“Parotia” is a performance for three whirling dancers inspired by sources as diverse as the Egyptian folk dance Tanoura, the choreographic heritage of Loïe Fuller or Oskar Schlemmer and the Bauhaus movement. Creating a piece at the intersection of Middle Eastern dance and our Western choreographic heritage, Léonard Engel explores the physical and visual qualities of the whirling act and invites the audience to a hypnotic and sculptural dance piece.
Starting from the simple movement of whirling, Engel develops a choreography that slowly changes the spectators’ perception of space and body. Wearing heavy skirts created by Josa Marx, the three dancers become kinetic sculptures in continuous transformation, reconfiguring themselves in space, while the shimmering patterns of the fabrics emphasise the hypnotic effect of whirling. The dancers’ bodies merge with their costumes and lose themselves in abstract forms until they disappear completely behind the hustle and bustle of colours and figures; before effort and fatigue bring them back to the surface, vibrating, tangible, struggling to keep the movement and the illusion alive.
14.10.2022, 6 pm
15.10.2022, 7 pm
schwere reiter, Munich
with:
Production | Choreography: Léonard Engel
Dance: Gizem Aksu, Angelo Petracca, Lisa Stertz
Costume design: Josa Marx
Composition: 9T Antiope
Lighting design: Matthias Singer, 507nanometer
Production management: Elsa Büsing, Miria Wurm
Technical direction | lighting: Rainer Ludwig
Sound technology: Josy Friebel
Costume production: Christin Wanke
Fabric production: Weaving mill, Noël Saavedra
Press and public relations: Simone Lutz
