Dance Ambassador Mira Hülsmann

Poetry & Dance - the big Slam Battle

An experience report

It is Friday the 13th.

Outside it is dark, in front of the doors of the Theater Strahl the cold accumulates. Yellow letters lead 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 performers themselves are in the middle of it, talking to each other or preparing themselves internally for their performance. Above the stage hangs a large poster with the words Slam Battle on it, which is illuminated again and again by different colored light. Like a big, flickering screen.

Then the moderators enter the stage and the concept is explained. Because instead of a professional jury, the audience should decide in this battle. Accordingly, notes are distributed to some people from different corners of the room. With numbers on it, from one to ten. They should now assign a note after each performance, depending on how much they have convinced the seen.

Poetry, Dance and Beatbox

But before it starts, the beatboxer will be introduced, who will accompany the evening with his voice and sound effects. What he can do with nothing but a micro in his hand is extraordinary. The mood is rising, and finally what everyone has been waiting for begins: the direct confrontation of poetry and dance.

There will be different rounds, the concept will be illustrated on the basis of a pinboard with notes. And one person from the field of dance and one from Poetry compete together against the others.

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 in your own elements. Words and movements are superimposed on each other, poetry as music to the dance and dance as an accompaniment to its meaning. Maybe a new interpretation.

The next step for the teams is to no longer be on stage at the same time, but to reproduce one after the other what has been heard or seen. Dancing listens to the melody of carefully set words and transforms 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

Reproduced in another form, but still the same essence. metamorphosis.

A thought that is passed on, re-perceived, re-understood. Expressed by another art form. The previous imitating and thereby creating something new.

Transforming. Take on a new meaning while the old one slowly disappears - or is it really being lived out?

It is especially nice to observe the interaction between the participants as they see how their own art form is transformed into another. Picked up by a person who may not even know what it is.

But with its own view and its own associations, it tries to reproduce, to feed with new elements, to expand.

And it's great to see how the artists can experience their own works in a new form and view them through the eyes of others. How they embrace each other 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 thing: the translation of one language into another.

A production of: Offensive Tanz für junges Audience Berlin, supported by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the State of Berlin with funds from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. In cooperation with Theater Strahl. With the kind support of Club Oval/Dance accomplices.

Video trailer