SQUEEZE
SQUEEZE moves healing and aesthetic dimensions of massage therapy out from clinics and spas into a social choreography in the performance space. Driven by haptic desire and anatomical curiosity, five performers are kneading, pressing, shaking, and stretching each other’s’ body tissues. Their strive to be both giver and receiver at the same time draws them into sculptural constellations infused with pleasure-pain and tension-release.
The caring gestures and a big amount of recycled sleeping bags transforms the stage into a soft terrain to rest, observe, and treat within. The textile is also given new meaning as extended body tissues in need of squeezes and joint manipulations. Borders between human and inanimate matter are further blurred when the performers’ hands are treating the negative space, inviting imaginations of phantom bodies and invisible but highly sensible connections.
DJ Graue Kreide weaves together an electronic track selection with field recordings from natural landscapes that inspire deep breathing. Together, the sound, costume, scenography, and choreography suggest that massage can be practiced favourably in many places, for example on a hike or on the dancefloor.
Audience members who express explicit consent might receive gentle touch on shoulders, arms, or legs during the performance. Everyone is invited to stay for a post-performance care session where you can relax to ambient music and practice massage therapy with each other and/or the performers.
Duration: 60 min + voluntary post-performance care session
PREMIERE
9, 10, 11, 12.2023
Kunsthaus Baselland / Roxy Birsfelden
https://kunsthausbaselland.ch/ausstellungen/tyra-wigg
/
https://theaterroxy.ch/spielplan/archiv/detail/538/squeeze/?p=1583
TOUR
18, 19.11.2023
depARTures / ACCESS TO DANCE
Joint Adventures, Münich
https://www.jointadventures.net/access-to-dance/encounters/tyra-wigg
2 - 3.12.2023
Les Urbaines Lausanne
https://www.urbaines.ch/
7-8.11.2024
MDT Stockholm
Workshop at ROXY October 28: https://theater-roxy.ch/spielplan/archiv/detail/546/workshop/
Concept, choreography: Tyra Wigg
Performance, development: Simon Fleury, Tejus Menon, Natascha Moschini, Yixuan Xiao, Tyra Wigg/Marie Popall
Sound design, live DJ: Nya Bürki aka Graue Kreide
Costume, scenography: Ernestyna Orlowska, Carolina Misztela, Tyra Wigg
Dramaturgical support: Johanna Hilari, Sonja Jokiniemi
Choreographic development: Mariana My Suikkanen Gomes
Music development: Thy Truong, Nya Bürki, Tyra Wigg
Production: Bernhard la Dous, produktionsDOCK
Co-production: ROXY Birsfelden, MDT Stockholm
PREMIO award for emerging artists in performing arts
Supported by: The committee for Dance and Theatre Basel-Stadt/Baselland, BLKB Jubiläumsstiftung, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Stiftung Wolf, Jaqueline Spengler Stiftung, Landis & Gyr Stiftung, Pro Helvetia
Created in residencies at ROXY Birsfelden, Dampfzentrale, MDT, Arsenic, Tanzhaus Zürich and Kaserne Basel
A project supported by Danse & Dramaturgie (D&D CH), an initiative by Théâtre Sévelin 36 Lausanne, in association with Dampfzentrale Bern, ROXY Birsfelden, Südpol Luzern, Tanzhaus Zürich, TU-Théâtre de l’Usine Genève; funded by Pro Helvetia and SSA Société Suisse des Auteurs
Photos by Karin Salathé
Review 2023