No Human No Cry!

A guest choreography by Lisi Estaras for the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD)

My heart is the muscle
we like to work out.
The real world doesn’t interest me
I have this theatre inside my head
I make a list
I wander through
I shift
You are my wonderland
Invisible in the garden
Let me shout the rain
I’m not saying more
bring the glasses
like ageless tears
as we drown
we know.

The German dancer, cabaret performer and actress Valeska Gert, who lived from 1892 to 1978, was one of the most influential artists of her generation. Similarly radical and unconventional work was also produced by the art brut movement. These two strong artistic signatures provide the inspiration for the choreographer Lisi Estaras and the BODHI PROJECT’s six person ensemble in ​No Human No Cry!. ​ These raw art forms, unpolished by academic conventions, open up perspectives on an intuitive creativity whose allure is based on sensitivity and exuberance.

Estaras’ choreographic process centers on the physicality of intense emotions and on the absurdity of human attempts to overcome these. This is realized in a dance of compelling “rawness” with a physical vocabulary packed with energy, expressive miming and theatrical gestures. The original music by Giacinto Scelsi and Pierre Henry plays a key role in ​No Human No Cry! ​, linking the soundscape and composition in an evocative manner.