A journey into the realm of interconnectedness: The new performance “The Infinite Gesture” by Ixchel Mendoza Hernández explores the transformative power of touch, connection and empathy. From the sensitive gesture of touch grows a deeply intertwined choreographic landscape in which three performers encounter each other and pose questions about our social co-existence. In “The Infinite Gesture”, they investigate different perspectives on coming-into-connection: From skin-to-skin contact to symbolic, metaphysical and societal dimensions of being together. In this performance, Ixchel Mendoza Hernández makes tangible the potential of touch to shift power hierarchies, dependencies and care and seeks alternative narratives for this network of relationships.
For many years, Berlin-based choreographer and performer Mendoza Hernández has been exploring a phenomenon that she calls “Visual Ghost” – a continuously changing consciousness of perception and inner virtuality. In a world where visible and invisible, subjective and objective realities are closely interwoven, she investigates how the immaterial and the invisible can become “present” through physical experience. Using choreographic tools, she examines how we can reconstruct and reshape perceptual realities.
“The Infinite Gesture” will premiere at Radialsystem as part of the :LOVE: cooperation between Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem. With the initiative “Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik”, the two institutions are working together to improve the labour and presentation conditions of dance professionals in Berlin.
21.12.2024 Audio description & Haptic Tour
Please register by email or telephone at or 0049 15157335890
An artist talk will take place after the performance on 22 December.
Concept, Choreography, Text & Performance: Ixchel Mendoza Hernández
Performance & Co-Creation: Sebastian Elias Kurth, Emeka Ene
Sound & Music: Hyewon Suk
Light: Annegret Schalke
Stage: Dora Đurkesac
Stage and technical assistance: Louise Wach
Costume: Malena Mondéer
Dramaturgy: Jenny Mahla
Process Support Perceptive Pedagogy bdm: Joséphine Evrard
Production: M.i.C.A.
Audio Description Text & Editing: Swantje Henke & Gerald Pirner
A production by Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, in co-production with Radialsystem and Tanzfabrik Berlin. With the kind support of Something Great - Center for International Contemporary Performing Arts, Ruhner Berge and Werkstatt für Darstellende Künste e.V.. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
Ixchel Mendoza Hernández (she/her) is a Mexican freelance choreographer, performer and dancer based in Berlin. She completed her choreography and dance studies at Artez Arnheim in 2007. From 2013 till 2015 she had been engaged at the MA SoDA, HZT in Berlin. Her research is based on a phenomena she calls «Visual Ghost», an consciousness of perception that continuously transforms or evolves: Living in a world, in which the materialized and visible is intertwined with the immaterial and the invisible, «Visual Ghost» explores how the invisible and immaterial can come into presence by experiencing them. Through the means of choreography she explores an awareness or consciousness that materialises in the space, interested in how these invisible phenomena come into the "present" and through what events, social arrangements or circumstances takes place.
Emeka Ene was born in London and grew up in Berlin. He completed a BA in Dance, Context and Choreography at HZT Berlin and has worked as a dancer with choreographers such as Jefta van Dinther, Sheena McGrandles, Lee Meir and Milla Koistinen. He is particularly interested in the question of what brings and motivates people to dance. This approach has sparked his interest in relationships, loving practices and technologies of emotionality.
Sebastian Elias Kurth is an artist, performer and choreographer based in Berlin and Marseille. He studied dance at the London Contemporary Dance School and architecture at the University of the Arts. He has worked as a dancer throughout Europe and as an architect in Madrid. His work explores how bodies construct atmospheres and how technology changes our sense of space and presence. As a choreographer, he has developed four performances, including “Broken Spaces Are More Likely”, a performance series on a construction site, and “Landscape of Hyper”, a poetic atlas of human behavior.