BOIDS
A futurological dance performance
BOIDS operates with the topos of swarm behavior, that combines artificial intelligence, future science and science fiction. Swarms function as collectives without a center; they control and organize themselves. Boids (bird-oid objects) are synthetically manufactured swarm animals whose behavior is steered by simple formalized rules. Intelligence is decentralized; the individual dissolves like a cloud. The swarm shapes itself from a multitude into a multiple whole. In science fiction scenarios, the sudden appearance of a swarm is not only menacing – it is also the epitome of an enemy that has no shape or contour.
While referencing science fiction visions from the past, in BOIDS the dancers approach these motifs through apparently meaningless collective movements, that lack a center and arise in constantly new patterns while being immersed in – and motivated by – the duo Günther Lause’s electronic soundscape. A group forms, disintegrates, individuals are flushed out and return. In white costumes, blending into the whiteness of the walls, the dancers almost disappear completely in a space that appears to hover – a cloud of dance, light and sound.
Choreography: Moritz Ostruschnjak together with Daniela Bendini and the dancers
Dance: Gaetano Badalamenti, Darren Devaney, Chiaki Horita, Isaac Spencer, Nuria Giménez Villarroya
Live-Music, electronics: Günther Lause (Max Lange, Konrad Wehrmeister)
Light design: Tanja Rühl
Costume: Renate Ostruschnjak
Audio engineering: Paolo Mariangeli
Production management: Hannah Melder
PR: Beate Zeller
Graphic Design: Gregor Micheler
World premiere: September 28th 2017, schwere reiter Munich
A production of Moritz Ostruschnjak in cooperation with schwere reiter tanz. Supported by the cultural department of the City of Munich and the BLZT, Bayerischer Landesverband für zeitgenössischen Tanz, aus Mitteln des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kunst. Moritz Ostruschnjak is a member of Tanztendenz München e. V.
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(…) the dancers infected each other with various movements that all suggested foreign control – also because the impulses seldom originated from their heads, but rather their legs, stomachs or somewhere else in their bodies. They seemed like marionettes, but never like puppets. In the schwere reiter, without a stage set but wonderfully lighted, Ostruschnjak created a cool and collected group study.
Rita Argauer, Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 1st 2017
As in a painting of monochrome contemporary art, „BOIDS“ challenges the audience – the same way that the title does, a fantasy word that joins nature (birds) with computer science (oid = object identifier). As one finds out later, it fits to a piece that flows in motif patterns and waves.
Vesna Mlakar, Abendzeitung, September 29th 2017
On a fog-white stage, floating on a soft electronic soundscape by the duo Günther Lause, it feels like the slow-motion walking turns more and more into a choreographic meditation. The “internalized” walking enlivens into expanded motions: upper bodies leaning forward or to the side, extended arms, knees bending towards the ground. Ostruschnjak and his excellent dancers explore the entire arsenal of contemporary movement, in harmony with a soundscape that is constantly loaded with different emotions.
Malve Gradinger, Münchner Merkur, September 29th/16th 2017
the dance, music and atmosphere intensify over the course of approximately one hour until everything drifts – hypnotic and hypnotizing – into the sphere of a subtly lighted stage. (..) It is simultaneously spine-chilling and beautiful.
Natalie Broschat, Tanznetz, October 4th 2017