kind of heroes

Following “no one’s coming” in the Choreographic Center Linz, kind of heroes is the second performance module in the series “my private bodyshop”.
The performance is not thought of as a set stage piece, but rather as a flexible structure of scenarios which can be played out in various stage or installation settings.
Kind of heroes- in it’s present form- was developed especially for ImPulsTanz and premiers on July 29th in the Burgtheater with further performances on August 7th and 13th at Arsenal.
The completion of the series comes with the premier of the third and final performance module in October 2005 at the Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna).

Dancers are heroes who, on the stage of life, are beamed into a black boxes canonised by art. In Chris Haring’s work science-fiction-generated choreonauts, as negations of heroic myths, get into performative difficulties. Stephanie Cumming gets caught up in shame and embarrassment in her solo ‘heroine’ as an anti-Laura Croft.
In the trio ‘kind of heroes’ Ulrika Kinn Swensson and Johnny Schoofs also seem to have become infected with a shame virus. The spectacle, pregnant with capital, makes mass-produced goods and seconds from ‘real heroes’. Haring has discovered what he wants on the rubbish heap of the modern hero cult and, with his makeshift, patched, stammering beings he exhibits anti-heroes that remain embedded in the memory like Baudrillardian warnings: “Don’t allow yourselves to be tempted!”

This is about heroes. The kind that come out of what Austrian choreographer Chris Haring calls “my private body shop.” But, of course, something has gone awry with the myth of these hero. Haring’s heroes are bashful. How can a bashful figure of a hero function? David Bowie ostentatiously and provocatively sings to those bashful souls: “We can be heroes...!” Yet, how is it possible for this body afflicted with awkwardness, this sellout item, this readymade, this body gone awry to become a that of a hero? In this heroic epic with the title “kind of heroes,” dancers Stefanie Cumming, Ulrika Kinn Swensson and Johnny Schoofs move through a stage set made by Erwin Wurm; filmed by Mara Mattushka, scenery by Thomas Jelinek and with bashful bodily (con)texts magically evoked by Kathernia Zakravsky. Live-Music: Andreas Berger

Credits

Choreography: Chris Haring
Music: Glim (Andreas Berger)
Dance: Stephanie Cumming, Ulrika Kinn Svensson, Johnny Schoofs
Costumes, Decor : Erwin Wurm
Dramaturgy : Thomas Jelinek
Text : Katherina Zakravsky