FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Photo: Katrin Schander
FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Photo: Katrin Schander
FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Photo: Katrin Schander
FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Photo: Katrin Schander
FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Foto: Katrin Schander
FLeXiBLe RuLe - Festivalprojekt, Photo: Katrin Schander
 

FLeXiBLe RuLe


Rules. They are everywhere. In school, at home, on the street, in our own heads. Rules provide clarity, they separate right from wrong, top from bottom and inside from outside. But where exactly do we find these rules? Where do they begin and where do they end? Can they be measured and how far can a rule be bent, before it is broken?

All sixty 6th-year students at the Erich-Kästner School Darmstadt-Kranichstein experienced dance and performance as spectators and as performers during the school year 2016/2017.

The festival project began in September 2016 with a collective visit to the dance performance “Trashedy” (Performing Group, Cologne) in the Centralstation Darmstadt. Together with theatre pedagogue Marielle Amsbeck, the 60 students then experimented for themselves with dance and theatre and recreated short choreographies from their own memories of the theatre experience.

In late November / early December, all students took part in a one-day workshop with Mojra Vogelnik Škerlj and Jasper Džuki Jelen from the Amsterdam company “The100Hands”. Four hours of dance were not just strenuous, but also a very special school day for the students.

From 1 to 8 March 2017, nine of them explored the unwritten rules of the Centralstation together with the three artists. What rules do a building, a space or our own mind dictate? Can rules be measured? What happens when we shift, bend or write rules ourselves and what is when rules become flexible?

The students approached these questions in dance, text and choreography. The results of their research journey were presented as part of the international theatre festival for young audiences “Starke Stücke” on 8 March 2017 in the Centralstation. The performance reflected the architecture and different spatial perspectives of the Centralstation to provide exciting new points of view.

Performance: Arlinda, Arwen, Dilan, Elif, Leni, Linah, Ozan, Samira, Sudem
Project Leaders: Jasper Džuki Jelen, Mojra Vogelnik Škerlj (The100Hands, NL), Marielle Amsbeck (Starke Stücke-Workshop-Team, D)
Video: Angelina Dalinger
Project Partners: Kulturfreunde Centralstation e.V., Erich-Kästner School Darmstadt-Kranichstein

The project is funded by “kunstvoll” - the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain program for cultural outreach education projects