Amid political and economic turmoil, social fragmentation and loneliness, the need for inner and outer freedom presents a major challenge. Endless debates about immigration policy, border controls and gender equality have long since led to a sense of being overwhelmed and to the physical limitation of tiredly swiping across a smartphone to send messages or place a ‘like’ in the supposedly right spot.
With THE FREEDOM PICNIC, choreographer Nir de Volff is developing a new collaborative project together with the dancers Medhat Adaabal and Mouafak Aldoabl. After more than ten years of artistic collaboration, during which they explored their diverse backgrounds and perspectives from the Middle East and their experiences of integration in Germany in the performance series “Come as you are”, conveying their vision of trust and hope, they now ask: How can we remain connected in freedom?
THE FREEDOM PICNIC is a social experiment that combines dance, healing and a picnic. It is about reclaiming public space, about the right to be seen for who you are and how you feel; it is about telling stories and uncovering layers of the past and present to find answers to the complexities of belonging.
Following an introductory performative dance exploration, the audience is invited to explore their own experiences with their breath and body within the safe space of the theatre auditorium. Nir de Volff introduces his BBM (Breathing Bodies Movement) technique; here, the breath is seen as an artistic and purifying tool for practising freedom within and with oneself. Medhat Adaabal and Mouafak Aldoabl invite the audience to join in a group Dabke dance, teaching techniques and movements. Afterwards, the dancers serve homemade and fresh dishes from the Middle East. Eating and dancing together are more than just entertainment; they are a living connection between people. And so the evening flows into a blend of free dancing and collective breathing, to purify the body and foster mutual freedom.
Concept, Costumes: Nir de Volff
Performance, Text: Medhat Adaabal, Mouafak Aldoabl, Nir de Volff
Music: Mathieu Poterie
Lighting design: Asli Atasoy Öner
PR: Kerstin Böttcher
Photographer: Bernhard Musil
Production management: Till Rothmund, Jill Emerson
Duration: 90 min
Language: English, German
Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion with the support of DOCK ART
