PRESS · Darmstädter Echo · 22.10.2024

22 | 10 | 2024

By Stefan Benz

"DARMSTADT - A man and a girl have to fight their way through a post-apocalyptic world full of zombified cannibals. Classic shooter material for nerds who play Playstation games in musty rooms between pizza boxes? Not necessarily, says dancer and filmmaker Zoe Schreckenberg. For her dance solo “Wenn es plötzlich still wird”, she was inspired by the game action adventure “The Last of Us”: “A masterpiece,” she enthuses.

Tension in the face of omnipresent danger Her new piece is primarily about tension in the face of omnipresent danger. Schreckenberg already showed what happens when this tension is unleashed a year ago in the fight choreography “Foot to Head” with a dance partner between building fences and thunderbolts. It really rattled - and was inspired, among other things, by a legendary sequence from the action film “Atomic Blonde”, in which a female agent fights and shoots her way through a stairwell with seven opponents until she is completely exhausted. Of course it's a riot at first, but the way Schreckenberg analyzes the action is about the rhythm of the bodies in the room. However, she is not interested in the aestheticization of the fight, in martial arts ballet.
“I'm looking for realism. It's also about the banal and the ugly,” she says during the conversation in the ballet hall of the Darmstadt State Theater, where the markings for the current dance evening ‘Broken Bob’ are still stuck to the floor. But now, for the next few days, the space belongs to Schreckenberg and her piece, which will be premiered at the
Rhein-Main dance festival.

After the powerful double “Foot to the Head”, the solo is quieter for the time being. “I want to go deeper,” says Schreckenberg. To do this, she did some research with a special police unit: How do they deal with fear there? Is it in the neck or in the stomach? And what tensions and reflexes are in the body after physical confrontations? Schreckenberg wants to trace what people have internalized in violent situations before it breaks out. This initially involves glances or the shifting of weight. “But it can be quite powerful,” says the woman with the long hair and the friendly smile that doesn't seem threatening at all. Is she also concerned with the militant emancipation of women? “That's definitely part of it, but I don't make it an issue.” For Schreckenberg, the movement is more important than the message. When her solo is finished, she wants to process her findings about fight scenes on film and see how the camera has to behave between opponents.

Film and stage have belonged together for Schreckenberg (born in 1991) from an early age. She is the daughter of Darmstadt film producer Günter Schreckenberg, also known as the regular photographer of the Staatstheater. After graduating from high school, she went to Vienna to study in 2011, where she got to know the dance and performance scene. Having grown up with apparatus gymnastics, she explored contemporary dance forms as well as film stunt techniques, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and knife fighting.
Although she has worked in Paris and has her sights set on Athens as a theater venue, her old home in Darmstadt provides a good basis for her next steps into the world of dance."

KOHLE SAUER WASSER

01 | 08 | 2020

My movie KOHLE SAUER WASSER celebrates its online premiere on the Australien Platform Dance Cinema Organisation. There is also a 20-minute interview with me to be found.
I want to thank Melissa Ramos, the Founding Director and Co-Curator of Dance Cinema Organisation, my film crew and all the sponsors. 

Website: 
https://www.dancecinema.org/kohle-sauer-wasser.html

SCREENING AT THE INSHADOW FESTIVAL LISBON 2019

11 |12 | 2019

My movie KOHLE SAUER WASSER was screened at the INSHADOW Festival 2019 in Lisbon. 
I want to thank the INSHADOW Team and the directors Ana Rita Barata and Pedro Sena Nunes for the invitation! 
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Festival:
https://www.voarte.com/en/festvoarte/inshadow/apresentacao

Movie Website: 
www.plasticdancemovie.com
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Teaser:
https://youtu.be/SKp1cXjAPvk