How is a dance piece created, how does contemporary dance work and how does an ensemble of dancers find an expressive movement language under the direction of a choreographer?
In the documentary THE UNSEEN SIGN, the choreographer and her team explore these questions, from the project idea, research and rehearsals to the premiere of the dance performance DIE SEHERINNEN in January 2022 in the project space of the Kunstverein Wagenhalle.
The film focuses on the question of our non-verbal communication behavior. What does our physical-gestural behavior say about us and what does it hide? Are we becoming seers.
Film premiere with dance performance from DIE SEHERINNEN Excerpts from the play in public space in front of the Atelier am Bollwerk
June 20, 2023, 7 pm Atelier am Bollwerk, Hohe Straße 26, 70176 Stuttgart Tickets: on a donation basis, registration is requested: tickets@julietteviellemin.de
Directed by Juliette Villemin / Dancing Anika Bendel, Sawako Nunotani, Jeff Pham, Johannes Walter / with the interview partners Caroline Bäßler, Marcel Brunnes, Johanna Looser, Matthias Nagel, Rosa / Camera Ebrahim Alfadhala, Zakarea Alsadi, Maud Mascré / Camera work Ebrahim Alfadhala, Maud Mascré / Editing Ebrahim Alfadhala / Color correction Ebrahim Alfadhala Music production, composition Claudia Jane Scroccaro / Sound production Kevin Sliwinski / Translation Michaela Kobsa-Mark / Subtitles Michaela Kobsa-Mark, Juliette Villemin / Text editing Bernhard M. Eusterschulte, Natalie Knappik, Juliette Villemin / Photo, Graphic Daniela Wolf / Production management Natalie Knappik / Corporate management Anika Bendel
A production by Juliette Villemin & Team, realized by Produktion Juliette Villemin GbR.
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR. Dance Aid Program.
Premiere on September 29, 2022 at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, T3
Dance theater by Juliette Villemin & team in cooperation with TARTproduktion
When everything is public, what is still private? More and more often, we are witnessing private, perhaps even intimate communications in public, often involuntarily. On social platforms, we hear and hear what we could have done without as information and are – perhaps – unpleasantly touched. Or is it precisely this insight into the private sphere that triggers us? And hasn’t the sale of private, even intimate, long since become social normality? Juliette Villemin & Team’s dance theater explores questions like these for dance and its movement vocabulary. Doesn’t the movement that leads and shows the dancer in his/her exposed physicality always already open up a private, perhaps intimate space in public?
Five performers, representing five generations, go in search of traces and, guided by the groove of a drum kit, gently and powerfully, sound out the relationship between the public and the private from movement.
An interactive dance research on INTIMACY took place between July and September 2022. A research laboratory was set up by inviting artists and professionals from outside the field and interested parties across genres, disciplines and generations. It offered space for the exchange of experiences, put different aspects of social media behavior up for discussion, and performatively tested dance practice. The lab focused on the question of motivations and effects of self-presentation behavior for public space and social cohesion. The results of the work were presented on September 17, 2022 in the rehearsal room of the Kulturamt Stuttgart.
Press commentary:
“What becomes clear is: True intimacy needs trust, demands risk. A captivating evening that makes you think and is fun.” (Petra Mostbacher-Dix in the Stuttgarter Zeitung issue October 1-2, 2022)
“The concern of the choreographic production of this dance theater by Juliette Villemin, with the dramaturge and stage designer Bernhard M. Eusterschulte, not least thanks to the so authentic company with Anika Bendel, Arika-Lilach Boris, Francisco Ladrón de Guevara, Margarethe Weckerle and the performing percussionist Hans Fickelscher, convinces and touches. ” (Boris Michael Gruhl in Tanznetz 10.10.2022) Intimacy Villemin Stuttgart (tanznetz.de)
Patrons:
A production by Juliette Villemin & Team. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Aid Program Dance. And sponsored by the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V., with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg. The performances are sponsored by Freie Tanz- und Theaterszene Stuttgart gUG, with funds from the Kulturamt Stuttgart.
Surely you often ask yourself in conversation how you come across to others? Because you know, just like your counterpart, that your appearance, posture, gestures and facial expressions communicate. And you have the uneasy feeling that it speaks of another reality that the other person might believe to be true.
Our bodies tell stories about who we are and who we want to be. 16 people have made themselves available to the project and provide insights into their personal body language. The dance project DIE SEHERINNEN by choreographer Juliette Villemin is an exercise in and a reflection on our non-verbal communication behaviour.
Premiere on 27 January 2022 in the project space Kunstverein Wagenhalle.
Other performances January 28-30 and April 24 at APOLLONIA, 23 rue Boecklin, 67000 STRASBOURG The Seers – La Montagne / Panoramas (lamontagne-traficdart.com)
Dance: Anika Bendel, Sawako Nunotani, Jeff Pham, Johannes Walter
Music composition: Claudia Jane Scroccaro
Stage and costumes: Justyna Koeke
Photos and graphics: Daniela Wolf
Video and documentation: Alexander Schmidt
Dramaturgy: Bernhard M. Eusterschulte
Lighting design and technical direction: Ingo Jooß
Production Assistant: Natalie Knappik
Financial management: Anika Bendel
Patrons:
DIE SEHERINNEN is the subject of the documentary film THE UNSEEN SIGN, which is supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Support Program Dance.
The performances were supported by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the special programme “NEUSTART KULTUR” (BKM) and the state capital Stuttgart. TANZPAKT Stuttgart is an alliance of Akademie Schloss Solitude, Freie Tanz- und Theaterszene Stuttgart, Musik der Jahrhunderte, Produktionszentrum Tanz und Performance, Theater Rampe and the Cultural Office of the State Capital Stuttgart.
The production “Die Seherinnen” was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR (research), the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart, the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V., with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Foundation of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
Cooperation partners are the Produktionszentrum Tanz+Performance e.V. Stuttgart, FTTS gUG and the Kunstverein Wagenhalle Stuttgart e.V.
A photo project in collaboration with the artist and photographer Daniela Wolf.
In the project “A Room to Yourself”, the dancer and choreographer Juliette Villemin, inspired by the observational and questioning photography of Daniela Wolf, embarks on a search for the possibilities of her physical expression. A selection of the resulting photo series will be on view at the Kulturkiosk Stuttgart from 19 December 2021 and Sara Dahme will lead a discussion with the artists at 4 pm.
The project was funded by two scholarships from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts.
With the kind support of Sara Dahme (KULTURKIOSK)
At the KULTURKIOSK from 19 December 2021. Lazarettstr. 5 – 70182 Stuttgart
The new production by JV & Team deals with desire as an existential condition of being human. Inspired by Denis Diderot’s dialogical rambling novel “Jacques the Fatalist and his Master”, in which the servant binds his master to himself by recounting adventures in love, we question the way desire is dealt with today, in a neoliberal, enlightened and consumerist society.
“Dear sir, one spends three quarters of one’s life wanting to act without acting”.(Denis Diderot, “Jacques the Fatalist and His Master” Winkler Verlag, Munich. 1979)
Further performances: 29 and 30 September at 8 pm each.
Conveyor
Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart, Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V., with funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Foundation of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
The cooperation partner is the Produktionszentrum Tanz+Performance e.V. Stuttgart.
It sits in our bones, brings beads of sweat to our foreheads and makes our pulse climb to our throats. Fear is a fascinating emotion that can both paralyse and inspire us. It ranges from dull anxiety, lightning-like fright to a pleasant creepiness. But what does it trigger? How does it feel physically? And how does it influence our actions? PHOBIAGORA approaches this emotion through moving images.
Inspired by the sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who found metaphors for her fears in her famous “Cells” – enclosed cell-like spaces – the performance also creates “places of fear”. Four characters face their fears. They question their biographies, jump over their shadows and also confront the audience with the many faces of fear.
The project was based on a survey designed for this purpose, which served as a source of inspiration.
Dance: Marina Grün, Kirill Berezovski, Verena Wilhelm, Johannes Walter
Media, Room: Nadja Weber
Graphic: Natalia Paschkevich
Costumes: Julia Poerschke
Music Production & Composition: Benedikt Immerz
Technical direction & lighting design: Alexander Joseph
Press relations: Marie-Christine Kesting
Dates & venues
Premiere: 24 October 2018, further performances: 26 and 27 October 2018
Theaterhaus Stuttgart, T4
Conveyor
The Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart, Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V., with funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, and the Foundation of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
Cooperation partner
Production Centre Dance+Performance e.V. Stuttgart
Press commentary:
“Juliette Villemin’s dance performance “Phobiagora” traces an anxiety that is omnipresent right now.” A “strong image and a bizarre bow to Louise Bourgeois.”
(Stuttgarter Zeitung, 25.10.18)
“Phobiagora proves itself through a skilful mix of humour and seriousness”. (tanznetz, 25.10.2018)
Revival 26 and 27 June 2018 at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart (T4).
The complex dance, sound and media performance SYNCHRONICITY deals with our inner time and the subjective perception of time. Don’t we all run after time and just wish that time would stand still? The suspension of time, a utopia?
The musical starting point is the ideas about temporality of Steve Reich and Franz Schubert, two composers who could not be more different. Pioneer of minimal music Steve Reich wrote in 1969 that he was “only interested in music that works on time change” (free translation by the author) ¹. Like many of his 20th century contemporaries, Reich harboured a desire for the unlimited present and thus a desire to “suspend” time and its chronological sequence.
For Franz Schubert, however, according to writer and musician Albert Breier, “time was a problem”². The composer, who was at the transition from the classical to the romantic period, created 700 chamber music pieces, symphonies, songs and other musical works in only 31 years of his life.
Inspired by this, SYNCHRONICITY takes up the theme of temporality in music, contemporary dance and interpersonal relationships, developing its very own understanding of time.
Involved
Idea, choreography, direction: Juliette Villemin Dance: Hygin Delimat, Marina Grün Violin: Ulrike Stortz Percussion/music design: Benedikt Immerz Lighting design: Alexander Joseph Media: Nadja Weber Production: Katharina de Andrade Ruiz
Dates & venues
Revival: 26 and 27 June 2018 at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart (T4)
Premiere: 1 June 2017, 8.30 pm FiTZ! (Centre for Figure Theatre Stuttgart) Eberhardstraße 61 Cultural area “Unterm Turm D-70173 Stuttgart Preview: at Produktionszentrum Tanz+Performance e.V. Stuttgart in May 2017
Further dates: 2 and 3 June 2017, both at 8.30 p.m. 4 June 2017 at the Mannheim Festival Free Dance in the Delta
Press commentary
“There is cracking and laughter in the rows of spectators. Who can endure it longer, the silence of non-action? This is one of many strong moments of Juliette Villemin’s production of “Synchronicity”, which premiered on Thursday at the Figurentheater FiTZ. To her rhythms, Marina Grün and Hygin Delimat get into the dance battle, react to each other, animate each other to kicks, turns and artistic lifts. But Villemin also makes light, sound and video the protagonists, designed by Alexander Joseph and Nadja Weber.”(Petra Mostbacher-Dix, 5 June 2017, StN)
“Getting on the same wavelength is difficult. Marina Grün and Hygin Delimat manage to set themselves tasks without words in “Synchronicity” by Juliette Villemin (Stuttgart) […] Original figures emerge from their playful wrangling. Played out more quickly, the sequence leads to a pas de deux. The excerpt from this clever play about temporality makes you want more!” (Mannheim 7 June 2017, Antje Landmann. Die Rheinpalz)
“Another duo takes the tension relationship to the extreme in “Synchronicity”. Juliette Villemin, a choreographer based in Stuttgart, explores our relationship to time. In the process, she lets your couple play until the tension transforms […]”(Mannheim, 6 June 2017, Nora Abdel Rahman. Mannheimer Morgen)
Sponsors & Cooperation Partners
The production was funded by LaFT Baden-Württemberg, the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts BW and the LBBW Foundation. It was created in cooperation with the Produktionszentrum Tanz+Performance e.V. Stuttgart and the FITZ! Centre for Figure Theatre Stuttgart.
To financially support the project, a creative crowdfunding campaign ran until 30.05.2017, you can find more info HERE.
Videos
References
¹ Reich, Steve (1970): “Some optimistic predictions”. In: Hillier, Paul (ed.): Writings on Music, 1965-2000, New York. S. 44. ² Breier, Albert (2005): “Music as the Art of Time. An Address.” http://media.albert-breier.de/essays/Albert-Breier-Rede-MusikAlsKunstDerZeit.pdf (22.01.2016).
MONTE VERITÀ – RAUMDEUTUNGEN examines the expanded modalities of reference between body and space developed in classical modernism from the perspective of dance and the visual arts. The starting point is the dance experiments created 100 years ago in the artists’ colony Monte Verità. Under the artistic direction of Juliette Villemin, dancers and students of the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart explored the relationship between modern dance and visual art.
How much are the references established then still part of our understanding of body and space today?
Künstlerische Leitung & Choreografie: Juliette Villemin Wissenschaftliche und künstlerische Beratung: Claudia Fleischle-Braun, und Gisela Sprenger Choreografie & Tanz: Marina Grün, Èlodie Laurière, Sawako Nunotani, Kira Senkpel Installationen / Objekte: Deborah Bay, Christine Braun, Laura Fröhlich, Nora Haser, Katarina Holstein, Julia Smolka Performance: Sabrina Karl, Mira Simon Projektionen: Viviana Gulli Kostüm für Solo Sawako Nunotani: Kerstin Stahl Sound: Cristian Villafane Lichtgestaltung: Siggi Kalnbach, Hanno Schupp Lichtassistenz: Lisa Mühleisen Technische Leitung: Siggi Kalnbach Technik: Daniel Frey Produktion: Nele Ana Riepi Fotos: Uka Meissner Video: Uwe Kassai Grafik: Tina Kimmerle Pressearbeit: Nicola Steller
Termine & Spielorte
Premiere: 26.06.2014 um 19 und 21 Uhr
Weitere Termine: 27. und 28.06.2014 um 19 und 21 Uhr 29.06.2014 um 18 und 20 Uhr //
Heusteigtheater In Heusteigstraße 45, Stuttgart 70180
Weitere Spielorte:
Bauhaus Dessau , Februar 2014 Kunstakademie in Berlin, Mai 2014
Förderer & Kooperationspartner
Gefördert von TANZFONDS ERBE – Eine Initiative der Kulturstiftung des Bundes sowie dem Landesverband Freier Theater BW, dem Kulturamt Stuttgart und die Stiftung LBBW. In Kooperation mit dem Produktionszentrum Tanz+Performance e.V. und der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. Unterstützt von teilchenbeschleuniger.
Dank Dank an das Archiv Darstellende Kunst / Akademie der Künste Berlin, das Deutsche Tanzarchiv Köln, die Grafische Sammlung und Bibliothek / Kunsthaus Zürich und die Sondersammlungen Tanzarchiv / Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig.
Pressestimmen (Auszug)
„Die in Stuttgart lebende Tänzerin und Choreografin Juliette Villemin erinnert derzeit im Heusteigtheater mit ihrem Projekt „Monte Verità – Raumdeutungen“ an die Querdenker von einst. Der Titel deutet an, dass es der Spanierin um einen sehr spezifischen Aspekt geht. Doch wer bei der Premiere am Donnerstag auf die Zitate traf, die Ideen der Pianistin Ida Hofmann oder des Tänzers Rudolf von Laban im Vorraum der Bühne versammeln, erkennt schnell, dass der Raum auch Synonym sein kann. Für erdrückende Ordnung, für Macht und Zwänge, wie Ida Hofmann notierte.“ (Andrea Kachelriess 28. Juni 2014 , StN)
The solo to Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C major illustrates the dichotomy of artists between self-promotion and self-discovery. How far do I have to sell myself in order to be successful? And where does the dependence on the opinions of others leave the real me?
Dance & Choreography Juliette Villemin
Dates & venues
euro-scene Leipzig. Festival of contemporary European theatre and dance, 2005
Rotebühltheater Stuttgart, 2006/2007.
International May Festival Wiesbaden, programme “Seitensprunge”, at the Wartburg Theatre. Dance: Rosa Romero, 2007.
Award
“bestselbstseller” was nominated in 2005 at the euro-scene Leipzig. Festival of Contemporary European Theatre and Dance for Best German Dance Solo.
Press commentary
Juliette Villemin, “once a dancer in Wiesbaden, has conceived an intentionally enigmatic, emphatically contemporary solo for Rosa Romero called “all-ein”, whose chalk circles allow all kinds of associations”. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 31.05.2007, EVA-MARIA MAGEL)
