THE SEA IN ME

Helge Letonja & Kossi Aholou-Wokawui

Many people flee to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, experiencing profound moments and traumas, perhaps also solidarity at sea. How do those who arrive process their feelings after the crossing? What remains of the experience, the memory of the odyssey? Exposed to the danger of the elements with strangers, with the hope of arrival, the prospect of possible sea rescue, and the fear of being pushed back?

With "La mer en moi" (The Sea Within Me), choreographer Helge Letonja, along with Togolese dancer Kossi S. Aholou-Wokawui, embarks on an artistic quest for traces. The artist and poet Ela Fischer contributes her intense text art, lending a voice to the unspoken.

Letonja transforms the stage into a space entirely dominated by water. Traces dissolve in the water, and time levels blend together. Flashbacks and flash-forwards interweave into stories. Set to the soundscapes of Volker Klein, musician and composer for film music and orchestra, Aholou-Wokawui's dance in the water reflects the turbulent inner landscape of people trying to calm and start anew after extreme experiences. Water as the gentle and profound place of reflection, and as a wild, tumultuous element in which humans become playthings of tides and isolating powers.

idea, concept, stage: Helge Letonja | Choreography: Helge Letonja in collaboration with Kossi Aholou-Wokawui | Dance: Kossi Sebastien Aholou-Wokawui | Text, Voice: Ela Fischer | Sound: Volker Klein | Light: Nathaniel Johnson

A production by steptext dance project in coproduction with Of Curious Nature/TanzRAUM Nord. Steptext dance project will sponsored by Senator for Culture Bremen