Bunker » Betontanc: DANCE OR DIE

Betontanc: DANCE OR DIE

Dance or Die

Photo: Saša Hes za Amater

One of the key phrases within this performance is the human body. After all, the human body and its passions are the engine of the human world. Nothing is more difficult to understand than that magical moment, when the head and the body are no longer one, when the feet take a different direction than the eyes, when the arms don’t obey what the mouth has ordered, and when the body rises, although the brain has told it to sit down. Is dance truly the greatest revenge for human laziness and mass stupidity?

This dance performance, based on the Latin American rhythms of salsa, rumba, meringue, bachata, are inspired by these three stories: The seven wives of Bluebeard, whom he sweet-talked into marriage, locked themselves away his castle, threw them onto his bed, took their virginity and forbade them to open the last room in the sombre hall of his castle, the story of Salome who loved John the Baptist’s body so much, that she danced for her stepfather and cast off all her seven veils before him, and above all, the story by Edgar A. Poe, The Mask of Red Death, where prince Prospero and his guests were celebrating within a walled abbey, desperately wanting to escape from the menacing plague, which was ravaging beyond the outside walls, but had forgotten that death is inevitable, impossible to escape from, no matter what!

Credits

Directed by: Matjaž Pograjc
Conceived and performed by: Primož Bezjak, Ana Hribar, Branko Jordan, Blažka Müller Pograjc, Ivan Peternelj, Branko Potočan, Snježana Premuš, Dejan Srhoj, Katarina Stegnar, Donia Streher
Stage movement assistants: Matjaž Brinovec, Branko Potočan
Music by: Silence and Live mix*
Music from Silence, performed by: Boris Benko, Primož Hladnik, Blaž Celarec, Matej Javoršek, Riki Zadravec
Set design: Estríhi & Ométi
Costume design: Boris Arivuković – Emigrant
Light design: Tomaž Štrucl
Sound design and live mix: Jure Vlahovič
Research: Tibor Hrs Pandur
Make up and hairstyle: Kreator maske in pričeske Empera3zz in Špela Veble
Graphic design: Saša Kladnik
Photography: Amater
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Production: Bunker, Ljubljana
Co-production: Slovensko mladinsko gledališče

* live mix contains excerpts from
(performer – song title (author) / record label):
The KNIFE – Pass This On (Knife) / V2;
END. – Countdown To The End (Peirce) / Ipecac;
Nortec Collective – Tijuana Bass (Amezcua) / Nacional;
Bloc Party – The Prayer (Bloc Party) / Wichita;
Yma Sumac – Bo Mambo (May, Vivanco) / Capitol;
Yma Sumac- Taita Inty (Vivanco) / Capitol;
Yma Sumac – Najal’s Lament (Fain, Harburg) / Capitol;
Boban Markovic – Svatbarska Igra
Sid Vicious – My Way (Anka, Francois, Revaux ) / Virgin;
Gogol Bordello – Sally (Gogol Bordello, Hutz) / USA Side 1 Dummy;
Gogol Bordello – Not a Crime (Gogol Bordello, Hutz) / USA Side 1 Dummy;
David Bowie – Let’s Dance (Bowie) / Virgin;
Beirut – Scenic World (Condon) / Ba Da Bing!;
Beirut – Bratislava (Condon) / Ba Da Bing!;
Cocorosie – Beautiful Boyz (Cocorosie) / Touch And Go;
Sebastien Teiler – La Ritournelle (Teiler) / Lucky Number Ltd;
Metric – Calculation Theme (Metric) / Everloving;
Nouvelle Vague – Dancing With Myself (Idol, James) / Justin Time;
Balkan Beat Box – Hermetico (Kaplan, Muskat, Yosef) / JDub;
Fruko – El Preso (Alvaro Velasquez) / Discos Fuentes;
Placebo – Song To Say Goodbye (Placebo) / Astralwerks;
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – 1997 (Nils Frykdahl) / Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Sex Pistols – Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morison) / Bang Records;
Fantomas – Omen (Goldsmith) / Ipecac