Thes Shift of Focus

Isabelle Schad

Shifting focus means adjusting the weight in relation to how we position ourselves from our own centre of gravity towards an action. On a metaphorical level it also refers to how we can shift our perspectives, our perception and focus, to other more universal forces.

In a landscape made of a soft fabric and flying panels creating an extension to the sky, fifteen performers negotiate their configurations between protagonist and chorus, archetypal and emergent forces, gravity and lightness, movement and voice. The panels reflect images like dreams and light as an energetic prolongation (of the performers/spectators), while the performers oscillate between flying them through the air and being flown by them. The reversal of roles seems endlessly variable, from puppet to puppeteer, from chosen one to chorus, from singular to plural, from carrying to carried in order to find lightness as an answer to gravity (and life). Along the way a web of hybrid constellations unfolds, intertwining bodies, movement and material, poetry and humour, caring softness and the wild flow of a group’s energy in motion.

Concept and Choreography: Isabelle Schad / Co-Choreography and Dance: Johanna Ackva, Viviana Defazio, Forough Fami, Josephine Findeisen, Veronika Heisig, Jasmin İhraç, David Kummer, Yen Lee, Manuel Lindner, Jan Lorys, Jennifer Schecker, Yusuke Taninaka, Claudia Tomasi, Aya Toraiwa, Maja Zimmerlin / Setdesign and Visuals: Umberto Freddi / Composition and Sound: Damir Simunovic / Voice training: Ignacio Jarquin / Lighting design: Emma Juliard / Video technician: Josef Maaß / Stage technician: Arnaud Lesage / Costume: likabari / Social Media: Rike Nölting / Editing and Outreach: Elena Basteri / Assistance choreography: Manuel Lindner, Claudia Tomasi, Nir Vidan / Production management: Heiko Schramm
Production: Isabelle Schad
Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Funded by: Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hauptstadtkulturfonds
Supported by: Wiesen55 e.V.

October 13-16, 2023, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1), Berlin