Few artists are as closely connected with ImPulsTanz as Ivo Dimchev. For many years, he has captivated the festival’s audiences with his incomparably beautiful voice and the melancholic-but-dirty lyrics to his songs. At the same time, he challenges a comfortable, leaned-back viewing experience, entering into a direct dialogue with his spectators to find out who is sitting down there, looking up at him. In his interactive solo METCH – conscious of his popularity as a singer-songwriter –, Dimchev “crashes” what is expected of him by putting his “unpredictable relationship to theatre, dance, politics, and contemporary art” front and centre. What remains unmistakeable and irresistible, is how he fuses anarchy and tenderness.
Concept, music and text: Ivo Dimchev
METCH premiered on 16–25 February 2024 at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York (US). After In Hell with Jesus/Top 40, METCH is the second work Ivo premieres at La Mama as Artist in Residence.