Leo Naomi Baur: The Disempowered – TANZTAGE BERLIN 2025

Leo Naomi Baur:
The Disempowered

The Disempowered©MayraWallraff-low resolution-25
Leo Naomi Baur:
The Disempowered
Dance, Installation
Duration: 1h 10 Min.
German, English, Arabic with integrated audio description
10€/15€

Relaxed Performance

11.01. 6 p.m.: Tactile tour
Registration via barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or by phone Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at 030 278 900 35.

The Disempowereddeals with unavailability. With the unavailability of the sick body and the unpredictability of one's own presence. The installative video work deliberately focuses on physical and emotional states, which are often pushed back into the realm of private fate, and testifies to the longing for shared experiences. In the field of tension between absence and participation, the audience is invited to temporarily inhabit the emerging space together. With the audience present, The Disempowered creates a choreography without live dance, a film without a screen, an audio walk without a defined path. Based on the concept of Aesthetics of Access, The Disempowered uses art to break down potential barriers.

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Information on accessibility is being prepared and will be added to as soon as possible. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact the communications department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change up to the day of the event. If, after purchasing your ticket, you learn that the performance is no longer accessible for you, you can contact us at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 (Monday through Friday between 10 am and 6 pm) to return your ticket up to 5 business days after the event.

Duration

  • 70 minutes without an intermission. Taking breaks on your own is explicitly allowed.

Language

  • German, English and Arabic (Syria) spoken language
  • The piece is very text-heavy. An understanding of the language is not absolutely necessary.
  • Written translations of the texts are provided via QR code.

Audio description

  • All performances will include integrated audio description (German, English, Arabic). The performance works as a stand-alone audio experience.
  • A preceding touch tour will take place on January 11 at 6 p.m. The meeting point for the touch tour is in front of the box office in the courtyard.
  • If needed, we offer a pick-up service for blind and visually impaired people from the nearby S-Bahn and tram stations. These are S-Bahn Hackescher Markt, U-Bahn Weinmeisterstraße or the tram station Weinmeisterstraße/Gipsstraße. To use the pick-up service, please contact us during our business hours (Monday to Friday between 10 am and 6 pm) at 030 27 89 00 35 or barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com.
  • More information about audio descriptions and the pick-up service at the Sophiensaele can be found here.

Light

  • The light in the hall is bright enough to find your way around the hall at all times.
  • However, the lighting mood itself is rather dark.
  • There is no strobe effect
  • In the video projection, there are sometimes quite fast camera movements that seem like a rapid change of light.

Sound

  • The performance can be experienced with headphones.
  • There are no sudden noises.
  • There is no loud sound.

Other

  • There are video projections. These show, among other things, dancers in urban spaces (subway stations, etc.) and landscapes (mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, etc.)
  • There are people on site who can help with orientation in the room and answer questions.

Audience

  • There is no seating in the auditorium.
  • There is a landscape of different seating and lying options: bean bags, mats on the floor, as well as classic theater seating (with backrests).
  • It is possible to change between the seating options during the piece.
  • 2 wheelchair spaces can be booked, subject to availability.
  • Movement in the room is welcome, but not absolutely necessary.

Relaxed Performance

  • All performances are relaxed performances.
  • A chill-out space is provided at the back of the performance space. There you will find beanbags, blankets, headphones and stimming toys.

Early Boarding

Tickets

  • Can be reserved via the box office hotline on 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4-6 pm
  • Via the online ticket shop
  • At the box office

Further information on accessibility at the venue can also be found here.

Concept, choreography, installation: Leo Naomi Baur
Dance on video: Joy Atkinson, Kysy Fischer, Mariana Romagnani, Oska Melina Borcherding, Stefanie Alf, Therry Kornath
Text, voices: neneh noï, Marwa Younes Almokbel
Sound: Rheremita Cera
Video: Leo Naomi Baur
Light design: Andreas Harder
Audio editing: Mattias Larsen
Dramaturgy: Jenny Mahla
Production: Stefanie Alf, Kysy Fischer
Mentors: Ana Lessing Menjibar, Naomi Sanfo-Ansorge

A production by Leo Naomi Baur in cooperation with HZT Berlin. The 34th Tanztage Berlin is a production of Sophiensæle. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The research for The Disempowered was supported by the #TakeHeart research support of the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. With the kind support of Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., Theaterhaus Berlin and Uferstudios GmbH. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.

Leo Naomi Baur (they/them) works in Berlin as a choreographer and video artist. They are trans* non-binary and chronically sick. Initially without formal training, Baur has been realizing mostly collaborative and interdisciplinary productions since 2017. In the meantime, they completed the M.A. Performing Public Space at FONTYS (Tilburg, NL) and the M.A. Choreography at HZT Berlin. They are co-founder of the network for dance and activism Urgent Bodies. Baur is currently exploring choreographic strategies to re-read the unavailability of their own body: from an individual deficit to a curiosity about immaterial forms of co-presence.

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