You think you see what you are listening to. - Gertrude Ferrant
We are already very familiar with the French-German artist, Antonia Baehr. She was our guest two years ago, bringing us her extensive repertoire full of generous, philosophical and humorous performances that set gender and identity off balance among other themes.
This time, she will be working together with the long time collaborator choreographer Valérie Castan. Misses and Mysteries is at once a choreography, a Nouvelle Vague Drag Show, and a radio play. The process of audio description for visually impaired audiences is employed in order to verbally relate an imaginary performance. The spoken text describes imaginary choreographies, complemented on stage by the actions of performer, William Wheeler.
One can see and hear words, actions, dances, childhoods where everything comes into play, where everything is contingent on play, where everything is play: drag, star-crossed love, cannibalism, fetishism, animism…
EN spoken
60’
Concept, text, choreography: Antonia Baehr, Valérie Castan
Reader: Kate McIntosh (English version)
Performance, costume and choreography: William Wheeler
Music (inside piano, mixing board): Andrea Neumann
Scenography, lighting design: Antonia Baehr
Technical direction, lighting design: Rima Ben Brahim
Sound: Ian Douglas-Moore
English translation: Corinne Hundleby
Internship: Lois Bartel, Guy Marsan
Administration: Alexandra Wellensiek
Thank you to: Chantal Akerman, Antoine Doinel, Sabine Macher, Delphine Seyrig, Christophe Wavelet
Co-production: Kampnagel (Hamburg), Buda Kunstencentrum (Kortrijk), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Theater Freiburg (Freiburg), Festival Uzès Danse (Uzes), NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) Coproduction Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag
Supported by: Berliner Senatskanzlei für kulturelle Angelegenheiten, ausland / Berlin in the frame of the residence program, Artists in Residence program at fabrik Potsdam.
Antonia Baehr is a choreographer and a filmmaker. Her works explore the fiction of the everyday and of the theatre, among other themes. She works together with various partners, frequently in the form of role-play: from project to project, each participant alternately takes on the role of either guest or host. Baehr is the producer of the horse whisperer and dancer Werner Hirsch, the musician and choreographer Henri Fleur, the composer Henry Wilt and the husband Henry Wilde, a.o.. 2016 sees the development of a dance trio. Dancer & expert in audio description for dance Valérie Castan first cooperated with Antonia Baehr in 2005. She performed in Un après midi #10 and worked with Baehr to create the piece Danke. In 2007 the two worked together on Castan’s first film, Drama. Valérie Castan wrote a score for both of Baehr’s solo pieces Lachen and Abecedarium Bestiarium, and assisted in the scripting.
