“Five and five is…?” asks a dancer with a smile. It’s not every day that you find yourself confronted with arithmetic problems as a visitor to a dance performance. The dancer at the entrance, equipped with a spray bottle for a pleasant smell, already got you in the mood for a rather unusual evening on Wednesday. This time the audience sits in a circle of chairs around the stage in the Posthof.
CieLaroque, founded in 1995, invited people to “Rhythm and Rush”, a choreography by its founder and director Helene Weinzierl from Salzburg, at the dance days. The name of the piece delivers what it promises: a rousing, vital performance that intoxicatingly intensifies over the course of the evening.
Dancers and audience become part of a shared experiment: Does the invitation to interact create intimacy or increase the distance between performer and audience? The ten-member ensemble explores this in their colorful scenic dance, with the dancers repeatedly approaching individual visitors personally: A cloakroom number has been found, is it their own? You rummage through your bag, only to be surprised five minutes later with the message that your own blue coat is the most beautiful of all. You will also be invited for a hug – following politely asking.
While the audience becomes part of the performance in various ways, a dance spectacle unfolds on the stage at the same time, telling of all kinds of experiences and encounters.
A dancer humorously exposes self-optimization with her coconut oil hair massage like something out of an influencer video. The longest kiss is film-worthy.
To the pulsating sound of Oliver Stotz, the event condenses into an organized, heart-warming chaos of “rhythm and intoxication”.
Conclusion: A refreshingly unconventional invitation to more openness.
On April 24th at the dance days: Austrian premiere with flamenco queen Rocio Molina, 8 p.m., 0732 / 78 18 00, posthof.at
