toula

cie. toula limnaios

if I was real – münster 2016

reviews

»there is not love of life, without despair about life.« (camus)
in his essay »l’envers et l’endroit/ betwixt and between« camus reflects his feelings of alienation in a world, which he perceived to be paradox, in which human life is fundamentally absurd, but which is nevertheless worth living, even happily. in »if i was real« eight dancers oscillate in a split space between these two poles: creating images full of secret hidden coherencies, which seem simultaneously strange and familiar. created in 2013 for her own company, toula limnaios has now created a new version for and with the tanztheatermünster.

»astonishing how toula limnaios and her company reinvent themselves over and over again.« (neues deutschland, karin schmidt-feister, 2013)

 

»whereas in ›if i was real‹, she surprisingly leaves fate, pain and suffering behind and takes off into a round dance of festive-wild beauty.« (kulturradio, frank schmid, 2013)

(guestappearance of tanztheatermünster)

a tanztheatermünster production (2016): artistic director & chief choreographer: hans henning paar, associate artistic director, assistant & training instructor: lászló nyakas, dramaturgy & management: esther von der fuhr

photos: berg

concept/choreography

toula limnaios

music

ralf r. ollertz

dance/creation

ensemble of tanztheatermünster: maria bayarri pérez, mirko de campi, adam dembczynski, agnès girard, priscilla fiuza, jason franklin, ako nakanome, tri thanh pham, alessio sanna, elizabeth towles, keelan whitmore

assistance

lászló nyakas, giacomo corvaia

space/costumes

antonia limnaios, toula limnaios

reviews

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»the cie. toula limnaios takes a special place in the big dance scene of berlin. it has been working in berlin continuously for 15 year, it has had its own venue – halle in prenzlauer berg for 10 years, and, besides the company of sasha waltz, it is the only company in berlin working with a permanent dance ensemble.
despair and love /// inspired by camus – is the appropriate description of this choreography. namely, the inspirational material were early essays, camus’ erstling light and shadow from 1937. yet, it is impossible to translate camus into images, toula limnaios just said in an interview. however, references can be found: inspired by camus, light and shadow here are to be understood as rejection and acceptance of the world as it is, as consciously experienced strangeness and celebration of its beauty, as despair in life and love for life, all of which inseparably belongs together, as camus says. It’s a field of tension in which toula limnaios nevertheless moves. she does so in her existentially based magical realism, to which poetry and drama belong as sisters. whereas in her new choreography, she surprisingly leaves fate, pain and suffering behind and and takes off into a round dance of festive-wild beauty.«  (kulturradio, frank schmid, 2013)

»a janus-faced dance between thin lines /// … spaces slide in and out of each other…
astonishing how toula limnaios and her company, based in the halle tanzbühne for 10 years now, reinvent themselves over and over again.
on the stage divided in three spaces, eight performers wander between worlds. … in the polyphonic solo and group images, the protagonists are barely reminiscent of lone warriors, of ragged individuals who wear themselves out fighting each other. no, in her new work toula limnaios permanently dissolves the powerful unison formations. she creates sensual movement reflections, full of fleeting and sensitive beauty.
inspired by camus’ ›l’envers et l’endroit / light and shadow‹, the versatile company ›cie. toula limnaios‹ bestows us a danced essay on possibilities of being. silent, mysterious, open to new perspectives, a bit crazy.« (neues deutschland, karin schmidt-feister, 2013)