As if (we would be)

The latest work for seven dancers by choreographer Stephanie Thiersch and media artist Angela Melitopoulos focuses on mimicry: imitating, adapting to a structure, disguising, becoming invisible, turning up and stepping out of line. Automation and invention monopolize our speech and movement. At the centre of a world which is governed by numerous norms and is constantly being reinvented, mimetic skills shape the frontier areas between the self and the group. Those allowed to enter the area and negotiate succumb to a public secret. Here, the stage becomes the realm of possibility which sees the drama of creation play out in a world infused with simulations.

Stephanie Thiersch studied classical and contemporary dance (eg. CNC Montpellier, Dominique Bagouet) and worked as a dancer in France and Germany for several years. At the same time, she studied humanities at the University of Mannheim and later enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne with performance artist Valie Export. Fine arts, contemporary photography and literature accordingly form the basis of Thiersch’s artistic approach. She developed award-winning stage plays, films and installations with her company MOUVOIR, founded in 1999. With her cinematographically imbued aesthetics, those works are being shown on stages and festivals around the globe.