bettina wenzel / hans w. koch



experiments in dance / music

each sound has its own body as well as each body its own sound.
movement is, what they have in common.
audible movement (music) and visible movement (dance) influence each other.

we started our collaboration in order to explore the mutual interferences between the two media.

first step was to explore some possibilities of coexistence in a given space.
this was done in „tanz/musik“ (cologne 2/2000), a contribution for the series „neue musik in europa 8“.

as a second step we tried to find a metalanguage for the two medias:
in „territoires“ (cologne 12/2000) the structure of the whole evening is directed by a set of tasks, written on edible paper and shuffled like a deck of cards at the beginning. it also involves video-projection as an extension of the inner and outer space and a point of reference for both performers.

the performance „-fall - out-“, premiered in cologne 11/2001, refers to sounds and images created as a side-effect of setting up a sound-installation during the performance and of the dancer having a little camera attached to the knee, its images showing random sections of her body in motion.

„je pense a toi“ (cologne 12/2002) is centered around the idea of meeting/not meeting, determined by different degrees of the freedom to move around in the space. sound is controlled by a rubber string attached to the musician.

„corrida des sons“ (cologne 5/2003), a series of confrontations, approaches and withdrawals, sudden attacks, faked surrenders, tricks and harmony between voice and electronics was a new approach in that direction, experimenting with a game-structure to confront the two performers with unpredictable situations they had to deal with in their medias.

for 2004 „23 preludes a rien“ (to be premiered in cologne, june 15th) will create a mosaic structure of 23 short pieces in all kinds of medias (dance, music, video, installation, performance). like in a russian babushka-doll, each piece opens up to the next one, all together mirroring an imaginary centre.