Cie BewegGrund

Originally Kathrin and Christine produced the audio piece as an audio track for the performance ‘What I always wanted to do on stage…’: Talking seriously about dreams and letting the imagination run wild without judging or being judged. Doing things that dramaturgically don’t make sense but then fit in, or make new sense. Staging a 5-minute drum solo because a participant dreams it up, without a concrete connection to the content. Fill the stage with water. Putting dreams in the ear and in front of the inner eye of the audience.

In a workshop with young people, stage dreams were discussed, collected, recorded and then processed by the team into a radio play. The performance for the radio play would have been created directly on the stage of the Dampfzentrale in two weeks before the premiere.

But Corona threw a spanner in the works – as a result, the longing for the stage not only remained, but became even more urgent.

Close your eyes and imagine it…

The BewegGrund association, which promotes inclusive dance for people with and without disabilities, presents two new short pieces. The performative audio play «Was ich schon immer mal auf der Bühne machen wollte» (What I’ve always wanted to do on stage) translates a stage dream of young adults into surreal images. «gliich |anders: variiert» brings live music and performers of various ages and physical abilities to the stage. Supposedly firmly set structures about how to dance and who dances are exposed, questioned and reframed.

The BewegGrund association has been promoting inclusive dance for 20 years: combining dancers with and without disabilities. Cie BewegGrund creates professional stage pieces and amateur productions. Through its ongoing work, BewegGrund has achieved national and international recognition and has unique experience and expertise gained in both artistic and educational fields. In their inclusive stage work, the dancers with disabilities offer new role models and question the myth of the perfect body, which still dominates dance and the performing arts to this day.

Kathrin Yvonne Bigler takes an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach to her work – dance, theatre, video, sound and text. Every project is different – but what unites them all is their reduced aesthetic form and the mostly documentary or autobiographical research upon which they are based.

Christine Hasler works as a theatre musician, as well as in performance art and as a singer/songwriter. Together with her band, Lia Sells Fish, she performs throughout Switzerland and released her first album in April 2019. Christine enjoys lending her voice to club music productions and also engages in self-produced audio plays.

Annatina Huwiler is a freelance scenographer for theatre, film and exhibitions. She regularly collaborates with the Friction Collective, the director duo Dorn°Bering, Jonas Egloff and Marie Bues. Annatina has been a member of the Bonzo Collective since 2018.

Hannes Junker is active in various formats and bands as a drummer, percussionist and actor. These include Belmondos Tanzkapelle and Sleepyhouse from Lucerne, the musical improvisation theatre group TaTa Theater and the tapdrumbreak company, where tap and break dance meet drums. He spent the 2016 season on tour with Zirkus Chnopf.

Esther Kunz has a background in home economics, writes stories and paints. She was born with a metabolic disorder. Esther works part-time, spends many hours outdoors and loves animals. She has been dancing with BewegGrund since 2011 and made her stage debut 2012 in «10xThe Eternal». Esther regularly trains in various dance techniques and teaches as a co-instructor at BewegGrund.

Lukas Schwander is a dancer and performer with Down’s Syndrome. He is a member of Frei_Raum_Theater and has been involved in all the company’s productions to date. Two days a week Lukas works at Heitere Fahne helping out in the restaurant, club and event space.

Jürg Koch worked from 1998–2014 with Diversions (Wales), the Candoco Dance Company (England) and as an Associate Professor in the Dance Program of the University of Washington in Seattle. Since 2014, he has been working as a freelance dance artist in Bern and thus collaborating with BewegGrund. With the focus firmly on identity and diversity, his choreographic work includes pieces with professional companies, students and community groups.

Philipp Moll works as a live and studio musician, as a composer for film, performance and orchestra and as a producer. He studied at the Basschule in Munich, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and at the Royal Northern College in Manchester before touring internationally as a double bass player and bassist with various artists.

Meret Schlegel has for many years worked on stage and behind the scenes with various cultural institutions in Zurich. After working as the director of the Tanzhaus Zurich, she decided to return to the stage as a dancer and performer, both with her own pieces and as a performer in other people’s projects. Meret received the Tanz Zurich Kultur award from the City of Zurich in 2013.

Benjamin Alexander Lindh Medin has been involved in various projects as a dancer and teacher, currently at Theater Basel and in Tabea Martin’s «Forever», a piece for young audiences that is currently touring Europe.

Maximilian Preisig has been dancing on stage for ten years and recently performed at Lucerne Theatre and in an inclusive project with the 2. BA Contemporary Dance of the Zurich University of the Arts. Maximilian is a founding member and co-director of the «Kulturkeller Winkel» association. In 2019, he joined the team at «UPCOMING FILM MAKERS», the second oldest young film festival in Switzerland.

Patrick Bader worked as a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. He has been a paraplegic since the age of 13. Patrick discovered his passion for dance through his love of electronic music. He has been dancing with BewegGrund since 2016 and has been involved in various productions. Further, Patrick teaches together with Jörg Koch at the BFF college and the Bern University of the Arts. Musically, he is a member of the electronic duet «Die Neuronauten».