#dock 11

Tonight is the last chance to see the premiere of Moo Kim’s Chasing Silence. Part dance and part installation, the performance aims to fracture silence and take a closer look at the split shards. The show works with the extremes of bodily expression, where minimal but emotionally charged movements are used to convey the poetic chase of an intangible silence.

THURSDAY Class was shifted to 12:30 with Davide, so I ended up venturing after my German class to a local studio for an evening course at Dock 11. This place is in a very cool and grungy looking building, if I have mentioned the buildings here have front doors on the street, but then there are about 3 buildings lined up behind each other. The class was for people who are less experienced with dance, or just don't study it, so it was very... simple and slow in a different way from the other classes I've mentioned. It was a shame I had to pay 9 Euro to hardly move is all I'll say, but the teacher was a lovely person and she did a fine job of making the class challenging, fun, and creative for the people involved. I learned a lot for future experience teaching non-professional dancers.

FRIDAY I ventured south to Kreuzberg again for a class called MOVEMENT RESEARCH at Tanzfabrik with Sharon Assa-Hilleli. This class was amazing because we moved from Feldenkrais technique to improvisation, definitely a new experience. Why it made sense: Beginning with Feldenkrais, we located the trajectory of pouring or shifting our weight from head to toe, on the floor, in a spiral, coming out of the floor, going back into the floor... Essentially we took the time to work in a mega-slow fashion to feel every detail of movements with a focus of sequencing everything together so that there is never a pause or break in the body. Taking this amount of time turned the attention of the body up to 100% so by the time started shift our weight to stand, it was as familiar as brushing your teeth.

Pausing, the motive was to fill up the body for 360 degree attention and life.  Then we imagined a path of movement out of the pause, we denied it and moved in a different or opposite direction. The difficulty for me was not to be too controlled, but also to be able to control momentum enough that there wasn't a snowball effect in my body. Register and shift the weight, being clear about intention, and follow through with a natural continuation by listening to the reaction through the body. Flow meets choice, sentimentality meets redirection.

Südwestwind 18 km/h. “Jedesmal wenn ich in Berlin bin – etwa 10 Mal im Jahr – bin ich auf der Tempelhofer Freiheit. Für mich ist dieser Park ein neu gewonnenes Stück Berlin, dass ich noch nie betreten durfte seit 74 Jahren. Für mich ist sehr wichtig, dass trotz der vielen konkurrierenden Absichten, der Platz so erhalten bleibt wie er ist, ohne zusätzliche Bebauung, ohne Parkverschönerung, aber zur vielfältigen sportlichen und Freizeitnutzung. Als einziges, von Weitem sichtbares Bauwerk würde ich eine Großwindanlage errichten, die sicher einen guten Energieertrag liefern würde.“ Dally, 75, Architekt, aus Lichterfelde, wohnt seit 46 Jahren in Weinheim, hat aber ein Studio in Prenzlauer Berg.

Dally kann von seinem Studio in Berlin vier Theater zu Fuß erreichen: Prater Saal, Dock 11, Theater unterm Dach, Volksbühne. Er kannte Berlin einst „wie seine Westentasche“, und ist zum Studium nach Heidelberg nicht vom Tempelhof geflogen, sondern mit seinem kleinen Käfer gefahren. Es gibt genügend Parks, genügend Gebäude in Berlin, meint er. Der Name Tempelhofer Freiheit sagt ziemlich gut, was hier sein sollte – eine leere Fläche. Park ist ein konventioneller Begriff. Der Flughafen war für Dally damals ohne Interesse, jetzt aber „geht sein Herz auf“, sagt er und zeigt er mir, dass wir da in der Ferne den Treptower Park sehen können. Hier kann man weiter schauen, wo anders in dieser Stadt würde man das schaffen, außer in unseren Vorstellungen?

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Southwest Wind 18 km/h. „Every time I am in Berlin – around 10 times a year – I’m on Tempelhofer Freiheit. This park is for me a new won part of Berlin, where I couldn’t enter for 74 years. For me it's very important that despite the many competing interests, the place stays how it is now, without further constructions, without park aesthetics, but open for many sports and free use. As an exception I would construct a huge wind machine, which would be for sure an important energy source.’ Dally, 75, architect, from Lichterfelde, lives for 46 years in Weinheim, has a studio in Prenzlauer Berg.