jee chan: ratu – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

jee chan:
ratu

A person stands frontally on stage wearing a black costume with gold details and a large golden headdress. Warm light falls from above, while the background is dark and slightly hazy.
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Born and raised in Indonesia as a royal court dancer in the classical Surakarta tradition, Naniek K. moved to Berlin in 1978, where she built a career as a fashion model. ratu by jee chan is an intimate portrait of this magnetic performer, now 81 years old – an intergenerational exploration of tradition, gender, social agency, and embodied memory.

While honoring her extraordinary life story, the work questions how tradition persists and transforms within diasporas. Ritual meets the runway in a performance driven by sound artists Rose & Zach, who provocatively style Javanese gamelan with electronic synths.

Evening information

Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).

Duration

  • Ca. 45 minutes without intermission

Language

  • English lyrics, there are surtitles

Sound

  • It's getting loud. Earplugs are available.

Other

  • Stage fog is used.

Early boarding

A long entrance allows for a relaxed entry situation.

Tickets

  • Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
  • Via the online ticket shop
  • At the box office

You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.

Concept, choreography, installation, performance: jee chan
Choreography, performance: Naniek K.
Sound, performance: Rosemainy Buang, Zachary Chan
Sound engineering: Angger Widhi Asmoro
Video: Eric Lee
Lyricist: Amei Lia
Light design: Gretchen Blegen
Costume design: Evan Loxton, Nina Loxton
Graphic design: Zachary Chan
Runway coach: Samantha Calandrini
Make-up artist: Oksana Pawełko
Dramaturgical support: Nima Séne
Outside eye: Jette Büchsenschütz
Production assistance: Hardistya Putri
Production driver: Anisa Sima Hawley

A production by jee chan in co-production with Sophiensæle. Funded by the National Arts Council, Singapore. Developed at Dance Nucleus' da:ns LAB 2025. The performances as part of Tanztage Berlin 2026 are supported by the Goethe-Institut and the Rumah Budaya Indonesia, Berlin.  The 35th Tanztage Berlin is a production of Sophiensæle. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. With the kind support of Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., Theaterhaus Berlin, and HZT Berlin. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Rausgegangen, Siegessäule, taz.

jee chan (all pronouns) is an artist working in the fields of dance and expanded choreography. Their work is concerned with questions surrounding the displaced body and what it can perform. Characterized by hybridity and syncretism, their practice engages with oral histories, ancestral epistemologies and the representation of (auto)biographies, particularly among the contexts of island Southeast Asia. A member of the inaugural artistic cohort at the Rose Choreographic School (Sadler’s Wells, London) their transdisciplinary work has been presented at Tanzfabrik Berlin, Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), DOK Leipzig and the Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art (Sydney). They live between Singapore and Berlin.

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