MUGEN - sleepless butterfly

Dance theatre by Yui Kawaguchi

17. PR / 18. december 2021, 19.30 h / 19. december 2021, 17 h, Sophiensaele, Berlin

"Last night I dreamed I was a butterfly, flying from one flower to the next. Then I woke up and behold: Everything was just a dream. Now I do not know: Am I a human being dreaming that he was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that he was a human being? - Zhuangzi (4th century BC)

The room is a Japanese "No-Theater", a classical setting in which almost nothing is what it seems. A wanderer, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, enters the stage of a classical "no-theatre" with his firing blows on the tombak. With orchestral force his whirling drum lets the dancing ghost, Joy Alpuerto Ritter, fly through the space like a butterfly. Through music, dance and the light of Fabian Bleisch, a mysterious third begins to breathe: the "2.5-dimensional" artwork of Acci Baba. The once set reality is transformed again and again by repetitions, changing tempos and the changing atmosphere, until soon there is no more certainty about fantasy and reality.

The title "MUGEN" is a Japanese word and has several meanings. On one hand it stands for "infinity" and on the other for "illusion and dream", but also " impermanence".
In her new dance theatre production "MUGEN - sleepless butterfly", choreographer Yui Kawaguchi refers to the classical order of a fugue from Japanese Mugen-No theatre. In the constantly changing encounter between a wanderer (Waki), a dancing spirit (Shite) and a mysterious third (in the No-Theater it is a jaw) she creates a fascinating pull: the theatre dreams.

Yui Kawaguchi and the dancer Joy Alpuerto Ritter, the live percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, the visual artist Acci Baba, the lighting designer Fabian Bleisch and the dramaturge Rosi Ulrich bring both sides of dream and awake state, virtual and real world into vibration.

Artistic direction: Yui Kawaguchi
Dance: Joy Alpuerto Knight
Live Music: Mohammad Reza Mortazavi
Equipment/object: Acci Baba
Lighting design & Technology: Fabian Bleisch
Dramaturgy: Rosi Ulrich
Production: Ilja Fontaine
Photos: Acci Baba / Yui Kawaguchi

6. September 2019, 19.00, MA scène national, pays de Montbéliard, Cancelled: 1. - 3. April 2020, 20 h, Sophiensaele, Berlin