Wandeln
Katja Erfurth
Dance theatre for everyone young and old.
Everything in life is in constant transformation, change, conversion. From the night awakens the day, after the winter follows the spring, in the seed grows the sprout, the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, children learn to crawl, walk, jump…
Dance, music and clay form the changing ingredients of the living symbols. Dancer Katja Erfurth and violinist Florian Mayer use the element of clay to create wordless, poetic motifs that tell of life’s transformations and changes. They knead, roll, poke, stomp adventurous landscapes and imaginative figures, which, no sooner created, transform into the next figures…
Duration: ca. 1 h
Without language
Recommended for everyone 6 years and older
Family tickets for 25€
Following the performance there will be an audience discussion, ca. 18 h on 16.12.
Katja Erfurth: dancer and choreographer
1981-90 Dance studies at the Palucca Schule Dresden, followed by an engagement in the ballet ensemble of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. Since 1997 freelance work, including numerous solo recitals, choreographies for productions in music and spoken theater as well as for school dance projects. Teaching position at the Dresden University of Music in the areas of movement, dance and improvisation. With the dance evening Tänze in SCHWARZWEISS, dedicated to Dore Hoyer, she was nominated for the Saxon Dance Award 2015.
Katja Erfurth is a member of the Saxon Academy of Arts and Vice President of the Saxon Cultural Senate. She also serves on various professional and cultural advisory boards and juries. As chairwoman of the board of the Villa Wigman for DANCE association, she is decisively involved in the use of the former Wigman School as a production house for dance and other performing arts. Together with Julia Amme, Johanna Roggan and Josefine Wosahlo, she forms the management team of the Villa Wigman. In 2020, Katja Erfurth received the Art Prize of the state capital Dresden. Katja Erfurth has had close artistic partnerships with Florian Mayer, Sabine Köhler and Helmut Oehring for many years.
Florian Mayer: Violinist
Studied classical violin at the Dresden University of Music. Florian Mayer loves experimentation and surprises in his concerts with new discoveries, unusual playing styles and program combinations. 1997-2005 Dresden Symphony Orchestra. 2006-2013 group Das Blaue Einhorn. In addition, scenic theater work, including in Anatevka at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Staatstheater Cottbus. There also gypsy violinist in Gräfin Mariza. In the special center of his activity are the appearances as a solo artist with own programs. Thus, among other things, he made guest appearances with My Paganini at the Master Concerts at Albrechtsberg Castle and together with the solo harpist Astrid von Brück in the Chamber Recital of the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden. In 2014 the solo CD Elf Präludien for solo violin with his own compositions was released. 2015 the live recording Mein Paganini and 2021 the CD book Mein Paganini – HERBSTREISE. Since 1995 collaboration with Katja Erfurth. Numerous joint productions and dance pieces.
Helmut Oehring: composer, author, choreographer, director
Born in 1961 in Berlin (East). Grew up as a child of deaf parents with sign language as his mother tongue. Self-taught as a guitarist and composer. Not admitted to university studies in the GDR due to repeated conscientious objection, Oehring became a master student of Georg Katzer at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1990. In 1990 he received a scholarship from the Akademie Schloss Solitude and in 1994/95 a scholarship from the Villa Massimo in Rome.Numerous awards including Hanns Eisler Prize (1990), Orpheus Chamber Opera Prize Italy (1995), Hindemith Prize (1997) and Arnold Schoenberg Prize (2008). Today, his oeuvre includes about 500 works of almost all genres, which are performed worldwide. In 2011 btb/Randomhouse published his autobiography Mit anderen Augen. From Child of Deaf Parents to Composer, which was produced as a radio play by SWR in 2015, directed by him. Oehring is a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts and the Saxon Academy of the Arts, as well as the Academy of German Music Authors. In 2015 he received the German Music Authors Award in the category of music theater. In 2020/21 he was Excellence Fellow of Villa Aurora/Thomas Mann Haus in Los Angeles. Currently, Helmut Oehring is writing exclusively for an international publisher on his second book, a biographical montage novel about his deaf brother entitled: ALEX und der erlösende Fehler im System. Since 2019, Helmut Oehring has been closely collaborating with Katja Erfurth in premiered compositions and choreographies, including. for the dance theater Κασσάνδρα / KASSANDRA – Zunge: reißen (2021, HELLERAU), the duo for dancer and violin κάθαρσις / KATHARSIS I (2021, Societaetstheater Dresden), the filmEssay zwischenORT (2022, Societaetstheater Dresden), and most recently the TanzFilmMusikInstallation EURYDIKE? vol. 2 (November 2023, HELLERAU).
Nicole Meier: Cultural Manager
Born in Switzerland in 1976. Studied to become a stage dancer at the Palucca Schule Dresden – Hochschule für Tanz. After a career as a dancer and choreographer, she now organizes culture, choreographs revolution, manages art and dances in politics and education. She likes seafood when she is by the sea and thinks lime rollers in the old town are dumb. Her favorite color is orange and she likes to always be a little different. She has kept her Swiss punctuality and neatness and her conscientiousness distinguishes her. She has been working with Katja Erfurth for a long time in a wide variety of projects and functions and is looking forward to further collaboration!
Sabine Köhler: Puppeteer und figure maker
2003-2007 studied puppetry at the HFS Ernst Busch Berlin. Since then freelance work as a puppeteer and object performer and in the field of set design/puppet construction. Her continuous collaboration with Heiki Ikkola began in 2006 with the production Fremde, on the basis of which the Cie. Freaks and Fremde was founded. Work in various projects of the independent theater, dance and art scene and in productions of various permanent theater houses. Further projects with Katja Erfurth (dance), Paradata (mime group; Tehran), Yvonne Brückner (animation film/ceramics), Martina Couturier (acting) and Yvonne Dick (art therapy/JVA Dresden), among others. Set design/puppet making/costume for various independent productions, including Thalia Theater Halle, TJG Dresden, Puppentheater Chemnitz and Landesbühnen Sachsen. 2015 Art Award of the State Capital Dresden together with Heiki Ikkola for the work of Cie. Freaks and Strangers. Numerous guest performances in Europe as well as Russia, Colombia and Pakistan. 2019 Production “…it will be alright…” – Fragments of a Life Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler (1899-1940) together with Katja Erfurth and Heiki Ikkola as well as further works with Katja Erfurth in the interplay of dance with puppet and object theater.
Josia Werth
Trained as an event technology specialist from 2011-2014 at the Festspielhaus Hellerau. Working as a lighting technician and technical director of Cie. Freaks and Strangers since 2013. Also numerous international theater projects. Guest performances have taken him through Europe and to South America, among other places.
Artistic direction, choreography and dance: Katja Erfurth
Violin: Florian Mayer
Artistic consulting: Sabine Köhler, Helmut Oehring
Costume: Magdalene Buschbeck
Lighting design: Josia Werth
Evening performance direction and artistic assistance: Nicole Meier
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Helmut Oehring, Florian Mayer and others.
“WANDELN” is a co-production with HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts and the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company.
The production is sponsored by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and the City of Dresden, Office for Culture and Monument Protection.
