TALLINN TREFF FESTIVAL 2015: EDITTA BRAUN COMPANY (Austria) / Planet Luvos

The viewer sinks into a blue, bubbling water world. The only sign that humans exist is the
distant sound of a steamship whistle, somewhere far away. And a woman who suddenly finds
herself in a kingdom full of strange, but peaceful beings.
In a consoling way “Planet Luvos” points to the part of and in us, which we humans have neglected for too long, or even completely forgotten. The downfall of mankind is described as a return to an all-organic existence. Individual destruction is not experienced as a loss, but rather as a harmonic merging into a larger whole. We accompany the last person on Earth – a young woman – as she confronts the, at first frightening and eerie, strangely disconcerting submarine creatures, who in the end welcome her into their still and harmonious world. What remains is at any rate larger that mankind.
Seven dancers (Katja Bablick, Andrea  Maria Handler, Sandra Hofstötter, Dorota Karolina Lecka, Martyna Lorenc, Marcella Mancini and Spela Vodeb) constitute the symbiotic, sensitive collective of “Planet Luvos”. Their legs wave in the air like anemone arms, each movement reacting to the other as fast as lightning. Their bodies lose their humanness and become entities. Naked torsi move like alien beings across the stage. These are fascinating images, a thoroughly successful illusion, underscored by Peter Thalhamer’s perfect light design and Thierry Zaboitzeff’s spare underwater sound. The arms enfold the human being in a nearly tender way, and it willingly surrenders to the gentle embrace. What appears to be the end is a consoling dissolution of the individual into the greater whole.

For over ten years, reflecting on human self-destruction has repeatedly and consciously
determined the direction of our dance-research. This production comes full circle aesthetically as well, a circle which goes back a long way: in 1985 the collective Vorgänge demonstrated the first outline of the body performance «Lufus» in priestess Aloufoo’s sacred grove in the Southern Senegalese village of Fangoumé. A year later, «Lufus» won second prize in the Bagnolet/Paris competition in choreography category and a prize for the most innovative choreography. The editta braun company, formed in 1989, grew out of this collective, and ten years later elaborated on the performance’s basic ideas with the full-length piece «Luvos, vol. 2», which premiered in 2001. Since then, this choreography has been presented to ca. 12,000 people in 15 countries and 27 different cities. For the first time, «planet LUVOS» confronts the surreal Luvos body worlds with the human form of a freely-moving dancer – dream and reality, vision and real time meet in an unmistakably dramatic dance moment. «planet LUVOS» is based on «Luvos, vol. 2», which has been shown in 27 cities in 15 countries to 15.000 viewers.

Information about the festival: www.nuku.ee/festival

Director-choreography: Editta Braun
On stage: Špela Vodeb, Dorota Karolina Łęcka, Andrea Maria Handler, Marcella Mancini, Katja Bablick, Sandra Hofstötter, Martyna Lorenc
Compouser: Thierry Zaboitzeff
Light design: Peter Thalhamer
Dramatist: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau
Choreography assistants: Barbara Motschiunik, Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla

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Tickets:

-  on presale in Nukuteater and Piletilevi and at the door 15 EUR

 - group sales -10% (starting from 10 people)

 - group sales –20% (starting from 20 people)