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© Barbara Kraus


Barbara Kraus gives her favourite performance

Do what you love and love what you do. Both, the motivation of and the challenge for Barbara Kraus’ favourite performance, rest on the assumption that in the absence of pressure, things tend to happen freely and joyfully. The extent to which such a concept may be possible or brought to fruition within the context of dance will show itself. It may well be enough to dance as if no-one was watching …

The “favourite performance” deals with the potential of the current moment in relation to its performative context and is therefore itself in a state of constant change.

What happened so far: (glimpses at the many possibilities of the “favourite performance”)

On visiting a mosque in Albania Johnny conducts a group dance with festival visitors to fend off the cold. Sethi despaires due to the stubborn attachment of earthlings to misery, while Iggy proclaims a punk-revolution at ImpulsTanz – and a carefully styled pair of Armani jeans gets destroyed in the act. No, not his own, but the garment of a young dancer from the audience who in anger (... and in vain) demands Iggy’s hair in retribution. At about this point Barbara Kraus remembers the potential of performance for transformation and healing: During “(Precise) Woodstock of Thinking” at Tanzquartier Wien she envisions a future where the main effort will be a reconciliation to the present. In support of her good intentions she distributes roses and self-made sweets among the audience. In return, the public is moved and forgives her all sins of performance hitherto committed.

The themes explored in the “favourite performance” refer to Deleuze’s and Guattari’s notion of the “Body without Organs” (BwO), a notion which describes the body as a collection of potentials in transition evading any interpretative fixing. Intensities, waves, vibrations and desires move in a steady stream of comings and goings, such that an individual ego cannot be pinned down or made out anymore. The BwO is an unorganized way of being with the character of a productive matrix on which temporary layers of organisms, meanings and subjective views may come to rest. The protagonists of the “favourite performance” are thus by equal means temporary presences – forms, signs, subjects or conceptual ideas – and
absences, too, since they evade definition because of their transitory nature.

Concept, realization, performance >> Barbara Kraus
Co-operation regarding the content with eine einer and Jack Hauser
Light Design Victor Duran
Project coordination theater & kunst: das Schaufenster

A co-production of Barbara Kraus and >> brut Wien. With financial support by >> Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien.


previous Performances

>> Opening Night / Barbara Kraus macht ihre Lieblingsperformance (only german)
>>
brut Künstlerhaus / Wien (A)
24.-26.1.2008 / 20.00

>> Albania Dance Meeting 2008
Alexander Moisiu Theatre / Durres (AL)
Sat, 19.4.2008 / 12.00
>> Impressions

>> TANZKONKRET
>>
Orangerie Theater im Volksgarten / Cologne (D)
Sun, 4.5.2008 / 20.30
>> Impressions

>> ImPulsTanz
>>
project space karlsplatz / Vienna (A)
Wed, 30.7., and Sat, 2.8.2008 / 23.00
>> bill

(Precise) Woodstock of Thinking
>>
Tanzquartier Wien – Studios / Vienna (A)
Fr, 19.9.2008 / 22.00

>> Tanzplattform Österreich 2009
>>
Helmut List Halle / Graz (A)
Fr., 30.1.2009 / 22.30
>> bill