Concept/Choreography: Helge Letonja, original by Gerhard Bohner
Dancers: Kossi Sébastien Aholou-Wokawui, Leila Bakhtali, Oh Chang Ik, Konan Dayot, Irene García Martínez, Mariko Koh, Magali Sander Fett, Médoune Seck, Nicola Simonetti
Composition: Serge Weber, orginal by Gerald Humel
Dramaturgy: Anke Euler
Stage Design: Rena Donsbach
Costume Design: Katja Fritzsche
Lighting Design: Laurent Schneegans
Technician: Timo Reichenberger
Production manager: Kerstin Witges

A production of steptext dance project in co-production with Theater Bremen.
Funded by TANZFONDS ERBE – an initiative by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Zwei Giraffen tanzen Tango – Bremer Schritte is an artistic interrogation presenting an inventive dialog in dance history.

It is not a duet. No tango will be danced – especially not by giraffes. The first part of the title points towards the absurd, its addition however straight to the core of the dance city Bremen: With ZWEI GIRAFFEN TANZEN TANGO – BREMER SCHRITTE, Helge Letonja enters into a creative dialogue with Gerhard Bohner’s ensemble piece and the history of dance. 36 years lie between the works of the two choreographers. The „Schritte“ (steps) of the current production evolve their “forward” within the here and now. Letonja bears Bremen’s historical pioneer phase of dance theatre in mind while he simultaneously focuses on expanding it into the future. He searches for development: Bohner’s subjects, the absurd, the relations between individuals and stereotypes, living and dead, “Kunstfigur” (art figure) and humans – how do they dance, today?

„By combining Dance, Fine Arts and New Music, with his concentration on the body, in his precision and clarity, Gerhard Bohner, was a visionary. He dared the uncertain“, Letonja names inspiring correspondences with his own work. In his piece, he confronts reconstructed sequences of the strictly black and white original with multi-layered colorful new ones. He uses Bohner’s groundbreaking moves from ballet to every-day gestures, from point shoes to diving fins, from leotards to suits, the twists and switches between curious disguising and undressing as stepping stone for his own creation. He adapts the choreographic structure of contrasting collages, and turns the bodies’ search for forms into an interplay of bodies shaping each other. Tautly pulled cables inspire swinging sine waves and entangling limbs. Costumes and characters reappear, sparkling like living quotes throughout the performance.

The ten headed ensemble unfolds a cosmos of its own, which honors Bohner’s work as a vital magnifying glass of our reality as well as contemporary dance. The frictional energy between former and present aesthetical and societal codes opens associative spaces of nowadays live: dynamic exclamation marks that underline the agility of history itself. The original score written by Gerald Humel is complemented by new compositions of Serge Weber.

“Helge Letonjas artistic exploration of Gerhard Bohner is absurd, funny and incredibly profound.

(Anja K. Arend, tanznetz.de)