Tanz Company Gervasi
What kind of animal is?
Co – Production with Tanzquartier Wien, Premiere December 2015
The subject of man’s observation is often linked with searching for an association between human and animal. We feel relieved that we are not alone in our behaviour. Tanz Company Gervasi outlines social micro processes, forms of relationships and connections, loneliness and interaction. Ways of making contact, ways to feel, and rituals. The teams form as fast as they fall apart, permanently altering their customs. Outsiders retreat and develop short-term ceremonies of loneliness. The team provides protection, looks after the physical body and emotional intimacy. In this way it aligns itself with family or work collectives. The person who becomes an outsider breaks emotional rules inside the team, and pushes its boundaries. If the person is somehow accepted back into the team again, he/she will transform it. This triggers an association with animal behaviour in groups. The accumulated herd starts the battle to defend their territory or begins the game.
Gervasi observes these patterns in our industrial society, he translates them, forms caricatures, updates the images and lets them dissolve. At the same time he draws inspiration from a Japanese model of interaction: “an insane swimming pool” showing thousands of people gathered in a giant pool who are animated by artificial waves.
Artistic direction/ choreography: Elio Gervasi
Choreography assistant: Nicoletta Cabassi
Dance/ choreography: Yukie Koji, Hannah Timbrell, Alessandra Ruggeri, Yun Yeh, Dominik Feistmantl
Music/ composition: Albert Castello
Light design: Markus Schwarz
Managmenet: Roma Hurey
With friendly support of
BKA Österreich, Wien Kultur, Österreichisches Institut Polska/Wroclaw, Institute of Music and Dance Warsaw, österreichischer Konsulat Wroclaw, Österreichisches Kulturforum Warszawa