An essay by dramaturge Theresa Selter

How to dance a rose garden?

Poetry & Dance - the big Slam Battle

‘Should I go dancing or rather chill in the deep valley of thought?’

This sentence from the text a r Poet in, presented at the event Poetry & Dance – Das große Slam Battle on 13.12.204 on the stage of Theater Strahl, remains in my memory. Does both actually work? How separate are these two worlds? Dance - Expression through the body - Emotionality without concepts. Words – Expression through language – Understanding without physical sensations.

A little look back

In art, despite a tendency to open up, we are still accustomed to separating according to ‘divisions’ or ‘art directions’. This also has historical reasons, as each cultural practice has shaped its own tradition throughout history:

Documentaries of ritual dances can already be found, for example, in Indian cave paintings, which were created sometime between 5000 and 2000 BC. The format of the Dance Battle, i.e. competitions between dancers in front of a jury, comes from the breakdance scene of the 1970s in New York and is now practiced worldwide.

Early records of poetry can be found, for example, among the Sumerian poets in Ancient Babylon (ca. 2000-1600 BC), who preferred to write mocking verses. The form of the Poetry Slam was established in Chicago in 1986 and from then on spread all over the world. In the "poet battle" self-written texts are presented within a certain time and the winner is determined by the audience. By the way: The German-speaking poetry slam scene is considered one of the largest in the world.

Dare to experiment!

So far as the ‘tradition’ is concerned. But what happens when these two worlds mix? When poetry and dance meet in a single competition? How can they enrich, challenge and lure each other out of the comfort zone? Exactly this experiment was dared by Offensive Tanz together with Theater Strahl on 13.12.24 with a completely new format: Poetry & Dance – the big Slam Battle!

Spontaneity and courage

For the participants an event that required a lot of spontaneity and courage. This did not deter sixteen experimental dancers inside and poets inside from engaging in the venture. In four rounds, they competed against each other in drawn poetry dance duos with ever new tasks, accompanied by a beatboxer who provided them with tailor-made sounds, an expert inside jury, a moderator inside team and, above all, an enthusiastic audience that filled the hall to the last corner.

What came out of it were unexpected, comical, absurd, poetic, touching, serious and powerful performances, born of mutual inspiration, spontaneity and great empathy.

After all, how do you react in dance to a text about aging and the memory of the father in the rose garden? And how about the story of a beetle in a disposable glass and the passing of time? How do you spontaneously seal up to a dance performance with large, angry movements reaching into the room? How can the rhythm of Krumping be captured in words?

Finding an Echo in the Other

In essence, it can be said that all the performances of the poetry dance duos were about finding an echo in the other. To understand the other person beyond different forms of expression and languages. About thoughts, experiences and emotions that can be expressed both in movement and in words.

The following is an (incomplete) collection of impressions:

A man raises his arms, makes himself vulnerable, lets a storm blow through him. The cracking of branches in the forest becomes noticeable in words and sounds. Anger at the foreign eyes on one's own body becomes loud. A smile distorts into a grotesque show. Touches tell of longing for tenderness. Amazon's Amazon is losing its face. A wounded king crawls to the throne.

Now all that has to do is dance this report.

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.