Perhaps the time has come, and we have already arrived at an era of which people will later say: ‘Do you remember the time when bodies became taboo and physical contact disappeared? It was replaced by “likes”.’ Physical contact has started to feel intrusive: too close, too suggestive, too intrusive, too freedom-loving, too sensual – simply too dangerous! Yet there has always been a deep longing to be touched by something or someone, to experience a sense of security, to feel a connection – with the world, with the person opposite me, with the raindrop that hits my fingertip.
With bodies that touch one another and are never at a loss for words, three choreographers stand up to this disembodiment. Not only do they overturn the law of social distancing, they also call for a rethinking of touch and ask: What is the state of touching and being touched? What feelings and fears are associated with it? What emerges in the moment of touch – a world, my world, my body, myself? Jenny Beyer, Antje Pfundtner and URSina Tossi invite young people to imagine alternative realities and to explore forms of touch as encounter and communication.
Young dancers aged between 14 and 21 stop at nothing when it comes to the body and reach out far and wide. Whether it’s a person, air or stone, whether sensual or symbolic, they touch it, hold it, let it go, then draw near again. Every now and then they say, as if it were the most natural thing in the world: ‘Hello, I’d like to be touched. It doesn’t have to be for long, but I’d like it to be now.’
