PREMIERE
A production of Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance and Nomad Dance Academy – Bulgaria, in cooperation with Paula Rosolen/Haptic Hide.

In 2019 we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential choreographers in the world, who revolutionized the understanding of dance and movement: Merce Cunningham. On that occasion, two leading German dance institutions – Tanzplattform Rhein-Main and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm – and the choreographer Paula Rosolen joint forces to create a piece honoring the dance legend. She opted to work with up to 100 professional dancers and choreographers and amateurs from different age groups from the Rhine-Main region, each of whom would develop 2-3 minute solos and movement sequences inspired by Cunningham’s principles of movement, and who wish to pay tribute to the great avant-garde choreographer. Then, Rosolen assembled these sequences into a large group score, which was performed in open air with live music.

Now, Paula Rosolen is coming to Sofia to pay tribute to Merce Cunningham together with 20 preselected Bulgarian dancers and choreographers from all ages and with different dance backgrounds. This performance will open the 14th edition of Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance. The creation process will begin with intensive work with the participants on their solos, based on Cunningham principles. Afterwards, the individual pieces will be transformed into large-scale group choreography, which will be presented only once at Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art. Emilian Gatsov-Elbi will create a special music composition for the production and will perform it live.

Paula Rosolen studied dance at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and completed a master’s degree in choreography at Justus Liebig University in Giessen. In her choreographic pieces, she works along the boundaries between dance, performance, music, and theater. Paula Rosolen aims to make visible the dance that is inherent to popular culture and mundane activities. These subjects are always studied from a distinct point of view and are usually set in a foreign context. In “Aerobics! – A Ballet in 3 Acts” (2015), for example, she dealt with a form of fitness training developed originally for the U. S. Air Force. She was invited to show this piece at the 2016 German Dance Platform and was awarded 1st prize at the international competition “Danse Élargie”, organized by the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and the Musée de la danse in Rennes. In “Puppets” (2016) and “PUNK‽” (2018) she continues to set her focus on peripheral topics in dance – researching movements of puppeteers or setting out in search of traces of Punk Rock. Her last production is “FLAGS” in co-production with HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and will be also presented during the 14th edition of “Antistatic” Festival on 1st of June.

Her work has been shown at deSingel Arts Campus in Antwerp, Theaterfestival Basel, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Musée de la danse in Rennes, European Festival for Contemporary Dance in Poland, Centro Cultural de la Cooperación in Buenos Aires, Theaterdiscounter Berlin, Sophiensæle in Berlin, Akademie der Künste in Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Museum Wiesbaden, Kampnagel in Hamburg, BE Festival in Birmingham, DPAC Kuala Lumpur, and Dance New Air Festival in Tokyo.

Paula Rosolen has had residencies at the K3 – Center for Choreography in Hamburg, Workspace Brussels, the Hessian State Ballet, the Goethe-Institute’s Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto, and was a visiting fellow at the Saison Foundation in Tokyo.

She regularly teaches composition at institutions such as Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, Bilgi University in Istanbul, the Boston Conservatory, the Shikoku Gakuin University, the Monochrome Dance Company in Kyoto (JP), Owl Spot Theatre Tokyo, Kyoto International Dance Workshop Festival, and many more.

The performance is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.