Dance ambassador Mira Hülsmann
Poetry & Dance - The Great Slam Battle
An experience report
It's Friday the 13th.
Outside it is dark, in front of the doors of the theater beam the cold accumulates. Yellow letters point the way. But where exactly? Poetry & Dance.
Vanilla and cumin. Carnations and turmeric. Salt and cinnamon.
Inside it is warm and colorful light wanders through the room. All chairs are occupied, the audience spreads out with jackets and pillows on the ranks. Young people and older people, alone or in groups. There is an exuberant mood. The actors themselves are in the middle of it, talking to each other or preparing themselves internally for their performance. Above the stage, a large poster with the words Slam Battle hangs on it, which is repeatedly illuminated by differently colored light. Like a big, flickering screen.
Then the moderators enter the stage and the concept is explained. Instead of a professional jury, the audience should decide in this battle. According to this, papers are distributed to some people from different corners of the room. With numbers on it, from one to ten. They should now give a grade after each performance, depending on how much they have convinced what they have seen.
Poetry, Dance and Beatbox
But before it starts, the beatboxer is introduced, which is to accompany this evening with his voice and sound effects. What he can do with nothing but a micro in his hand is extraordinary. The mood rises, and finally begins what everyone has been waiting for: The direct confrontation of poetry and dance.
There are to be different rounds, the concept is illustrated by a pinboard with pins. And one person from the field of dance and one from poetry compete together against the other.
Melody of carefully set words
Randomly selected teams. Two different art forms that now have to respond to each other and interact with each other. Torn out of their natural environment and juxtaposed with each other. Dancers improvise on the formulations of spoken words. Adapt to it. Bring your own elements in. Words and movements overlap, poetry as music to the dance and dance a background to its meaning. Maybe a new interpretation.
The next step for the teams is not to be on stage at the same time, but to reproduce what has been heard or seen one after the other. Dancers listen to the melody of carefully set words and turn them into extravagant movements.
Eyes absorb the meaning and atmospheres of the movements, transforming them into words. A message that changes runs through a new blood system.
metamorphoses
Represented in a different form, but still the same essence. metamorphosis.
A thought that is passed on, re-perceived, re-understood. Expressed by another art form. Imitating the previous one and creating something new in the process.
It's transforming. Taking on a new meaning while the old one slowly disappears - or is it just being lived out?
It is especially nice to observe the interaction between the participants as they see their own art form being transformed into another. Picked up by a person who may not even know what it is.
But with its own eyes and its own associations, it tries to reproduce, to feed, to expand with new elements.
And it's great to see how artists can experience their own works in a new form and view them through the eyes of others. How they embrace afterwards and perhaps understand not only a little more about the art of the other, but also about their own.
Because the combination of the two art forms is ultimately one of everything: Translation of one language into another.
A production of: Offensive dance for young audiences Berlin, funded by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund from funds of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and the State of Berlin from funds of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. In cooperation with Theater Strahl. With the kind support of Club Oval/Dance Complicities.
