Young Savages 2021

An important project pillar is the program section “Junge Wilde” for the youth and young talent area with a coaching program throughout the year and its own tent as a presentation venue as part of the festival program.

In Germany, a large circus educational landscape has developed over the last fifteen years as an important component of cultural education for children and young people. The demand for circus offers is constantly increasing and a new professional field “circus pedagogy” has emerged.
Within the framework of the festival, a tent will be permanently available for the youth section and will be perceivable as a contact point for a broad audience of children, young people and families.

Selected youth circus groups will be invited and presented, whose pieces move in the area of tension between contemporary dance and contemporary circus. These young productions will be supported by the ZAK Circus and Artistic Center Cologne, with its specific expertise in this area, with mentoring and coaching in advance of the festival.

During the festival period, the young people take part in workshops, get to know the professional festival participants, and watch and discuss the performances. This results in a mixture of impulses, perspectives and ideas from professional circus artists, dancers and up-and-coming artists.

nologo kollektiv / TPZAK

May 22 | 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Photo: Judith Breutmann

Livestream performance
Access: Digital
Admission: 8 EUR
Focus: Dance and circus

The Zirkus- und Theaterpädagogische Zentrum TPZAK (Circus and Theatre Pedagogical Center TPZAK) is founding a temporary ensemble especially for the young talent section Junge Wilde (Young Savages). Seven young artists from the fields of circus, acting and dance enter into an intensive exchange with each other and with themselves. At a time when physical contact is limited to a minimum, it is a bit of a gamble to found an ensemble that works with physical forms of expression, wants to get to know each other through these and approaches themes that move the ensemble members as young adults. But it is time to venture into the many imponderables of this time!

Performance Lea Marie Meier, Angelina Weizel, Vera Rosanna Schardt, Isabell Gramoll, Judith Breutmann, Cynthia Cosima Erhardt, Alexandra Entenmann | Direction Bianca Lehnard, Tanja Manderfeld |Project management Tanja Manderfeld | Social media @junge.wilde

3xeva

May 23 | 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Photo: Raquel Morais Desirenhos

Livestream Performance
Access: Digital
Admission: 8 EUR
Focus: Dance and circus
Age recommendation: From 12 years

Due to a quarantine case, the premiere of “3xEva” can unfortunately not take place. Tickets already purchased will be refunded. Instead of the play there will be an artist talk of the artists in conversation with the cultural anthropologist Katharina Klapdor on the topic. The Evas will talk with her about their career from the children’s circus to today and how their perspectives have changed through reflection. The female* body on the (circus) stage and enduring ambivalences in feminist discourse are central core points of the conversation. You are invited to listen and ask questions via the chat.

The young group around Laura Runge, Yolande Sommer and Rahel Gieselmann reflects in their piece “3xEva” their own artistic careers with a special focus on the female read body and the corresponding role concepts in children’s and youth circus. The three performers met in the Cologne youth circus scene, founded the circus formation Kompanie Neun together with other young artists and are now together in a new constellation. From very personal perspectives, the three examine how their feminist values can be combined with the realities they have experienced in the (youth) circus. 

“3xEva” poses a question to the audience in advance: “Glitter, princess costumes, bodysuits with back décolleté, splits in the air, women thrown around, long hair, beautiful images, flowing movements, flexible backs, ideal bodies, empty looks, imperfect perfection, chest out and legs up, show no weakness, control, mystical innocence, it must look easy – is that what you want to see?” Laura Runge, Yolande Sommer and Rahel Gieselmann say about “3xEva”: “We’re talking about revolution. It’s about courage. We face our ambivalences. We throw ourselves into the process.” 

Performance & creation Laura Runge, Rahel Gieselmann, Yolande Sommer | Outside eye Julia Berger | Production Lena Peters | Social Media @dreimaleva | Language German

Raum für Zirkus

May 24 | 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Photo: Dominikus Moos

Live performance, film program
Access: Digital
Admission: 8 EUR
Focus: Circus

The piece “Hau Ruck” (“Heave-ho”) by the Cologne group Raum für Zirkus moves between contemporary circus, artistry, dance, movement theatre and music. The four artists, all with a long-time youth circus background, came together at the Abenteuerhallen Kalk at the end of 2019. The young artists show how deconstruction may serve as an omnipresent possibility of renewal, allowing us to free ourselves of inflexible thought patterns and mental impasses. They explore acrobatics, violence and timber, all the while striving to question original functions and find new forms. They present an impressive reconstruction beyond our habitual ways of perception. A blow is a nudge with full force: Heave-ho.

Performance, creation and production Denis Kerner, Dominikus Moos, Gesine Jäger, Jakob Rosenbauer | Music Johannes Moos