Project: Bodies in Sound
MONOM Studios, Funkhaus
Where
When
Q4 2025
Duration
Three performances (Wednesday-Friday) over the course of two weeks - November/December 2025
We are a collective of professionally trained ballet dancers and choreographers who have worked extensively for renowned ballet companies and theaters throughout the US, Europe, and Russia. Our aim with this project is to create a performance where dance and the auditory experience take center stage.
Planned are three performances, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday over the course of two weeks in Q4 2025. The planned location for the project is Funkhaus Berlin, which is home to a 4D sound system at MONOM Studios, the world's most advanced spatial sound instrument. The evening is comprised of two performance pieces, each highlighting different genres of both music and dance.
In the same way the 4D sound system will feel all encompassing, so too will the performance of the dancers replicate this model. The dance performances will not take place in one sectioned-off performance space, but rather will be dispersed throughout the space, allowing for audience members to engage with the performance on an interpersonal level.
The evening is comprised of two dance performances
The first piece is a solo by “placeholder for name” in accompaniment with Cevdet Erek, a Turkish installation artist and sound designer who has done extensive work in the area of sound installations and progressive sound treatments. He will perform a live piece incorporating primarily percussion based instruments.
The second half is a performance by Ballet Sur_real, a collective of professional ballet dancers, who's main focus lies in fusing ballet with electronic music. Currently six ballet dancers and one DJ are planned for the piece. Motion capture will be integrated for the dancers to wear, enabling them to influence the sound of the music with their movements. In this way, the dancers will be co-composing the sound as they dance.
Images
Artists
Choreographers: Renato De Leon & Soraya Schulthess
Dancers Ballet Sur_real: Renato De Leon, Micheal Beliov, Imogen Rose Walters, Molly Rumble, Dan Ozeri, Soraya Schulthess
Sound Design: Cevdet Erek, Electronic Music Producer TBD
Photographer: TBD
Timeline
February 2025
Performance Evening
The evening consists of two main dance performances “working title of piece #1" & "Ballet Sur_real”, including an intro beforehand and outro to conclude.
19:00 Intro
-
The audience enters the space, ambient music playing in the background, highlighting the more sensory aspect of sound (haptic/tactile). This allows for the audience both time to settle in and find their places, and serves as an introduction to the state-of-the-art sound system. The DJ playing for Ballet Sur’real or a member of the organizational team can compile tracks that would fit.
-
Before the first piece begins, a member from the team will come onstage to explain the concept and creation process behind the evening, as well as a short intro of the artists performing. This should last no more than 5 minutes.
19:30 “placeholder for piece #1 title”
Piece #1 is performed.
-
Percussive based music, with one contemporary dancer, focusing interaction betwwen the solo perofmer and the drummer.
-
For this piece the motion capture will not be implemented.
-
-
The piece begins very slowly, the audience almost completely in the dark, so as to place focus on the auditory experience.
-
Using the 4D sound system, the sound will come from all sides, creating a completely immersive experience.
-
Slowly the dancer enters and performs.
-
The duration of the piece will be 25 min from beginning to end.
19:55 Break, 15 minutes
20:10 “Ballet Sur_real”
Piece #2 is performed
-
Ballet Sur_real performs. The piece is 45 -50 min in total. 5-7 min intro, followed by 35-40 min of dancing.
-
Concept of the piece:
-
In a world dominated by the alienating, competitive pressure of modern life, "Daer" explores the tension between our primal instincts and the constraints placed upon us by contemporary society. Based on ideas discussed by Georges Bataille, the piece grapples with themes of excess and transgression. Bataille's concept of the "accursed share" illuminates modern culture’s idealization of productivity and progress over all pursuits. In contrast, the dance floor becomes a site of sovereign release, where participants engage in non-productive expenditure through collective movement and quasi-ritualistic gatherings. "Daer" challenges audiences to confront what has been lost - our connection to emotion, nuance, and instinct - while simultaneously examining the paradoxes of present-day expectations and the fascination with club culture.
-
Electronic music, with its repetitive beats, serves as a metaphor for the relentless pace and sometimes dehumanizing aspects of modern life. It reflects the competitive pressure and the constant drive for productivity that Georges Bataille criticizes.
-
In "DAER," the electronic music underscores the tension between these societal demands and our primal instincts, which seek release and freedom.
-
One dancer wears the Mo-Cap: The group moves in a uniform and precise manner, showcasing the rigidity of societal expectations.
-
The single dancer with the Mo-Cap serves as the catalyst for release. As the piece progresses, the movements of the other dancers gradually become less structured and exact, increasingly highlighting our intrinsically primal and instinctual nature. By equipping only one dancer with Mo-Cap, the performance illustrates the contrast between individual experiences and the collective environment. This dancer, through enhanced movements and sound interactions, symbolizes the individual navigating through, and at times resisting, the currents of societal expectations.
-
-
The 4D sound system enhances the impact of the electronic music, making it a physical presence within the space. This allows the music to move around the audience, enveloping them in the soundscape and mirroring the physical movements of the dance. This immersive sound experience heightens the feeling of being part of a collective, ritualistic release on the dance floor, highlighting Bataille sovereignty and freedom.
-
-
21:00 Outro
-
Performance ends, music will continue to play for another hour, allowing audience members to stay and have a drink.