My Way Ensemble
My Way Ensemble
The My Way Ensemble
is a permanent dance company in Hamburg, consisting of twelve dancers between the ages of 69 and 86. I have been working with them for 17 years. Together we rehearse and train and develop full-length dance performances.
Again and again I am impressed by their presence and professionalism. They are the best proof that it is not just about maintaining the status quo, but that one can constantly explore and expand one’s own potential even at an advanced age.
The My Way Ensemble makes a unique contribution to the cultural landscape of the city of Hamburg, both thematically, dance-wise and, of course, because of its special age structure.
They are no longer young and this is their greatest treasure!
I am proud and happy to work with the My Ways. Their openness, their unconventional perspectives and their unrestrained willingness to perform (despite Corona and some other adversities) inspire me again and again.
The My Ways have now performed five full-length dance performances on stage:
alSIGHT.Wise#5
I’m not going anywhere without my wonderful towel….
In the production “SICHT.Weise” the dancers of the My Way Ensemble celebrate the wonderful and so far unknown transformation abilities of the possibly most useful object in the universe, whose inventiveness and innovative power is, however, mostly underestimated in our galaxy: Whether as a weapon, boat, handbag, memento of home or clearly demarcated private territory – in Gabriele Gierz’s choreography, the practical utensil in red reveals its true values and transforms the stage into a playground of memories, fantasies and craziness. A consistent, scurile and idiosyncratic dance exploration of potentially the most important artifact in the universe!
March 13, 2020, Hamburger Sprechwerk
Concept and Choreography: Gabriele Gierz
Zap! – or the art of making a decision
This dance performance is about zapping. But it is – even though the title plays with this association – less about television, but about the “inner programs”! It is a piece about the ability to consciously choose and thus explore the variety of possibilities in one’s life. “ZAPP!” tells of the pleasure of rapid image changes, the involuntary getting stuck in one’s own film and the trouble of pressing the button at the right moment.
April 22-24, 2016 at Sprechwerk in Hamburg.
Concept and choreography: Gabriele Gierz
Stage and video installations: Eva Humburg
Soundscore and music: good cop:good cop
COMPANY
An intergenerational dance performance about friendship
For five months, a 4th grade class of the elementary school Hamburg-Mümmelmannsberg worked together with the My Way Ensemble on a dance performance about friendship, which was performed in January 2010. Together, the participants expressed their ideas of community and friendship and translated them into movement. They explored the theme from their personal perspectives, asked each other about their experiences, and had creative experiences with themselves and each other’s generations. The result: a dance performance, a piece that authentically reflects this dialogue.
They were accompanied live by a quartet of musicians from the NDR Symphony Orchestra under the musical direction of Malte Heutling with postmodern compositions by Philip Glass and Astor Piazzolla.
January 27 and 28, 2010
Forum of the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre
Direction and choreography: Gabriele Gierz
Musical direction: Malte Heutling
AHNEN…….
In German, the word “Ahnen” has a double meaning: as a verb it means to have a premonition, as a noun it means ancestores. In Gabriele Gierz’s choreography the dancers present their version on the title with all the ambiguity, inspired by their own biography, from a perspective rich in experience:
As now ‘old people’, they have the most far-reaching contact with these roots in the past, and at the same time they themselves are about to become ancestors. And they can only guess what lies ahead of them. The movement material created in the rehearsals was artistically processed and condensed into an extraordinary dance piece. In addition to fixed sequences, improvisation scores are also used, i.e. sometimes the vague, the uncertain, the ‘foreboding’ remains, and this ensures a special liveliness – no performance is like the previous one!
29.9.2011 Thüringer Landestheater Rudolstadt, theater festival “Ruhestörung”.
15. and 16.10.2011 Hamburger Sprechwerk
18. and 19.10.2013 Hamburger Sprechwerk
Concept and choreography: Gabriele Gierz
Music: good cop:good cop
My Way – or danced life paths
The first piece of the My Way Ensemble: Paths and encounters leave traces in the life of an individual, as well as in the life of several people who walk a piece of their way together.
Which ones have left their mark and touched me the most? What were life circumstances that left deep traces on me, perhaps on my entire generation?
Where could I have changed something, when was there no chance for me? And where do I stand now?
What is important to me in retrospect, what does still remain?
What in me still wants to be exposed, expressed or discovered?
The dancers dealt with these questions in the rehearsal process and in interviews.
The material found in this way – whether childhood memories, relationships or the everyday cleaning madness – was artistically processed and transformed into dance images.
October 2, 2008 at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus
October 17-18, 2008 at the Hamburger Sprechwerk
18. – 20.3. 2011 at the Hamburger Sprechwerk