DreaMe is about the interaction between reality and wish-reality. In DreaMe, the dancer on stage and the audience is confronted with an excess of information, like it is typical for the media-society of today. The piece reflects the individual consequences of this information overkill, frequently leading to escapist behavior. The escape into virtual worlds seems particularly tempting, since these seem to offer the possibility to take on other identities, providing you can use them to your advantage. Where one deals with the surplus of information and is able to differentiate between real and virtual, another fails and overloads. DreaMe oscillates between these two poles.
In DreaMe the audience is confronted with broken up material. The projected video and text, live and recorded words of the performer, movements and sound are rarely synchronized. The viewer is challenged to discover the relations between the exploded elements and possibly, through this, face a feeling of overload.
Special attention is given the ideals of achievement and beauty, as they are dictated to us by the media. How do I deal with the rising pressure? And how large is the margin within which I can move, while still remaining true to myself?
On a projection surface on the back part of the stage, a double of the performer appears, a phantom-identity. This double represent the artificially created ideals, values and goals of the real woman on one hand and her subconscious needs on the other. Her problem is to differentiate between her real and artificial self.
The stage-elements video and sound play an equally important role as the movement. They each create a course of events which is independent of the other media. For the performer, however, they are opponents in her attempt to position herself.
DreaMe is the second collaboration between Anne Schmidt and Henrik Kaalund. The 15 minutes solo “iDentity dFragments”, created 2007 for Schmidt by Kaalund, was part of Silesian Dance Festival 2008, in Kaalund’s trilogy “On The Verge.” Schmidt’s performance of “iDentity dFragments” earned her the 2. Prize in the competition 12. Solo-Dance-Theatre-Festival in Stuttgart, 2008 and was part of the subsequent “Tour of the Winners” in Germany. It was shown in Poland, Ireland, Nigeria and many places in Germany. The abundance of material found in this first collaboration, inspired a second longer one.
Duration: 1 Hour
DreaMe was made possible in part by the friendly support of Kunsthaus Tacheles, Tanzwerkstatt Berlin and Swiss Chamber Ballet International. |