Peng! Peng!
Rika Yotsumoto & Daniil Shchapov
The bouquet of flowers begins to wilt. Quickly swat the mosquito before it attaches its stinger to your skin! Visit grandma’s gravestone on Sunday. In many ways, we encounter death almost every day of our lives. Early or late, we experience the finite nature of life, the need to say goodbye, and the grief that comes with it. This feeling may feel strange and inexplicable, especially to children. What exactly am I feeling? How do I express it? Does it have color, shape, a weight? Can it perhaps speak or even clench its fists?
“Peng! Peng!” is an interdisciplinary performance of dance and object theater that explores the thematic complexity of death in a playful, theatrical way and gives these varied feelings plasticity, turning them into something tangible, perhaps even measurable.
Duration: 1 h including the audience discussion on 20.10.
Duration: 45 min on 21.10. with a workshop following at 16 h
Rika Yotsumoto grew up in Munich and studied contemporary dance at Reed College. During her studies, Rika additionally trained at Gibney Dance Center NYC and Paris Summer Academy and danced for Oriantheatre Dance Company (FR) under the direction of Mehdi Farajpour. Since finishing her dance education Rika lives in Dresden and works as a freelance dancer, among others with Staatsschauspiel Dresden, go plastic company and Polymer DMT/Fang Yun-Lo. Her choreographic work include Land of Nod (2018), waves (2019, in collaboration with Tabea Wittulsky), and La maladie de porcelaine (work in progress).
Daniil Shchapov studied contemporary puppetry at the Hochschule für Schauspiel “Ernst Busch” in Berlin from 2013 to 2016. He worked as a guest at the Theater an der Angel Magdeburg and the Puppentheater Magdeburg. In 2015 he was artist in residence in Queensland Brisbane as part of Robotranica. With his diploma production “Requiem for a Dove” he was invited to the 45th Fritz Wortelmann Prize of the city of Bochum. Since 2017 he has been part of the ensemble of the Puppet Theater of the tjg. theater junge generation. In Dresden, he has worked with Ania Michaelis, Nis Søgaard, Jos Van Kaan, and Ariel Doron, among others. Starting with the 2022/2023 season, he will work as a freelance puppeteer and performing artist.
Concept and production: Rika Yotsumoto and Daniil Shchapov
Performance: Rika Yotsumoto and Daniil Shchapov
Costumes and stage: Melanie Kintzinger
Mediation: Nicole Dietz
Outside Eye: Nora Otte
explore dance – Netzwerk Tanz für junges Publikum ist ein Kooperationsprojekt von fabrik moves Potsdam, Fokus Tanz/Tanz und Schule e.V. München, K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg und seit Juli 2022 HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste. explore dance – Netzwerk Tanz für junges Publikum wird gefördert durch TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien und durch die Kommunen und Länder der Projektpartner. Das Dresdner Projekt wird seit Juli 2022 gefördert durch das Sächsische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst sowie die Landeshauptstadt Dresden.