LIGNA & 13 internationale Choreograf*innen

«Dispersion Everywhere!» is an invitation to dance and get together while adhering to physical distancing. It is also a moving ritual whereby participants can conjure up the creative vision of artists who are not physically present. The participants of this international radio ballet lend their bodies to the voices and instructions of dance and performance artists from all over the world. These instructions are transmitted via headsets, bringing the artists’ ideas to life. Despite closed borders and travel restrictions, a world-wide connection is created across countries and continents.

The idea for this extraordinary project is the brain child of LIGNA, a company consisting of media and performance artists Ole Frahm, Michael Hueners and Torsten Michaelsen. The project is a consistent continuation of their previous works, involving radio interventions in public spaces, and is also a reaction to the social changes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. With urban interventions and performative installations, the trio has investigated the potential of dispersed and temporarily connected collectives since 2002. Their artistic format of the radio ballet has been successfully applied to public spaces, such as train stations and shopping centres and lends itself perfectly to «Dispersion Everywhere!».

How have our bodies and our societies changed in these days of global pandemic threat? LIGNA put this question to twelve international artists and asked them for a spoken choreographic contribution. The answers came from artists such as Geumhyung Jeong (South Korea), Eisa Jocson (Philippines) or Mamela Nyamza (South Africa), all of whom have performed at previous festivals. LIGNA assembled these small, cheerful, humorous, sad and profound pieces to a multi-voiced choreography, set to the music of Bulgarian composer Emilian Gatsoy. The radio ballet is performed in a public place with the audience positioned according to current rules of physical distancing. As a collective, they set the world in motion − at least a little bit. LIGNA describes «Dispersion Everywhere!» as «a proposal for another way of global life together and care for each other». (kdi)