nichts. ich werde da sein, indem ich nicht da bin

reviews

you can’t stay here,
but you can’t go on,
and you can’t go back either.
where are you?

»nothing. i’ll be there by not being there.« is a production inspired by samuel becketts’ »texts for nothing« (1955) – a diary and dialogue of a multiple personality. five dancers follow their different facets: on the lookout for the traces of their own selves, they illuminate gaps between body and soul, individual and society, dream and memory, space and time. lost objects from past, possible and future destinies cross their paths. differing in the here and now, elsewhere and nowhere, the figures explore inner landscapes – mirrors of the soul – like a daydream, clear and confusing at the same time.(the 1st part of the beckett-trilogy)

»…we walked together, hand in hand, silent,

sunk in our worlds, each in his worlds,

the hands forgotten in each other.«

(samuel beckett)

»bodies’ tender traces: (…) lucid and beautiful images (…) and wonderful dancing… .« (wz – westdeutsche zeitung, kornelia roskothen,wuppertal 2001)

»the musical timbres of ralf r. ollertz’s music range from icy to pompous, from archaic men’s choir to crackling electro clusters , while aiming at nuances, not triumph. that behooves entirely the dancers in their partly breathtaking solos …” (ballett international/ tanz aktuell, franz anton cramer, october 2001)

»this was an evening of high quality dance that was not easily accessible, but which received a lot of applause.« (waz – westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung, elisabeth höving, recklinghausen 2001)

a cie. toula limnaios production, commissioned by the north rhine-restphalia culture secretariat, in co-production with the stadttheater oberhausen and the theater am halleschen ufer berlin. funded by the capital cultural fund, and supported by the performing arts fund e.v. from the federal means.
guest performances: oberhausen, recklinghausen, berlin, wuppertal, essen
In 2004, “nothing …” (“nichts …”) was filmed for zdf / arte under the title “breath” (“atemzug”).

recreation in 2006 dance: nefeli skarmea, toula limnaios, hironori sugata, katja scholz, carlos osatinsky

concept/choreography

toula limnaios

music

ralf r. ollertz

dance/creation

ulrich huhn, josep caballero garcia, monica munoz marin, lara martelli, evelin stadler

lightdesign

klaus dust

public relation

silke wiethe

costumes

toula limnaios

videoprojections

cyan

fotos

cyan

reviews

»»beckett’s prose is brittle and desperate at the same time. in the same manner limnaios builds pictures and scenes into a tableau, the seriousness of which sometimes hurts without ever becoming obscure or superficial. limnaios’ choreography belongs to the basic dance values. clearly contoured moving figures, synchronic passages carefully settled into rhythm and flowing transitions to nuanced solos, they all structure this rhapsody inspired by beckett into a captivating portrait of physical intensity that seems to have escaped the desperate stream of words.
still, the ensemble makes the described disintegration of the personality clearly legible in terms of space and performance, not merely present. the mirror-like movements in front of and behind a barely perceptible gauze veil, the imperceptibly engaging and disengaging of individual dancers from the group passages, the constant commenting and duplication of the movement values through the shimmering video images, the pulsating, accented composition by ralf. r. ollertz, all of this, like the template, adds up to a picture of inaccessible inwardness. the project ›nothing‹ manages to pick up on beckett’s peculiar fascination with the organic and to interpret it completely independently and in a surprisingly straightforward manner.« (ballett international / tanz aktuell, franz anton cramer, 2001)

»in her choreographies she creates a poetry of humanity. time and again she succeeds in bringing the inner world of a human being to the surface. she doesn’t tell stories but dances moods that oscillate between being and not-being.
dance, music, video and light are media of equal value that condition, contrast and comment on each other. toula limnaios and ralf r. ollertz work with cyan and the lighting designer klaus dust. for ollertz, beckett’s text was the inspiration for the composition of various sound voices of a male choir founded especially for this production. they enclose the loneliness in their commonality. here one can simply be convinced of how poignantly ‘nothing’ can be danced between presence and absence. « (berliner morgenpost, andrea philippi, 2001)

»the cie. toula limnaios was very impressive at the festival »meeting neuer tanz«. there, they won one of this year’s award, presented by the kultursekretariat nordrhein-westfalen. that the decision was a good one could be seen at the world premiere of their piece at the theater oberhausen. (…) toula limnaios audaciously related imagination and reality, as well as real and fictitious images which seemed to mirror each other. the company’s artistic credo is to explore boundaries and to create magical spaces with dance, music, video and light. (…). the multiple personalities encounter each other tenderly and also at times ferociously in dance, but nevertheless remain alone in the search for themselves. this becomes very intense in the videos of cyan.« (nrz-neue ruhrzeitung, johannes k. glauber, oberhausen, 2001)

»as with samuel beckett, toula limnaios’s aim is not to reflect or comment on the different levels of a multiple personality but to elucidate their subtlest facets and to let them work on the consciousness in the same way as a freely-assembled series of images of highly emotional content. (…) the stage was covered by white sheets of gauze which projected light designer klaus dust’s play of colours and transformed figures into shadows. (…) the work is not meant to be interpreted in a concrete manner and is not easily accessible to passive consumption. the audience present at this performance grasped the concept and was captivated by the severe beauty of the performance.« (westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung, radegundis barrios , oberhausen, 2001)

»beckett’s prose is brittle and desperate at the same time. in the same manner limnaios builds pictures and scenes into a tableau, the seriousness of which sometimes hurts without ever becoming obscure or superficial. limnaios’ choreography belongs to the basic dance values. clearly contoured moving figures, synchronic passages carefully settled into rhythm and flowing transitions to nuanced solos, they all structure this rhapsody inspired by beckett into a captivating portrait of physical intensity that seems to have escaped the desperate stream of words.
still, the ensemble makes the described disintegration of the personality clearly legible in terms of space and performance, not merely present. the mirror-like movements in front of and behind a barely perceptible gauze veil, the imperceptibly engaging and disengaging of individual dancers from the group passages, the constant commenting and duplication of the movement values through the shimmering video images, the pulsating, accented composition by ralf. r. ollertz, all of this, like the template, adds up to a picture of inaccessible inwardness. the project ›nothing‹ manages to pick up on beckett’s peculiar fascination with the organic and to interpret it completely independently and in a surprisingly straightforward manner.« (frankfurter allgemeine zeitung, franz anton cramer, 2001)

»between dream and reality /// an impressive evening inspired by beckett (…) the theme of this choreography is the inner world of a multiple personality in all its not always perceptible structures. the spectator gets drawn into a surreal, only emotionally tangible stream of different moods. the stage is covered with white sheets of gauze. the five dancers enter this surreal landscape in slow motion. the sound of a male choir floats softly over the scene. the music darts through the space, pulling the strange spheres closer together. (…)the superb dancers are brilliant in synchronous scenes, but they are also convincing in poetic soli and powerful duos or trios in which the rhythm continuously changes. this was an evening of high quality dance that was not easily accessible, but which received a lot of applause.« (westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung, elisabeth höving, recklinghausen, 2001)

»bodies’ tender traces: (…) lucid and beautiful images (…) and wonderful dancing‚.« (westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung, kornelia roßkothen, wuppertal,2001)

»there is a clatter, there is a clang, a male choir singing in the distance. five dancers step one by one onto the stage. a film is gradually projected onto the white screen in the background of the stage.
the company won the nationwide competition. and toula limnaios is talented! Impressions in a visual form, acoustic fragments and dance facets shortly come together on stage to form a whole. and that is exactly what makes this project so special.« (neue ruhrzeitung, stm, oberhausen, 2001, stm, oberhausen, 2001)

»she does not want to tell stories. the dance of toula limnaios elicits an emotional response from the viewer to various atmospheres. emotions mirror the movements. the choreography was inspired by samuel beckett’s ‘texts about nothing’ from 1955, the interior monologue of a man isolated from the world as well as from himself. (…) the composer ralf r. ollertz has managed wonderfully to capture this using a male choir as a symbol for isolation and loneliness. more gentle, more reserved than pina bausch with whom she worked, but no less intense, limnaios depicts the hopelessness in an equally poetic and foreboding manner…« (westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung, hb, oberhausen,2001)

»a bold poetess. the choreographer toula limnaios explores landscapes of the soul. her latest piece ›nothing. i will be there by not being there‹ inspired by beckett’s texts, brings five dancers to the ingeniously illuminated stage of the theater on halleschen ufer. to the shimmering video recordings and crackling music, ›nothing‹ shows a series of loneliness, consolation and waiting, measured, cleverly composed and impressively danced. playtime. the monthly supplement for theater, music and dance. « (tagesspiegel / ticket, franz anton cramer, october 2001, berlin)

»the exquisiteness of the troupe and their choreographer’s style, the careful composition and the strangely subdued lyricism are heightened in »nowhere« to rare preciosity.« (tip, 2001, berlin)

cie. toula limnaios