Interested in gaining practical skills for teaching dance for people with neurological challenges (Parkinson's and MS in particular)? As part of our collaborative intiative CONNECT we are happy to announce a professional development week end for dance practitioners on December 16th + 17th.
Details in the flyer below!
Zurich Opera House and the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich are launching a new collaboration – together with the performance group The Field and the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation.
Connect is a dance project for people living with neurological challenges such as multiple sclerosis (MS) or Parkinson's disease. The impulse for this came from the new ballet director of Ballet Zurich, Cathy Marston, whose ballet "The Cellist" tells the life story of Jacqueline du Pré, who suffered from MS and died at an early age. It became clear very quickly that the establishment of a dance training for people with neurological challenges in Zurich would require the cooperation of several partners in order to lay a strong foundation of expertise and commitment and to establish the project in the long term.
This project, which is unique in Switzerland and Zurich, is the result of a cooperation between the Tonhalle -Gesellschaft Zürich, the Zurich Opera House, the Zurich performance group The Field and the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation.
The project is supported by the Parkinson Society Switzerland, the MS Society Switzerland and the Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital Zurich.
The launch and information event for patients, relatives, professionals and interested parties will take place on Friday, 3 November 2023, in the Tonhalle (the event is fully booked!)
The pilot phase of Connect will start at the beginning of February 2024. The weekly training sessions will take place on Friday afternoons in the club hall of the Tonhalle Zurich.
More information:
https://tonhalle-orchester.ch/...
https://www.opernhaus.ch/2324/...
Why dance and music?
Recent neurological research sees dance as an ideal intervention for neurological diseases and disorders such as MS or Parkinson's disease. They emphasise the potential role of dance and music in overcoming motor hurdles and improving psychosocial well-being and quality of life. The creative practice and approach of the Connect project is based on evidence-based research in the innovative field of dance and neurology. Movement offers participants the opportunity to create connection with themselves and their environment. Dancing shapes and promotes balance, expression, posture and one's own creativity.
The weekly training sessions are led by professional dancers with the relevant expertise. Musicians from the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich will provide live music in selected sessions. The participants can thus immerse themselves in a musically and dance inspiring environment.
The experience will also be enriched by joint visits to rehearsals at the Opera House and the Tonhalle, as well as encounters with dancers from the Zurich Ballet and musicians from the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.
The content of the Connect training sessions focuses on a choreography of the Zurich Ballet or a musical programme of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich over a period of several weeks. In the sessions, the participants examine these works from different perspectives under the guidance of the teaching artists. They also gain an insight into the rehearsal process of the professional production. For the winter/spring season 2024, the Connect team has selected two programmes: The Cellist (Zurich Ballet) and Electric Fields (Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra). These works provide a starting point for creative explorations.
Dates pilot phase
Vereinssaal Tonhalle Zurich, Gotthardstrasse 5, 3rd floor, 8002 Zurich
Obstacle-free access to the rooms and disabled parking spaces are available.
In the last few years, The Field has been a regular feature of the city-wide festival ZÜRICH TANZT!
For the 2023 Edition, the collective join once again for the lunchtime moves session and OpenScape on May 16th. Be ready to move your body and get your mind buzzing!
16.05.2023 / 12:00-12:20 Lunchtime moves (online event): a short movement impulse over lunch via Insta Live.
https://zuerichtanzt.ch/programm/lunchtime-moves/
16.05.2023 / 15:30-17:30 OpenScape (online event): an artistic exchange during which The Field will share insights on collective practice.
Between May and June 2023, Kulturhaus Helferei hosts The Field for days of artistic research. In this frame, the collective opens its studio and shares with the public some of its practices on specific occasions.
16.05.2023 / 18:30-20:30: Textual Fantasy
Textual Fantasy is a communal reading-dancing circle. This cosy and informal format is a way to meet different texts, meet each other, and find ways to physically digest information. The circle closes with tea and snacks for a convivial get-together. The event takes place in collaboration with Zürich Tanzt!.
17.05.2023 / 10:15-11:45: Fake Parkour
Fake Parkour is a non-verbal training in the urban space, which takes shape by means of spontaneous & collective scores. The aim is to find playful solutions within this score & to move the body in a group as inefficiently as possible from A to B outside the usual modes of locomotion. Fake Parkour is an opportunity to get inspired by the environment, the others & our own body. Wear appropriate sport clothes for the outdoor weather & ideally light shoes. The event takes place in collaboration with Zürich Tanzt!.
02+03.06.2023: Via Verso - Walking as an artistic practice
Join The Field to explore walking as artistic expression; an opportunity to practice slowing down and reflect on socio-political themes and our environment.
More information: https://www.kulturhaus-helferei.ch/
Don’t miss The Field in Lausanne on May 12+13 with I Object!
I Object is presented In the frame of La Fête de la Danse and in collaboration with Théâtre Vidy. In this short dance piece, two performers interact with discarded objects using specific choreographic scores. I Object originates from the desire of non-violent destruction as a method for creation. This results in a landscape of constant transformation, heightening the performers' awareness, spontaneity and playfulness.
More information: https://fetedeladanse.ch/lausanne/
Don't miss The Field in Geneva on October 1+2,2022!
The collective will present Scalable Skeletal Escalator at Pavillon ADC as part of Dance First Think Later, a platform fostering encounters between dance, performance and visual arts.
The Field will be ready to answer your questions in a performative way at Young Dance Festival in Zug on 21+22 September!
Young Dance is a annual dance festival that programs international, national and local productions for young audiences and offers educational formats. For this year edition, The Field take another creative look at its participative format Question Kiosk to combine performance with workshop elements for both school and public events.
In paralell to creating Waterworks with Meg Stuart for the Zürcher Theater Spektakel, we have been collaborating with Choreographers at Work on videodocumenting the creative process.
You can see the outcome from 18.-25. August!
Screening documentary The Field / Meg Stuart (Zürich / Berlin) Waterworks
Zürcher Theater Spektakel
Thank you Phil Hayes and Kulturzüri for the interview about Waterworks, our brand new in-situ collaboration with the renowned choreographer Meg Stuart.
https://kulturzueri.ch/en/scout-datenbank/beitraege/before-the-waves-come/
Hooray! The program of Theater Spekatel is fresh from the press! We are delighted to announce that The Field will participate this year with Waterworks in collaboration with Meg Stuart and other incredible artists! Expect the unexpected!
https://www.theaterspektakel.ch/en/program22/production/waterworks
We are delighted to announce a new collaboration with Mona De Weerdt & Michelle Ettlin in the frame of Choreographers at Work. In the upcoming months, Mona de Weerdt and Michelle Ettlin will follow the creative process of The Field in its upcoming production with Meg Stuart which will be presented at Theater Spektakel.
Choreographers at Work! is a documentary series dedicated to creation processes and working practices in contemporary dance. Choreographers from different parts of the country and of different generations are filmed throughout various steps of the creation process. They are asked questions about themselves, their creative work, their practices and processes during interviews and the camera captures rehearsals, movement research and moments dedicated to reflection and feedback.
Discover some first photo impressions here.
The Field is taking part in this year edition of Zürich Tanzt with online lunchtime classes (16-20.05, daily 12:00-12:30, insta live) and Dance Delivery (19,20,26.05, daily 17:00-21:00).
Check out the website of the festival to find out how to participate and dance with us!
Find The Field on May 13th, 2022 (18:00-19:15) in Stadtpark, Winterthur!
Selected by the jury, we will pitch our Question Kiosk on the occasion of Tanzfest Winterthur 2022. In this occasion we will be happy to respond intuitively to your wildest questions through improvisation and instant composition.
Check out the program: https://dastanzfest.ch/winterthur/programm/question-kiosk-the-field-winterthurer-jury/
We are happy to announce that we have launched "Dancing with Parkinson's". This is a dance class program for people living with Parkinson's, their family members, friends and carers. The classes are free of charge and take place at Tanzhaus Zürich.
The schedule of the classes can be found at https://www.tanzhaus-zuerich.ch/en/courses/tanzen-mit-parkinson
For more information and registration, please email us at mitmachen_at_thefield.ch
We are delighted to announce the 2nd edition of Textual Fantasy! Titled 'Touching: Water Between Us', this 2nd edition will be led by Rafał Pierzyński and will take place on Tuesday April 12th (18:00-21:00, Gessnerallee, Studio 3).
Textual Fantasy is a communal reading-dancing circle. It is a way to meet different texts, meet each other, and find ways to physically digest information. It is cozy and informal, there will be tea and snacks. Bring your friends!
The upcoming session consists of three parts: reading together, sharing a bodily practice and sharing the dancefloor. We will be introduced to a movement practice based on Rafał Pierzyński's research on touching and embodied communication. We will practice different modes of touch and their potential to deconstruct understanding of boundaries and binaries both in the body and in the language, in turn, moving towards the spaces emerging in-between.
After reading fragments of different texts (Ashley Montagu, Victoria Pitts-Taylor, Karen Barad, Timothy Morton, Emanuele Coccia, Stanisław Lem, Jacqueline Jones LaMon), we will explore what we know from skin, water, love and the internet.
Accessibility: Please note that unfortunately Studio 3 at Gessnerallee is accessible only by stairs. Please contact Declan Whitaker if you require any assistance. The session involves proximity and touch. Language: English.
This session of Textual Fantasy is possible with the support of Open Futures and Imbricated Real/zürich moves!
© Sasha Pasechnik
In about two weeks, The Field will present Scalable Skeletal Escalator (Theater Mode) at Tanzhaus Zürich. We are delighted that the work, originally scheduled to be shown in March 2021, can finally hit the stage! Conceived together with Isabel Lewis and other collaborators as an experimental live artwork in the form of a holobiont, Scalable Skeletal Escalator is a multi-organismic assemblage, like the human body itself, shuddering and shaking into being. Book your tickets now via the Tanzhaus Zürich's website!
Scalable Skeletal Escalator (Theater Mode) / 31.03-02.04.2022 / 8-9pm / Tanzhaus Zürich
The Field was invited by UMBIGO, an independent Portuguese art and culture platform, to submit a visual essay for the printed version of its magazine. Alongside many great, inspiring articles about artists from all over the world, The Field let off its creative steam and contributed to the publication with an interview and an invitation for the readers to enter into a creative exchange with the collective.
Curious about The Field's contribution? You can order a copy of the awesome UMBIGO magazine at https://umbigomagazine.com/loja/en/produto/79-en-english-edition-cover-2/
In the frame of Open Futures, The Field is organizing Textual Fantasy on Saturday November 21th. We will begin by reading together and afterwards experience a movement practice - both are led by the hosting guest(s). Textual Fantasy is a way to meet different texts, meet each other, and to find ways of physically digesting information. It will be cozy and informal, there will be tea and snacks. Bring your friends!
The hosting guests for this first edition are Juan Ferrari and Esther Meunier Corfdyr . Their proposed text is Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Practical Infos //
Saturday, 21. November 2021, 16:30-18:30
Bühne 2, Tanzhaus Zürich (Wheelchair accessible)
Language: English
Biographies //
Juan Ferrari (he / they / no pronouns): Uruguayan digital artist, nomad, queer, working in between disciplines (theater, performance, art, design, game design). Artist of displacement, he construct his identity from movement. Deterritorialisation is the first motivation of their artistic practice and identity, intimately linking their work and personal history. From the inside out, in a perpetually moving flow of transformation that intends to glitch and escape hegemonic structures in which existence is survival.
Esther Meunier Corfdyr (she / her): Movement artist, Stage Director and Dramaturg, Esther Meunier Cordyfr works mostly in theater, dance and performance. Formally trained as a ballet dancer with a Master in Performing Arts Studies, Esther continued her formation as a dancer in Germany and eventually studied hypnotical methodology for creation with Catherine Contour. Her interest in questioning states of presence and consciousness is what drives her academic and artistic research about hypnosis and sleep. Besides different artistic and interdisciplinary collaborations and her work as a director for the company Les Libres Etendues, Esther works also as a pedagogue with non-dancers in schools, universities, social centres and prisons.
The Field is delighted to be taking part in Open Futures for the next couple of weeks. Conceptualized as a transdiciplinary and experimental space to reflect on sustainability, Open futures will present exhibitions, talks, performances, workshops, walks and markets in cooperation with Shedhalle, Tanzhaus Zürich, Gessnerallee and Newrope.
In the frame of its research on the topic of Water, The Field will present on November 11th "Take Your Body for a Walk" (17:30-18:15) .This interactive format aims to build a collective experience and an online community for the duration of a walk. The walk will be followed by a talk (18:30-20:00) focusing on the metaphorical correspondences between corporeality, fluid movement and the system earth. The invited speakers are collective's member Lucia Gugerli, visual artist Monica Jäger and climate scientist Raphael Portmann.
Both event are free of charge. More information on the website of Open Futures and Tanzhaus Zürich
https://www.openfutures.ch/events/the-fieldtake-your-body-for-a-walk
https://www.tanzhaus-zuerich.ch/en/events/takeyourbodyforawalk-2021/26355
For its first international outing, The Field took part in the B.Motion Festival in Bassano Del Grappa (IT) in August 2021 and presented A Garden in Italy in collaboration with the group of Italian artists "The Walker".
abcdance shares impressions of the event in its latest review: http://www.abcdance.eu/a-garden-in-italy-by-the-field-the-walkers-engita/
Performed by residents of the Wollishofen neighbourhood, The Field will present We Object on three consecutive days (16-18 September) in the frame of About Us!. You can find more information about the event on the website of the festival.
From August 19-22, 2021 The Field will take part in the B.Motion Festival in Bassano Del Grappa (IT). Together with The Walkers, a group of Italian artists with whom the collective has had regular digital artistic exchange since March 2021, they will present a daily interactive event at 5pm in the Giardini Parolini. The collaborative encounter will cultivate a space where questions from the public are allowed to bloom into physical, danced answers. A fertile ground where answers can blossom into conversations and conversations can ferment into change: a public intervention that stems from the need to allow physical and varied responses, a moment dedicated to what the body can answer.
In the frame of Theater Spektakel, The Field will present The Best And The Worst of Us on August 27+28, 2021 (19:30) at Tanzhaus Zürich. Presale starts on July 14. Make sure to book your tickets early here :-)
The Field is looking for people who would like to participate in the dance piece We Object, which will be performed in September at the intercultural weeks of About Us!. Participation is free!
You can find more details about the project and the condition of participation in the call for entries, available in English and German.
We are looking forward to welcoming you by We Object!
After two postponments (due to you-know-who), The Field will be happy to finally bring to the stage The Best and The Worst of Us in the frame of Theater Spektakel in August 2021. We can't wait!
The Field will spend the upcoming week with Meg Stuart on researching new approaches and themes for choreographic practices. This initial collaborative encounter is a spark for a longer creative process planned in 2022.
Once again, The Field is to be seen by ZÜRICH TANZT. This year the dance collective invites you to take part in an unconventional walk on May 16 and will make your body move during two crash courses. Make sure to check the program and don't miss the little interview with Lucia Gugerli.
In collaboration with Züri läbt, The Field offers online warm-up sessions to keep you moving in times of home office. If you are looking for a gentle workout and fresh perspectives, join us on April 12, 14 and 21 (09:30-10:00).
In the frame of züri läbt, a cultural initiative from the Stadt Zürich, The Field will offer a free of charge 30-minute physical warm-up on Monday March 22 (09:30-10:00). A little selection of physical practices will loosen you up and will keep you moving in these times of home office.
The Field is happy to announce that it will take part in the 2021 edition of Zürich Tanzt with an interactive format. The festival will take place from May 7-30 and will propose dance in various forms on a daily basis. Stay tuned!
This month The Field had planned to present to the audience its stage version of Isabel Lewis' Scalable Skeletal Escalator. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing closure of theatres, the premiere of this piece cannot take place and will be presented at a later point. Nevertheless, The Field will keep on working and will use that time wisely for the creative process with Isabel Lewis leading the sessions remotely from Berlin and Paris.
In the midst of a second wave of the pandemic, The Field is delighted to be able to keep on performing. Tonight the collective premieres "To Those Who Wait" in the frame of TanzPlanOst in St-Gallen. We are very much looking forward to it!
Don't miss The Field with "To Those Who Wait" by TanzPlan Ost from November 20 to December 10 (detailed scheduled on the website of TanzPlan Ost).
In a world of technological dependence and decreased attention spans «To Those Who Wait» confronts our appetite for immediacy and overstimulation. Tongue in cheek and through a process of deceleration, The Field questions the value of our time. With a contemporary and lucid aesthetic «To Those Who Wait» flirts at the edge of satisfaction and pulls at the borders of refrain, striking a blow to the heart of our hyper-saturated world.
The impact of the pandemic has spared no one. To bring some comfort and ligthen your days, The Field proposes some practices to do "in case of dancemergency" which are presented in short videos on our vimeo channel. Use them any time you need!
The Field warmly invites you to the opening of the exhibition Scalable Skeletal Escalator taking place on Wednesday September 23, 2020 from 6-9 pm as part of the Festival “Fleshy Interface”. Conceived by Isabel Lewis, Scalable Skeletal Escalator is an experimental live art work in the form of a multi-organismic assemblage, like the human body itself, shuddering and shaking into being. This work invites collaborators (among them The Field) and visitors on a participatory epistemological quest to re(dis)cover the body by rehabilitating our human sensorium in order that we might enhance living rather than alienate ourselves from life.
The Field is delighted to announce its upcoming collaboration with the multisensory artist Isabel Lewis. From September 24 to November 8, 2020 The Field will add its performative flair to Scalable Skeletal Escalator, a experimental live art work conceived by Isabel Lewis for the Kunsthalle Zürich. Building on this work, Isabel and The Field will then put together a stage version to be presented in Tanzhaus Zürich in March 2021 in the frame of Zürich Moves! Be prepared for the unexpected.
The Field is delighted to announce its participation in the 41st Zürcher Theater Spektakel taking place from August 13th to the 30th with an extended outdoor version of I Object in the frame of the DeZentral program. In preparation for this special intervention in public space, we have been collecting free stuff from all over Zurich for weeks and will give the discarded objects back to the streets on a specific date and location revealed on the website of the festival. Our aim is to rethink the relationship between us and material. The protagonists in this dance of transformation are the urban space, a wild collection of everyday objects and two performers of the collective
Spending a hot summer day at the museum?... Yes sure! And even more so when The Field is proposing some performative interventions in the collection. Find more information here and join us on August 23rd at Kunsthaus Zürich!
The Field's backer, PNB Paribas, has just published its newest report featuring the collective on page 2. Browse through and enjoy!
This Friday, The Field takes a step further in exploring how performance and dance can navigate the cyberspace with email my heart. Presented in the frame of the event series Sharing and Responding organized by the Academy of Fine Art Vienna and Kunsthalle Wien, this performative intervention pushes the envelope of virtual reality.
On Saturday May 16th, The Field will answer your questions with a dance in the frame of Zürich Tanzt! In a moment when we are encouraged to take physical distance from one another, The Field presents Question Kiosk 2.0, a digital format fostering intimate exchanges and mutual inspiration. No matter how big or small your question is, your danced answer will be personal and made with care. Check out the website of Zürich Tanzt to find out how to take part.
On March 30, 2020 in the frame of "Zürich Moves!", The Field would have premiered The Best and the Worst of Us, an iconic piece by Simone Aughterlony at Tanzhaus Zürich with additional shows at Südpol Luzern. Unfortunately due to the restrictions imposed associated with the Covid-19 crisis, the show will have to be postponed to a later date. Until then, we find comfort in sharing with you our "Quarantine version" as a symbolic gesture to better days and in appreciation of Simone's work and the support of our collaborative partners. Thank you to Tanzhaus Zürich, Zürich Moves! Südpol Luzern and all our sponsors! We are looking forward to sharing the live version with our audience as soon as possible!
In time of social distancing, The Field wishes to foster one-to-one interactions through a digital Question Kiosk, an interactive project that proposes a dialogue between performers and audiences. The concept is simple: The Field will provide a danced response to any question asked (any topic) with the possibility to engage in a further exchange of ideas with the performer. Wanna take part? Check out the Tanzhaus Zürich Instagram and you’ll find out how! Don't have Instagram? No worries! Submit your question via email and we will get back to you with our performative reply.
We are looking forward to your questions!
Following the restrictive measures put into place to limit the spread of the corona virus, zürich moves as well as ZÜRICH TANZT have been canceled. We are therefore unable to present either The Best and the Worst of Us or Question Kiosk. We hope to stage both the performance and the interactive project at a later stage in 2020 or 2021. Stay tuned for some updates and meanwhile stay healthy!
In the frame of zürich moves! (30.03-01-04-2020), The Field presents at Tanzhaus Zürich The Best and the Worst of Us, a metamorphic re-enactment of Simone Aughtlerony's iconic piece and the collective's first full evening piece