Dance

Error 404 – Page Not Found

Error 404 is a physical theatre experiment that deals with concepts of uncertainty, ambiguity, mythologies of trickster figures and chance operations.

Choreography/Concept/Performance: Sonja Heller

Premiere: 29.04.2017, Espaço Estrada, Indaiatuba (BR)

Automatic Message

Inspired by André Bretons book about the surrealist technique to write or draw without conscious self-censorship, Sonja Heller and TESTCARD explore the possibilities of producing sound through drawing and moving on a big sheet of paper. Several contact microphones are attached with the ground. The noises of the movement are then translated into MIDI signals and transformed into different kind of sounds.

This work was shown through the years in different versions.

Concept/Performance: Sonja Heller & TESTCARD

Premiere: 19.07.2015 at “25 Jahre Schokoladen – Hoffest”, Ackerstadtpalast Berlin

The Discipline of Do Easy

Stop-Motion-Video: Jürgen Eckloff

„How can you pilot a spacecraft if you can’t find your way around your own apartment?“
~ William S. Burroughs

The retired Colonel Sutton-Smith has discovered the discipline of ‚Do Easy’, which implies to perform all daily life activities in the most simple and effective way without making an unnecessary motion – A duo based on the short story by William S. Burroughs, that combines elements of dramatic reading with contemporary dance/movement and experimental music. The dancer triggers through her movement the sound devices that are hidden in the stage setting. Recited text is in german.

Concept/Performance: Leo Solter, Sonja Heller

Premiere: 13.02.2014 in Brotfabrik Berlin

Theory of Relativity

“The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so.The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after thewarrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

A dance theater solo that deals with our perceptions of reality. Inspired by the books of Carlos Castaneda and Einstein’s legendary theory of relativity it explores the question of what we call real and true. Is this world just a projection from our mind or in fact solid and stable? Or is the truth in the eye of the beholder?

A piece that plays with lightness and darkness, reality and dream and combines pointe work of classical ballet, fine art and shibari techniques.

Choreography/Performance: Sonja Heller

Premiere: Estação Caneca – Espaço Cultural Trilhas da Arte, São Paulo, 08.06. 2012

Nightshade Plants (Nachtschattengewächse)

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’
(Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland)

A piece about what defines madness and where is the line 
between
madness and a ‘healthy mind’.
A piece soaked with 
bittersweet memories of childhood, fantasy worlds and loneliness.
A dance in honor of the inner landscapes of human mind and 
a cue for daily-life madness.
I am you and you are me.

Dance/Choreography: Sonja Heller

Premiere: Estação Caneca – Espaço Cultural Trilhas da Arte, São Paulo, 2011

Daily Icarus

The legend of the Icarus is an allegory for a dreamer or an artist, who is revolting against the rules of society and fighting for indecency of his artistic work. In times of technical progress the human being feels likes living in an air bubble.

Communication happens mostly via Internet or short messages on the mobiles, warfare and playing computer games becomes close in the way they are accomplished.
If the “Icarus” risks entering reality, he is not able to connect to it. Sensory overload, overstraining, hectic pace befall him. He tries to build up his dream world again. But it can never be the same.

The illusion is gone.

Music: Leo Solter

Premiere: Brotfabrik Berlin, 2009