Staged in Paris, London, Philadelphia and now Washington, DC, the cityscape itself becomes a dance floor with Bodies in Urban Spaces, created by Austrian choreographer Willi Dorner.
Dorner calls Bodies “A temporarily intervention in diversified urban architectonical environments. The intention is to point out the urban functional structure and to uncover the restricted movement possibilities and behaviour as well as rules and limitations”.
Bodies in Urban Spaces is a moving trail, choreographed for a group of local dancers. The performers lead the audience through selected parts of public and semi-public space, setting up a chain of physical interventions that appear quickly and only exist temporarily, allowing the viewer to perceive the same space or place in a new and different way – on the run. By working with dancers’ bodies in selected spots, these “interventions” provoke a thinking process – and also produce irritation! Passers-by, residents and audiences are motivated and prompted to reflect their urban surroundings, their own movements, behavior, and habits.
Moreover, “Bodies in Urban Spaces” invites residents and audiences to walk and rediscover their own city – thus establishing a stronger relationship to their neighborhoods and urban environments.
Vienna/Austria based dance company Cie. Willi Dorner was founded by Willi Dorner in 1999. Dorner’ss interdisciplinary works are developed in cooperation with artists and scientists of different fields, and have been presented at international festivals such as springdance NL, Kampnagel Hamburg, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Festival Paris Quartier d’été, Dansenshus Stockholm, Madrid En Danza, Dance Umbrella London, Tanz in Berlin and others.
