”In Barbara Bess‘ dance performance two levels of meaning are connected in the same way as it is when one looks at the Hambacher Forest activists. The large theatre space in the Kulturforum becomes a forest and also becomes the world (…).“
Sigrun Arenz, review of Aufbäumen, Fürther Nachrichten 29.10.2018
”The very first scenes in the Film BeComing (..) are an exercise in mindfulness. (..) one doesn’t need to attempt to decipher all the pictures. The invitation to perceive the world anew, differently, more sensitively is taken up spontaneously.“
Regina Urban, review of BeComing, Nürnberger Nachrichten, 2020
Barbara Bess
Barbara Bess* is a freelance choreographer, dancer, artist and yoga teacher. She has been developing performance projects, situated at the interface of the urban and rural environment since 2008. Employing an interdisciplinary approach she interweaves moving installations, photography and video together with the physical presence of the human body.
Barbara Bess‘ choreographic work spans a cosmos which, with its multiple frames and clear lines, delineated by dynamics and movement, stretches ever further. With the intention of breaking up existing systems, in order to create a new equilibrium, various layers of materiality, levels of perception, physical landscapes and sensitive states are joined together in a concentrated fashion and recalibrated. Micro- and macrocosmic spaces are created, which, using their own point of balance, produce their own atmospheric power..
* After her dance training in Salzburg at SEAD, Barbara Bess studied for her Masters in Choreography at the HZT and UDK in Berlin and subsequently returned to her home town of Nuremberg. In addition to the development of her own performances she dances in international productions and teaches contemporary dance, composition and phsyical awarenss. In 2019 she added the qualification of certified hatha yoga teacher (RYS) and is presently occupied with the creation of an artist-in-residence placement in somatic movement research in the Old School/Kirchfernbach. In 2017 she was honoured with the IHK prize for outstanding artistic work. From 2018 – 2021 she received the three year Impulse Grant from the City of Nuremberg and in 2020 she received one of the City of Nuremberg’s Prizes for Culture.
www.barbara-bess.com
CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
MAGIERIN & traces (MAGICIAN & traces)
Premiere: September 2023 I Alte Schule Kirchfembach
In the performative walk "MAGIERIN", choreographer Barbara Bess transforms her arthouse film "COMET" into a form that can be experienced physically. This creates visually and aurally moving choreographies through which the bodies of three shape-shifters inscribe themselves into the landscape like living drawings. In doing so, they play with the masculine concept of the magician and explore their own mysticism and language of transformation.
The performative forest walk "traces", first performed in 2022 and developed by choreographer Jakob Jautz, explores the relationship between man and land on various levels. By bringing the works together, a complementary connection is created that invites the audience to leave the perspective of the spectator and become part of the process themselves. In the transition from day to night, an experiential space is created for the feeling of creative participation and self-empowerment.
COMET_a science fiction portrait
Film
Premiere: December 2021
Three performers, as if they were aliens or comets from another dimension, examine, within the rural Franconian countryside, the field of tension between their personal sensitivity and outer appearances. Sebastian Autenrieth and Barbara Bess follow this performative exploration of the landscape with the eye of the (video)camera. The sculptured costumes of the dancers move to reveal different body parts. Enlarged or lengthened protuberences emerge from the bodies and engage with their surroundings, are deposited and cause the space to oscillate between reality and fiction.
Visual artistic material taken from the performances of the first two parts of this three-part project enhance the performative installation. Photos from COMING CLOSER (2019) by Sebastian Autenrieth will be presented on a screen and the film of BECOMING (2020) (40 min) will be presented.
A co-production with the Tafelhalle Nuremberg in Kunstkulturquartier; financially supported by the City of Nuremberg (Impulse Funding) and by the Cultural Foundation of the Sparkasse Nuremberg.
ArchivE
BeComing
Film
Premiere: August 2020 I Katharinenruine Nuremberg
BeComing is Barbara Bess‘ invitation to sensibilise ourselves to our perceptions and to immerse ourselves in a cinematic experience of radical sensuality.
Created to last the length of 500 breaths, we accompany the protagonist into her world, a world in which the mundane and the magical go hand in hand.
In dialogue with her direct habitat, her longings, memories, dreams and with other forms, the artists reflects on and understands herself as an ever-changing body of resonance.
A co-production with the Tafelhalle Nuremberg in Kunstkulturquartier; financially supported by the City of Nuremberg (Impulse Funding) and by the Cultural Foundation of the Sparkasse Nuremberg.
AUFBÄUMEN (SURGE)
Premiere: September 2018 I Kulturforum Fürth
Bodies and trees are breathing organisms, which retain stories, diversify, change shape and develop, They find themselves in communication and exchange with each other and reflect the moment in time.
Two dancers, a contrabass player and a sound designer transform the stage space into a web of wind, sound, light, architecture, object, word and coincidence. How much do we form our surroundings and how much do they form us?
A co-production with the Kulturforum Fürth supported by Tanzzentrale of the Nuremberg Region; financially supported by the City of Fürth, by the Bavarian Association for Contemporary Dance (BLZT) with funds from the Bavarian Ministery for Science and Culture.
Da Da ist. Wir sind. (Da Da is. We are.)
Premiere: November 2017 I Tafelhalle Nuremberg
Who is the director of our body? Eight young dancers and a sound artist move within a space and breathe in the unstoppable rhythm of our age. It’s as if a primal sonata emanates frpm a nightclub and the darkness swallows up bodies and highlights the silence. Intentionally invisible, delicately intimate, it’s the urgency of the moment that directs the action.
A co-production with the Tafelhalle Nuremberg in Kunstkulturquartier supported by Tanzzentrale of the Nuremberg Region; financially supported by the City of Nuremberg, by the Bavarian Association for Contemporary Dance (BLZT) with funds from the Bavarian Ministery for Science and Culture.
