Body that Stands
Resistance and its consequences between individuals and where they stand
Body that Stands explores resistance through the lens of resilience. On a stage embedded with hundreds of wooden bricks, the dancers inhabit a continuous loop of destruction and construction. In the shifting landscape, images surface — fragments that echo ruins, combat, and aftermaths — evoking scenes that inevitably recall wars and conflicts. While dealing with the conditions of ruins, the performers demonstrate the survival aspect inherent in the act of resistance.
Throughout the 60-minute piece, the three dancers in ‘Body that stands’ engage in simple acts of physical resistance — toward one another and the space itself. As they explore a range of responses to encounters with opposing forces, they experience moments of conflict, support, frustration, pain, and fantasy. Living through these brief fragments of reality, they constantly redefine their identities and states of being. As the piece unfolds, the three performers shape their sense of autonomy, causing the entire landscape to metamorphose. They continually reshape the meticulous wooden bricks scenography, using it to set boundaries, mark territories and convey messages. The experimental playground then transforms into a battlefield, a graveyard, an urban landscape, and more. Building, deconstructing, destroying, and reassembling, the performers examine the endurance of the human body in relation to that of inanimate materials, and the capacities of one body in relation to another.
Body that Stands observes acts of resistance and its consequences, not only between individuals but also between people and where they stand.
Premiere, 14th March 2025 in Theater Rampe Stuttgart.
Further performances: 15th and 16th March 2025
Concept, Choreography & Artistic Direction: Smadar Goshen
Co-creation & Performance: Bar Gonen, Cordelia Eleonore Lange, Zuki RingArt
Dramaturgy: Maya Weinberg
Original Music: Leonard Küßner and Vincent Wikström
Oud, Violin, Saz recordings: Idan Elmalem.
Additional Music: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106: I. Andante tranquillo: Béla Bartók
Costume & Stage Design: Lilo Ming
Technical Direction & Light Design: Nadja Weber
Videography: Aleksej Nutz
Photography: Dominique Brewing, Zoia Domaskina
Graphic Design: Evelyn Fortmeier
Production: Lisa Ticar, Christine Koschel
Production Assistance: Hannah Störzer
Communication: Angela Milosevic
Body that Stands is a co-production with Theater Rampe, funded by the conceptual funding of the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V. with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, by the state capital Stuttgart, Freie Tanz- und Theaterszene Stuttgart gUG, the Péter Horváth Foundation and the LBBW Foundation. Sponsored by Ritter Sport and supported by the Produktionszentrum Tanz und Performance Stuttgart. Made possible by the residency programme of the Réseau GRAND LUXE network and the special support of the dance department of Theater Freiburg. As part of the Réseau GRAND LUXE network, also supported by the Trois C-L Center for Creation and Choreography in Luxembourg and POLE SUD – CDCN national center for choreographic development in Strasbourg.
Pictures captured by Zoia Domaskina.
