Awarded the Kölner Tanzpreis 2023

Age recommendation: 12+ 

Content note: Loud sound, partial nudity

With a mixture of contemporary dance and group acrobatics, the performance explores our relationship to different spaces and how they influence our communication. Five performers, reminiscent of a catwalk or a military parade, occupy the space and are simultaneously taken over by it. A rhythmic, energetic, sometimes intimate and exhilarating performance. 

In ‘What is left’, Overhead Project tells of the beauty and brutality of the world's everyday social fashion walks. This final part of the trilogy ‘Geometry and Politics’ explores how frontal, classroom-like spatial structures characterise our communication culture. Between catwalk and military parade, passive voyeurism and solidary dependency, five performers hold up a mirror to society with a radically orientated presence. The bodies appear approachable and discreet, but are at the same time strategically staged in an uncanny way. Authentic presence and presentation mode stand side by side in a distorted manner, while the performers' bodies spiral upwards into the space in an unstoppable, heat-driven struggle for attention. 

Overhead Project stands for performances on the border between contemporary circus and dance - two languages that enable different perspectives on the human body and a multidimensional approach to space and architecture. The company, under the direction of choreographer and circus artist Tim Behren, developed from an intensive acrobatic duo work with former co-founder Florian Patschovsky. Today, the core artistic team consists of composer Simon Bauer, visual artist Charlotte Ducousso, performer Mijin Kim and other long-standing performers and thinkers from various fields. Numerous productions and several guest choreographies for municipal theatres with large ensembles have been created to date. The company has received a number of international awards and choreography prizes for its works, most recently the Tabori Award 2022 from the Fonds Darstellende Künste. 

Choreography Tim Behren 

Performance & Creation Mijin Kim, Leon Börgens, Maria Madeira, Maiol Pruna Soler, Francesco Germini 

Lighting & stage design, visual dramaturgy Charlotte Ducousso 

Sound composition, musical dramaturgy Simon Bauer 

Costume design Margot Charbonnier 

Philosophical accompaniment Eric Eggert 

Dramaturgical support Mirjam Hildbrand 

Lighting consultant Felix Bonowski 

Interdisciplinary research Anna Menzel, Mirjam Hildbrand, Eric Eggert, Charlotte Ducousso, Tim Behren 

Production management Lisa Lehnen 

PÖ/ Management Mechtild Tellmann 

Financial administration Lena Peters & Sven Rausch 

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, City of Cologne, Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V. with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Kunststiftung NRW, RheinEnergieStiftung Kultur, supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig 

Co-production ‘And if we try (it) together...?’ - a project by the Kainkollektiv and tak Berlin, LOFFT - das Theater Leipzig, CircusDanceFestival Köln 

Residency partnership PACT Zollverein Essen, Theater op de Markt - Dommelhof Neerpelt, EinTanzHaus Mannheim, LATIBUL, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr Mülheim