Photo: Jubal Battisti
"Petra"
A solo dance piece on Rainer Werner Fassbinder´s Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant
Petra is a solo dance piece on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972). The film is a triangle melodrama about a successful fashion designer’s tragic love affair with her younger model and protégée, Karin, under the constant observation of her dutiful and servile assistant, Marlene. The solo deals with the nar rative of the figure of Petra von Kant: a peculiar and complex personage from the Fassbinder universe, formed through the embodiment of poses and gestures from Hollywood stars, Greek nymphs and fashion models — »deine Figur ist dein Kapital« Petra advises Karin — filtered through film history’s male gaze as well as the director’s queerleaning lens.
Petra employs improvisational and experiential somatic tasks that allow to dissect, embody and stage the entangled images, gestures and ste reotypes that compose von Kant’s performance of femininity. Through a physical translation of Fassbinder’s character, the solo interrogates the reasons why one may maintain the performance of the figura; probes the ways in which it may also be construed as a plastic, dynamic and living form; and explores the possibilities of resistance to its incessant molding. In a longterm creation process investigating everyday rituals, crisis and spectacle, Berit Einemo Frøysland has invested her body in the performance of the labour involved in incorporating, maintaining, slipping in and out of constructions of femininity.
Premiere: 7-9. February 2020, dock 11, Berlin
Performance: 23 February 2020, Lærdal Kulturhus, Norway
Performance, choreography and production: Berit Einemo Frøysland
Sound design and music: Philipp Rhensius
Costume: Belle Santos
Dramaturgical support: Anna Leon
Light Design: Andreas Harder
Funded by Arts Council Norway
Duration: 50 minutes
TRAILER. Filmed by Walter Bickmann.
Edited by Berit Einemo Frøysland
Rehearsal trailer. Underskin Photography
REVIEWS
Review - Cargo Notizen
By Ekkehard Knörer 8.2.2020, 71 out of 100 points.
https://www.cargo-film.de/notizen-2020/
Ein formbarer Körper für den voyeuristischen Blick
By Seda Nigbolu, 9.2.2020, Tanzschreiber.de
https://tanzschreiber.de/ein-formbarer-koerper-fuer-den-voyeuristischen-blick/
"Nostalgisk gjensyn med borgerlig femininitet - eller en tiltrengt utforskning av skeiv, kvinnelig femininitet?" av Marte Reithaug Sterud