Idar-Oberstein dances!
With the "Idar-Oberstein tanzt!" series, the Department of Culture aims to establish contemporary dance in the city's event program and create a lively, inspiring dance community with broad local participation. The Sebastian Weber Dance Company from Leipzig has been secured as a cooperation partner for this. The formation, which was awarded the Saxon Dance Prize in 2019, is continuously involved in the "Idar-Oberstein tanzt!" program, both with its own show programs and with workshops.
The "Idar-Oberstein tanzt!" series is funded by Tanzland - Programme for Guest Performance Cooperation via the German Federal Cultural Foundation in order to make the diversity of contemporary dance visible beyond the established dance centers. Idar-Oberstein is thus the first municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate to receive funding from the cultural foundation.
What has happened so far:
In 2022:
The "Idar-Oberstein dances!" project was launched by the Idar-Oberstein Cultural Office with a dance weekend on World Dance Day 2022 in spring.
Dance workshops were offered all day in the municipal theater. Participation in the workshops was free of charge for all interested parties. True to the motto "Just go, dance and have fun!", a great deal of interest in the topic of DANCE was aroused among the population. In the run-up to the event, a dance parliament was founded with dance enthusiasts from the region in order to achieve cooperation with local players (dance schools, sports clubs, Lebenshilfe). This was an important aspect in the context of dance education.
This weekend saw the first performance of the Sebastian Weber Dance Company's piece "Cowboys". This was a furious dance spectacle about populists in power. It was all about the thrill of violence and bizarre clowning. After the play, the audience was invited to the "Theatersaloon" for an audience discussion.
At the end of the "World Dance Weekend", we invited everyone to "Dance into May" - a big dance party for all interested parties and all age groups with music from different styles in the Palacio Granada discotheque.
The Sebastian Weber Dance Company also performed the piece "TOUCH" at the Stadttheater in September. "TOUCH" is a bright, curious, sensitive piece about the power of touch. Touch is a primal language and vital for human beings. However, touch has become increasingly rare in everyday life - and not just since coronavirus. And touch doesn't actually occur at all in tap dance. "TOUCH" aims to change that. The calmness and concentration of the choreography drew the audience into the couple's story and allowed them to experience touch as a multifaceted exchange.
In November, the SWDC's offering was rounded off with the TOUCH home visits. The house visits made the "TOUCH" performance even more special: the sand-covered dance floor was smaller than usual and the audience was much closer than in the theater. At Modepark Röther, the pas de deux danced between jeans and sweaters. They quickly attracted the attention of the browsing customers. In the Jakob-Bengel-Stiftung, the audience sat right at the edge of the space and felt every step and jump on the old floorboards. The artistic performance in this unusual setting was acknowledged by the visitors with long-lasting applause. At the Peter Caesar School, the pupils became part of the performance with sounds and movement and all danced together at the end. The performance was also very well received at the Grimm retirement home. Our cooperation with the Sebastian Weber Dance Company with the motto "Idar-Oberstein tanzt!" (Idar-Oberstein dances!) was aimed at presenting contemporary dance in unusual places and thus introducing it to a whole new audience. The successful duet "TOUCH" was thus brought from the theater stage to these very special places.
In the year 2023:
The dance program started on 04.03.2023 with the piece "Caboom". Conceived as a choreography about chaos, CABOOM 2017 defied all step conventions and explored a methodically, choreographically and dramaturgically rigorous new approach: Caboom thus became the initial spark for an ensemble that is now internationally regarded as a pioneer of contemporary tap dance. At the end of the event, the audience and company enjoyed a lively get-together.
Outside of the Tanzland promotion, the cultural office organized a participatory concert with the company on 19.08.2023 in the Oberstein pedestrian zone on Christuskirchplatz. The event was free of charge for all visitors interested in dance. A mixture of party and performance, where all spectators* could learn a simple choreography together with dancers* from the company and dance live with the band Werner Neumann Electric Trio! Sebastian Weber taught a choreography based on the production "Cowboys", which was shown at the Stadttheater last year. It was a wonderful experience to see how everyone from very different sections of the population, from young to old, got involved and danced together. It became clear that offers in public spaces play a particularly important role and are very well received.
Under the motto "Dance lovers meet wine connoisseurs", two experts met on 25.11.2023 for the "Dance Tasting" at evening to talk to the audience about their passion: One about wine, the other about dance. Sebastian Weber, founder of the Sebastian Weber Dance Company, and Dietmar Schuch, our Idar-Oberstein wine connoisseur, served up a hand-picked selection from their repertoire and answered key questions about dance and wine. The audience experienced an unusual evening with three wines and a selection of dance scenes presented live by the dance company. The audience could listen and enjoy, but also ask questions, compare, join in the conversation and find out what they liked best. In this way, those unfamiliar with the subject were able to develop curiosity and interest in the other area. The evening was enthusiastically received by the audience.
Once again this year, the Sebastian Weber Dance Company's home visits inspired people from young to old. At the end of November, three dancers from the company visited two secondary schools, Lebenshilfe and the Peter-Caesar-Schule, a special school, as part of the "Idar-Oberstein tanzt!" project, bringing a smile to some faces despite the onset of winter. For the home visits, the piece Caboom was adapted from nine to three dancers in order to do justice to the cooperation motto "Idar-Oberstein dances!" in a smaller and more intimate atmosphere, to get the whole town moving and to enable a close-up and direct experience away from the classic theater stage.
The first stop for dancers Nikolai Kemeny, Andrea Alvergue & Gaëtan Farnier was the Realschule+ in Rostocker Straße. As the first snowflakes of the year fell, the gymnasium was as quiet as a mouse. The three dancers began quietly tripping and then, in their thirty-minute performance, spinning, sweating and full of life, turned it into a captivating and explosive show for the youngsters. "I haven't seen the children so captivated and focused for a long time," remarked one teacher after the show, amazed. The second stop at the Ida Purper School was also a success. Also in the gymnasium, the pupils listened spellbound to Gaëtan's lightning-fast solo or the delicate, almost floating trio passages. Smiles flitted across the faces of dancers and pupils when their eyes met and the joy of dancing became tangible in the room. "I think it's cool that we were able to get so close to the dance. The energy of the three was really mega," was the feedback from one of the students watching.
"How could they remember all that?" A frequently asked question throughout the week. "It takes discipline. We train every day. But we also have to have fun," Nikolai answered this question in one of the workshops that were offered at all four locations after the performance. Anyone who wanted to could take part and join the three dancers on stage for a brief moment in joint rhythm exercises, allowing their bodies to vibrate and resonate through dance.
Beaming faces greeted not only the three dancers, but also Johannes Liebscher and Tim Rosentreter, also part of the company, who transformed the unusual locations into a stage with muscle power and creative sensitivity on the morning of the performances. On the third day, for example, the Lebenshilfe cafeteria: before the doors opened, a curious and eager queue had already formed in front of the entrance. Almost 90 people celebrated the trio's visit frenetically and, under the guidance of Nikolai & Andrea, some of them were able to enjoy dancing together without any inhibitions or prejudices. One young woman shared: "I was so captivated, I couldn't look away in amazement."
The visit to the Peter Caesar School was a special finale, as the company had already performed the duet "Touch" danced on sand there in November 2022. Some of the children remembered this and were looking forward to the performance. And the joy continued throughout the piece: They giggled, yawned, marveled and bobbed along. "That's what's special about these visits, this closeness. You can feel and see the children's energy directly and unfiltered, which of course spurs us on even more," said Gaëtan, summing up the shows.
"When are you coming back?" asked a group of children who had surrounded the three of them and didn't really want to leave. "In April!" answered Andrea. That's where the Sebastian Weber Dance Company will be presenting their piece "Folk Fiction" at the Stadttheater on 27.04.2024, an evening full of energy, wit, pomp and poetry. Until then, the group has jetted back to Leipzig, but seems to have left a lasting impression and warm hearts in Idar-Oberstein with their visits.
In the year 2024:
The dance program started on 27.04.2024 with the piece "Folk Fiction". With the simultaneously sensitive and explosive tap dance evening Folk Fiction, the Sebastian Weber Dance Company created its own vision of a community and made it real in an imaginary folklore - simultaneously refined and archaic, cheeky and celebratory. In this piece, the throbbing groove of tap dance accompanies the grueling search for community. From the family to the nation, from the church community to the political movement: Collective identities shape who we are, how we think and feel. It doesn't matter what the actual characteristics of the community are. What is decisive for collective identity are the values that are recognized to the same extent by all members of the community.
Over the course of the evening, the bodies of the seven dancers became instruments, with energy flowing from the soles of their feet, into their toes, through all parts of their bodies and into their fingertips. This energy set everyone and everything in motion. A work that was convincing in its sheer form of impetuous immediacy. In a sequence of seemingly loosely linked dance sets, Weber and his dancers pushed themselves to the limit. They joined together in swinging formations that tap-danced through the stage space with concentrated power like rhythm machines. Or drew themselves together in the tightly focused light and became a melting core, from within which the stapling of the tap shoes pulsated.
With this piece, the company showed dance that wants to experience and tell something, that gets involved - alert, sweaty and quick-witted. Angry, tender, kitschy, silly, but never indifferent. Her dance is a way of encountering the world and taking up and positioning themes from everyday life. "Dancing means navigating wild waters, a lively search and progress," says company founder and choreographer Sebastian Weber.
On 30.08.2024 there was the "Dance Along Concert" with the company in the Oberstein pedestrian zone on Christuskirchplatz. This event was again free of charge for all visitors interested in dancing. With a mixture of party and performance, where all audience members could learn a simple choreography together with dancers from the company and dance live with the band Werner Neumann Electric Trio! This time, Sebastian Weber presented a choreography based on the production "Folk Fiction", which was shown at the Stadttheater in spring. Using simple images that all the dancers could dance as they interpreted them. After half an hour, (almost) everyone was able to dance a choreography together, which was great fun. Nikolai Kemeny, Andrea Alvergue and Sebastian Weber from the dance company could be seen tap-dancing on stage in short performances. As in the previous year, it was a wonderful experience to see how everyone from very different sections of the population, from young to old, got involved and danced together. The event was very well received and it became clear once again that such events in public spaces play a particularly important role and are in great demand.
This year, the home visits took place from 04 - 08.11.2024. With the children's play "Schuh Bi Du", the group visited a total of eight facilities in the city area from Monday to Friday. In addition to the daycare centers, a visit to the Peter Caesar School in Göttschied was also planned. Due to another institution canceling at short notice, the group was even allowed to perform the play there a second time spontaneously. As this school teaches children and young people with cognitive support needs and additional motor impairments, they were obviously happy to have a mobile children's play delivered directly to the school without any complications, as it is not easy to plan a class trip or even a school trip to the theater.
Schuh-Bi-Du is a piece about curiosity and encounters. The choreographic focus initially lies in the creation of three protagonists with their very own, clearly distinguishable movement language. This movement code is practiced throughout. Their movement, their language, their thoughts are dance. Everything about this piece is dance and sound. The combinations of the different movement and language codes repeatedly lead to creative misunderstandings and surprises, allowing for humor and poetry.
A central feature of the performance is its musicality. A finely pulsating soundtrack runs through the entire piece. All the music is created by the performance itself. The dancers use tap dance, body percussion, sounding objects and their voices. But the material in the room and the children also play a part. The discovery of ever new sound sources and musical possibilities becomes part of the journey.
Schuh-Bi-Du thus becomes a mix of dance, object and sound theater that appeals to the little ones with many senses.
In the year 2025:
29.03.2025 GLITZ
an exhilarating concert performance with a large cast and excellent live music. The company goes back to the beginning of its own passion for dance: dancing in clubs, at parties, at dawn. The piece is loud and colorful, celebrating the culture of the night, the intoxication of utopia. A passionate, defiant, witty, poetic homage to the transformative power of pop.
The premiere for the new play is on March 14, 2025 at LOFFT - Das Theater.
GLITZ is co-produced by the Hessian State Ballet, the Festspielhaus Hellerau and the Theater Hameln.
More information will follow!