SQUEEZE

SQUEEZE offers a terrain to contemplate and experience different dimensions of massage therapy. This ancient healing method is here lifted out of the treatment room and translated into a social choreography in the performance space.

Driven by haptic desire and anatomical curiosity, five performers knead, press, shake and stretch each other's body tissues. Even thick textiles and empty spaces are carefully treated. From these actions, sculptural constellations emerge and dissolve, imbued with pleasure-pain and tension-relief. Alternating sounds of electronic music and open landscapes suggest that massage can and should spill over into other spheres of daily life.

Before entering, the audience members are given a “touch sticker” that they can take on and off at anytime if they want/don’t want to be touched by the performers.

Everyone is welcome to stay in the room, relax, chat, and practice massage after the performance.

Duration: 60 min + voluntary post-performance 15 min workshop and care session

>>Link to Tyra reflecting on two reference works to SQUEEZE: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong & Squeeze by Mika Rottenberg<<

PREMIERE

9, 10, 11, 12.2023 Kunsthaus Baselland / Roxy Birsfelden

TOUR

18, 19.11.2023
depARTures / ACCESS TO DANCE
Joint Adventures, Münich

2 - 3.12.2023
Les Urbaines, Lausanne

17 - 18.08.2024
Festival far°, Nyon

8 - 9.11.2024
MDT Stockholm

“The chemistry and dynamics between the performers are ultimately what make this piece something to remember in the moment. They’re instant strangers but here you are responding with an empathetic chord to the countenance they display with each other, whether you expected to be touched or not.”
- Ashik Zaman, C-print Journal

Credits:
Concept, choreography: Tyra Wigg

Performance, development: Simon Fleury, Tejus Menon, Natascha Moschini, Yixuan Xiao, Tyra Wigg/Marie Popall

Sound design, live DJ: Nya Buerki 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, 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

Review 2024