Trajal Harrell

In his latest production ›CAEN AMOUR‹, New York choreographer Trajal Harrell prompts a sensuous encounter between the legendary dance and Art Nouveau icon, Loïe Fuller and the founder of the dance performance art Butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata. Swathed in flowing garments and inspired by Oriental concepts, Fuller’s dancing was simultaneously avant-garde and Vaudeville in nature and posthumously hailed as modern dance. To this, Harrell weaves in links to the hoochie coochie, a sexualized parody of belly dancing that similarly falls somewhere between art and popular entertainment. At the interface between dance, history and Orientalism, he playfully and compassionately overthrows categories and gender roles.

Choreography: Trajal Harrell

Performers: Trajal Harrell, Thibault Lac, Perle Palombe, Ondrej Vidlar

Guest: Verena Brakonier

Light design: Sylvain Rausa

Set: Jean Stephan Kiss

Soundtrack: Trajal Harrell

Costumes: Trajal Harrell and the performers

Dramaturgy: Sara Jansen

Co-production: Kampnagel (Hamburg), Festival Avignon, Theater Freiburg, Arsenic (Lausanne), Gessnerallee (Zürich), ICA Boston, Kaaitheater (Brussels), productiehuis Rotterdam

Support: TANZFONDS ERBE – German Federal Cultural Foundation

Presented by PACT Zollverein for the Ruhrtriennale

A project within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.