Vibes

Dance Performance in the Space between Words

Artistic Director: Britta Lieberknecht

Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht & Company

Dance: Clara Thierry, Dario Wilmington, Jacob Gómez Ruiz, Maria Flores Mujica, Neus Barcons Roca

Music, Performance: Gerno Bogumil

Lighting Design: Dietrich Schuckließ

Photos: Martin Miseré

Video Documentation: Barbara Schröer

PR Design: Mira Savani Falkenberg, Frank Domahs

Nominated for the Cologne Dance Theater Award

Vibes celebrates interpersonal encounters in physical presence and plays with aspects of communication – with expressive dance and with spoken and unspoken words. The wavelength, the sensual information, the spark that crackles and the mood are the material from which the performance draws.

Five dancers engage in a danced dialog – based on intuitive, sensual information. Or on internally spoken words. They dance those unspoken words in order o communicate with each other and with the audience. Their dialogues involve the audience in the allure of the physical presence, in the energy and vibration of the moment. They also dance and speak impromptu, inventing stories in which spoken words and movements enter in a comic, creative interplay. Movements become words and words become movement. The freedom of interpretation and the pitfalls of communication lead to an exciting exchange. Intuitive communication intensified with the use of all these senses is the great attraction of this performance. With exhilirating dance vocabulary and high sensitivity, the dancers create a vibrant performance.

Trailer

Documentation

Press Review

Kölnische Rundschau | Thomas Linden

Press Quotation

“Vibes” is full of surprises and captivates its audience with sizzling encounters featuring fresh dance figures. A choreography that does not allow for conventions, is well balanced and always remains experimental… A fascinating affair as the couples entice, challenge and conquer each other with subtle humor… There hasn’t been a dance production in Cologne’s independent scene with so much dancing for a long time.”

Whole Review

If only you can smell each other well…
Britta Lieberknecht and her ensemble get up close and personal in “Vibes”
Relationships have a future if you can smell each other well. So the dancers (Clara Thierry, Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica and Neus Barcons Roca) and dancers (Dario Wilmington and Jacob Gómez Riuz) in Britta Lieberknecht’s ensemble start by sniffing each other out. Apparently the scents are pleasant, because now the audience in the Alte Feuerwache dance hall can experience how the “vibes” work.
The title refers to charisma, and the five-piece ensemble has plenty of potential. Even the bodies are very different and then find themselves in alternating duets. The petite Neus Barcons Roca discovers the body of the tall Dario Wilmington while dancing. The evening’s complex choreographies are united by the fact that they emphasize the differences between men and women.
And that works because you meet at eye level.
There hasn’t been a dance production in Cologne’s independent scene for a long time that involved so much dancing. For more than 70 minutes, the story is told with the body. A fascinating affair, as the couples entice, challenge and conquer each other with subtle humor. Gerno Bogumil provides discreet but pointed sounds. In one sequence he accompanies Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica with the cornet, the movements of dance and music correspond so aptly that the dialog becomes a spontaneously developed jazz sequence.
“Vibes” is full of surprises and captivates its audience with sizzling encounters featuring fresh dance figures. A choreography that does not allow for conventions, is well balanced and always remains experimental.

Kölner Stadtanzeiger | Gisela Schwarz

Press Quotation

„It is the architecture of relationships that the five perform again and again in variations. They even involve the audience, who either look away in surprise or join in. “You can feel every breeze, the physicality – you’ve never been this close to a dancer before,” says one visitor later. “I was very touched by this mindful interaction – that’s what we need at this time”.

Whole Review

When human couples merge
Britta Lieberknecht “tests” her new choreography “Vibes” at Studio Britanniahütte
Bergisch Gladbach
When Britta Lieberknecht invites people to rehearsals at her Studio Britanniahütte 25a, she regularly attracts friends of contemporary dance. Two previews of “Vibes” have been fully booked in the last few days.
There is no stage set and no stage lighting, just chairs for the audience against the walls.
And yet the dance dialog between the five dancers is immediately captivating, you are part of this performance, a “test flight” is what Britta Lieberknecht as artistic director calls this rehearsal on Saturday, which is so completely different from the previous one: “there are always new stories – the last part was improvised,” she says after the one-hour performance.
For two months, the dancers Clara Thierry, Dario Wilmington, Jacob Gómez Ruiz, Maria Flores Mujica, Neus Barcons Roca and the sound performer Gerno Bogumil worked on the mediation of interpersonal communication and developed dialogues without words in their own body language – each with a different body language.
The encounter between three female dancers and two male dancers begins to the sound of trumpets, with them approaching each other, looking at each other, until two couples take a closer look at each other, touch each other. At some point, they form themselves into an intertwined group, remotely reminiscent of Giambologna’s sculpture “Rape of the Sabines” in Florence, in defense, at some point sliding on the floor – each individual as if in a trance, in slow motion. A couple approaches again, breathing and acting in the same rhythm until they melt into each other in acrobatic vibrations.
It is the architecture of relationships that the five perform again and again in variations. They even involve the audience, who either look away in surprise or join in. “You can feel every breeze, the physicality – you’ve never been this close to a dancer before,” says one visitor later. “Yes, Vibes also thrives on your presence – every audience is different,” says Britta Lieberknecht. “I was very touched by this mindful interaction – that’s what we need at this time,” says Christiane Budden, dancer and dance teacher.
In the hall of the Alte Feuerwache in Cologne. Melchiorstraße 3, “Vibes” celebrates its premiere today, Thursday. “We’ll have a space that’s much bigger than here,” says Lieberknecht. An exciting challenge!

Vibes

Dance Performance in the Space between Words

Trailer

Documentation

Press Review

Press Quotation

Whole Review

Press Quotation

Whole Review

Supporter