figures on a field

Dean Moss: figures on a field

Thu 23. to Sat 25.10., 19.30h, TQW Hall G

With his interdisciplinary, conceptual practice, Dean Moss became an important figure in the New York experimental dance scene in the 1990s and 2000s. With "figures on a field", Tanzquartier presents a restaging of his seminal group piece, thereby highlighting the canon of recent African-American dance history by presenting this choreographic work in Europe for the first time. "figures on a field" premiered in 2005 at The Kitchen in New York City and was conceived in a special collaboration with painter Laylah Ali. The starting point for the piece is Ali’s provocative "Greenhead" paintings and the museum context in which they are exhibited. Moss translates the graphic quality of Ali’s figures of ambiguous identity into a restrained, choreographic language with dark undercurrent. Together with Vienna-based dancers Mzamo Nondlwana, Evandro Pedroni, Imani Rameses, Zoé-Afan Strasser, and Daliah Toure, Dean Moss now breathes new life into the piece. Twenty years later, this evocative work still shakes us perhaps even more strongly as identity has become increasingly commodified in today’s media landscape. "figures on a field" asks the audience to look and then look again differently.