Productions

Concept, choreography Ben J. Riepe
Performance Izaskun Abrego, Eray Gülay, Wendel Lima, Jolinus Pape, Paula Pau, Sudeep Kumar Puthiyaparambath, Igor Sousa, Tyshea Suggs, Leonie Türke
Choreographic assistance Darwin Díaz
Video Alexander Basile
Project management Jessica Prestipino
Technical direction Philipp Zander
Technician Julius Kindermann
Vocal coach Carolina Rüegg
Photos Maximilian Mann, Alexander Basile, Katharina Kemme
Coordination Izaskun Abrego
Management, communication Nassrah-Alexia Denif

“Now more than ever, all of us are pondering what communities and new alliances we want and must create in the light of this crisis, between the arts and sciences, among researchers, not least between humans and nature. Thus, the question of how to become a community also serves as the starting point for the exploration in CREATURE, a search we would like to embark on together with the audience. I utilise the term audience responsibility here, a concept that transcends participation in the sense of an accountability that we all embrace for each other, for the community, and the shared project.” – Ben J. Riepe

“CREATURE” is an immersive parkour that combines the experience of performances, installations, sculptures and choreographed atmospheres. It reacts to particular conditions and potentials, originating anew at each venue, occupying and modifying them. In each space, the person is located differently: as a creature connected to nature via breath, as a dystopian man-machine hybrid who asserts his own creatureliness only as a medial memory, and as a cognitive, (self-)reflected, and social being who can connect with others through the community-building power of a ritual. The audience will be guided through the rooms in small groups. Every five minutes a group will enter the parkour.

Ben J. Riepe, born in 1979, is a choreographer, artist and initiator of FREIRAUM, an interdisciplinary, collaborative conceptual and working space for the arts and sciences that tests a collaborative, uncurated way of working. After studying stage dance and choreography at the Folkwang Hochschule, Riepe was engaged as a dancer with Pina Bausch and V.A. Wölfl, among others, and since 2008 has been creating his own works that bring dance into multi-layered connections with other disciplines. His award-winning performances, videos and digital productions are shown worldwide, often in collaboration with the Goethe Institute or at the invitation of other companies.

CREATURE was created in the context of rehearsals for the production GESCHÖPFE and was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Cultural Office of the State Capital Düsseldorf, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Fonds Darstellende Künste and BTHVN 2020 with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the City of Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg District. The new version of CREATURE in Wuppertal was produced at the invitation of the Wuppertal Cultural Office and in cooperation with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The film version CREATURE was created with the support of tanz nrw 21 and iDAS NRW.
Ben J. Riepe is represented by Kunst & Denker Contemporary.

Duration: 60'
In English