan
Light design: Susana Alonso
Setting: Marina Epp
Dramaturgy Assistance: Konrad Kaniuk
Production: Nawel Benziane (Tatwerk Berlin)
Running time: 55 minutes
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WHAT ABOUT TEE?
The question is… How do we dance? How, where, when do we, the young people, dance nowadays in Europe? Today, dancing relies on a decision; we choose what to dance, and this is really relevant. It’s our own personal decision to dance. That explains also why most of the times we dance alone. Maybe surrounded by thousands of people, but definitely alone. Are we sure we dance ourselves? This would be the second question that leads to the next and final one: How do we do? These Europeans who shouldn’t stop dancing otherwise we would get lost…
Tanz Europe Express is a two years old project created entirely in Tatwerk by some of its participants. It could finally come into reality after some unsuccessful attempts and lots of problems. It was born accidentally while three of us where dancing, or trying to dance, a really weird song in an empty bar. ‘How do we dance nowadays?’ was the question that arose of that funny experience. After some months, the question turned into something more imprecise: ‘But... why and when do we dance? Where can we dance in our day by day life? Together or alone? What has changed?’ Some new ideas came into the project: the exceptional political situation in Europe (of course), Kraftwerk’s anthem Trans-Europe Express (its promise of a bright technological tomorrow), urban loneliness, our parents and us, and many other confusing feelings. And floating above all, a crucial question: Does NEW necessarily mean GOOD?
We took a look at our present and… We are not sure anymore we can just answer YES.
What are we doing so wrong?
Nobody could have found the six of us before at the same time in the same room/party/training/club. MDVZ is a constellation of people who have been already working/partying/training together in small or bigger performance projects but never before all together at once. To name just a few of this projects: Tatwerk, Widersprüchliche Abende, Katerett, Einzelkämpfer and the plays Weltuntergang, Torquato, X/Schatten, Table/Function, etc. Some of the members met for the very first time for the TEE project. ‘It’s all about dancing. More exactly, about how do European young people dance…’ Dancing is something all of us is doing quite often and, again, not only for artistic purposes. Dancing means also day by day life occasions were our bodies are moving just because it’s a great pleasure to move without goals or expectations. That’s why one of the rehearsals for TEE just took place at the Berghain club one night. We have had fun dancing together… We have also suffered dancing together. Pleasure, pain, fun, sadness, rage… Well, this is how things are.
‘TEE’ is written in big letters on the back wall of the stage. But this is of course not about hot drinks [the German spelling of tea]. TEE used to be the name of the fast trains, which connected the states of the European Economic Community as well as Austria and Switzerland: Trans-Europe-Express. Today these trains are called EuroCity and the Economic Community is the European Union now. Maybe because the economic part was not as common as it seemed? ‘Tanz Europe Express’ can be interpreted as a parable of the European Union, in which community does not comes first; rather everybody takes care only of their own business. The only reason for collective action is the need to replace the old light bulbs with energy saving ones. But this makes the common work TEE flashing even cooler.
OUTNOW FESTIVAL BREMEN, June 2013
WINNER of Jury Prize at 100º Festival Sophiensæle Berlin 2013