“For affectation, as you know, appears when the soul (vis motrix) is located at any point other than the centre of gravity of a movement.”

Heinrich von Kleist: On the Marionette Theatre, 1810

Vis Motrix creates some strange as well as fascinating beings. The dancers seem to come from an- other world, they move through space and merge into an organism, a mixture of human being and machine, creating a hypnotic power that one cannot escape. What is the driving force, the soul (Vis Motrix) behind the movements of these hybrid beings? CocoonDance continues with this production its research of the “unthought” body: transhumanism as a traumatic round dance that does not leave our unconsciousness untouched.

Vis Motrix is already the second production which has been developed in several stages over the course of months as a part of the company’s "triennial", a 3-year residence in the Swiss canton of Valais. Like MOMENTUM, which was initially inspired by an exchange with the non-academic movement pat- terns of Parkour, VIS MOTRIX started out with a workshop and subsequently independent research on the (male-dominated) techniques of breaking and krumping and modifying and transforming these street dance styles with regards to hybrid and post-human energies and impulses. Nomination for "Performance of the Year" in the critics’ survey of the professional magazine “tanz 2019 “by Bettina Trouwborst (Westdeutsche Zeitung): "'Vis motrix' by CocoonDance, Bonn: a work of hypnotic motion intelligence." (Jahrbuch Tanz 2019) Invited to the TANZPLATTFORM DEUTSCHLAND 2020 in Munich.

Première: 10. 1. 2018, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn

Cast:  Fa-Hsuan Chen, Martina De Dominicis, Tanja Marín Friðjónsdóttir, Anna Kempin, Susanne Schneider / Marie Viennot

Choreographed & directed by: Rafaële Giovanola

Music: Franco

Lights & set design: Gregor Glogowski

Costumes design: CocoonDance

Choreography assistant: Leonardo Rodrigues

Photography: Klaus Fröhlich

Dramaturgy, concept: Rainald Endraß

Management: Mechtild Tellmann Kulturmanmagement and GROUNDWORKERS

Production: CocoonDance

Co-production: Théâtre du Crochetan Monthey (CH), Ringlokschuppen Ruhr Mülheim, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn.

With kind support from: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesstadt Bonn and within the frame of the residency programme: Théâtre-ProVS, Le Conseil de la Culture Etat du Valais, La Loterie Romande

Running time: 40 min