Seismic

Seismic – a dance and physical theatre production that places the scenographic construction at its conceptual heart. A piece for four international performers created by choreographer Marie Gourdain (FR) and dance and theatre maker Felix Baumann (DE).

The action takes place on an unstable and fragmented platform, which may tip, shake or break in response to the movements of the protagonists. It constitutes an extremely uncertain base whereupon the characters display themselves, alone, in pairs, or as a group – thereby risking life and limb. The figures encounter challenges in relation to each other, tirelessly navigating through the instability surrounding them, altering their behaviour, provoking risks, endangering balance and control, threatening to lose the ground under their feet. Situations transform from the ordinary to the absurd, from the banal to the metaphorical.

Through dance, humour and scenographic installation, Seismic tells about a relationship of mutual dependence, in which each body is simultaneously exposed to the mechanics of the space and of the other bodies – a permanent transformation of things in a circular and interdependent sense; a power relationship whose origins are blurred in the mix of events.

About the company

Marie Gourdain
Marie Gourdain is a French choreographer, scenographer and visual artist. She develops her artistic activities between Prague and Lyon. Her work merges her formation in the visual arts with contemporary dance drawing on the elements of graphic and sculptural composition and the detailed analysis of movement. She studied animation cinema at ENSAD Paris and the VŠUP in Prague. In 2015 she joined the physical theatre and dance collective tYhle and began her choreographic work. Today Marie has five pieces in the collective’s repertoire: UN (2016), LEGOrytmus (2017), Medúza (2018), Mu—Tation (2021) and Icarus (2021). In 2020, Marie received the first International Caroline-Neuber-Scholarship of the city of Leipzig for her choreographic work. She has recently created a new company in France called Matière Mobile.

Felix Baumann
Felix Baumann lives in Berlin and works since 2016 as a freelance dance and theater maker in an international context. After graduating in Physical Theatre at the Accademia Teatro Dimitri he founded the company “Von B bis Z | Baumann&Zöller GbR” and realizes projects at the border of dance, physical theater, circus and visual arts. His research and practice focus on an interdisciplinary approach that uses the tool of the body in action to show the absurdities of human life in a humorous way. His most recent work is particularly dedicated to the relationship between the body and scenographic material.

tYhle
tYhle is a collective of Czech and French artists based in Czech Republic. It is a platform for performance, dance, physical theatre and the visual arts, created by four young artists who share the same vision of the contemporary scene: its duty to experiment and eliminate barriers. The collective was founded in Brno in 2015 after already three years of collaboration of the performers Lukáš Karásek and Florent Golfier. They were later joined by the lighting designer Zuzana Režná and the scenographer/choreographer Marie Gourdain.
tYhle’s name is inspired by the Y generation. The letter Y can also be read graphically as the meeting point of different lines, directions, inspirations and backgrounds. One of tYhle’s aims is to build bridges between its two cultures.