this thing i am
Homo sapiens is originally a technical being. Tekhné (in the sense of ability, art, technique) originally fulfils phusis: the anthropological is originally techno-logical. The prosthesis is the non-substantial substance of man. […] In that perspective we would claim that, anthropologically speaking, dance originally served as an opening of the properties of the body, or rather as an experimentation of the techniques of the body, that is to say, the demonstration of the body as the tekhné par excellence, the techno-logical becoming of the body. That meant that dance, and performances as well, provide an open space for body experimentation, for experimenting with its techniques […]..
Boyan Manchev: Transformance: the body of event
Now she swayed and came slowly down the steps, moving with a suppleness just a little better than human. The swaying strengthened. By the time she reached the stage floor she was dancing. But it was no dance that any human creature could ever have performed. The long, slow, languorous rhythms of her body would have been impossible to a figure hinged at its joints as human figures hinge.
Catherine L. Moore: No Woman Born
Künstlerische Leitung: Martin Nachbar
Tanz & Choreografie: Lisa Densem, Sunniva Vikør Egenes, Benjamin Pohlig
Kostüme: Marion Montel
Licht: Bruno Pocheron
Bühne: Marion Montel, Martin Nachbar, Jeroen Peeters
Produktionsmanagement: Susanne Beyer
Musik: The Necks, Francisco Lopez, Johann Baptist Strauss, Hildegard Westerkamp, Gustav Holst
by martin nachbar
We have always tried to improve our bodies and compensate for deficiencies through technology: pacemakers and hearing aids, chips and smartphones – these are no longer the stuff of science fiction. In the body of a cyborg, the boundaries between body and technology become blurred: biological and technological material merge.
This Thing I Am by Berlin-based choreographer, performer and researcher Martin Nachbar sees itself as a possible encounter with ‘what we could have been,’ as he himself says. The trade journal tanz classifies the production for three performers as an ‘entertaining experimental arrangement’ that focuses on constant self-optimisation and the expansion of bodies.