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