29th International Dance Festival AURA is coming up on October 3-6 in the heart of Lithuania!

„Untitled: Persona“

The piece focuses our view on the dialectic relationship of the body as a bearer of
meaning and a projection surface, as well as a blank sheet of paper and an image of a complexly
describable individuality. Through different aesthetics of body transformations or levels of
supercharging of the body, from stylized to animalistic, an altering picture puzzle of bodies is
created in five chapters.  In continually changing arrangements of bodies, objects, costumes and
music, the equipment of the senses is sharpened, the relation between observer and observed is re-
discussed over and over and the boundaries between image and dance, subject and object, performer
and observer, performing- and visual arts are dissolved. The stage becomes an atmospheric
resonance space as an interacting movement arrangement, a visual landscape. From static images,
roles, enrolments, views and (de-)formations grows a material aesthetic mimicry, a kaleidoscope of
glances, a tableau vivant of bodies, landscapes and mindsets. Thereby, a colorful examination is
evoked, which operates with the surmise as a sensitive prestage of comprehension in a playful and
concretely spatial manner.

Trailer

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Ben J. Riepe

In October 2016 Ben J Riepe was awarded the jury prize of the Theaterfestival FAVORITEN.
Ben J. Riepe was born in 1979 and studied dance and choreography at the Folkwang University of
the Arts in Essen. After graduation, he worked as a stage dancer ao. at the Tanztheater Wuppertal
Pina Bausch as well as at V. A. Wölfl/NEUER TANZ. Riepe, who has already won several awards,
has been freelancing since 2006 and has been running his own production facility in Düsseldorf
since 2010. He realized commissional works for the Goethe-Institute Malaysia in cooperation with

DPAC DANCE COMPANY, the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company in cooperation
with the Goethe-Institute Korea, the Folkwang Tanzstudio Essen and the theater festival
FAVORITEN. His working processes, research topics and understanding of choreography as well
as his idea of dealing with space and time are made accessible at several workshops.
Since 2018 he has received the promotion of excellence from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia,
since 2009 the top-level promotion from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and since 2015 the
top-level promotion from the state capital Düsseldorf. In October 2016 he was awarded the jury
prize of the Theaterfestival FAVORITEN Dortmund for his work Livebox: Persona. In 2018 Ben J.
Riepe is nominated for the George Tabori Prize of the Fonds Darstellende Künste.
Ben J. Riepe was affiliated artist at PACT Zollverein in Essen from 2013-2016 and received a
scholarship for the residence program Vila Sul of the Goethe-Institute Salvador de Bahia in Brazil
in spring 2017.

Untitled: Persona is a production of Ben J. Riepe, co-produced by PACT Zollverein Essen and Ballhaus Ost, Berlin. Funded by Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ Coproduction Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte. With thanks to Kai Richter and Carolina Rüegg.

This Performance is supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.