Bugs

by La Trottier Dance (2023)

In BUGS, Eric Trottier and the dancers of the Mannheim collective La Trottier Dance developed a production specifically for the natural setting of the BUGA 2023 (Federal Garden Show), experimenting with a utopia of symbiotic sharing of all areas of life through dance.

A performance inspired by Australian philosopher and environmental activist Glenn Albrecht, who predicts that the Antropocene era will be replaced by the Symbiocene. Despite all the drama of the current climate situation, Albrecht offers a vision of how humanity could reconnect with nature and embark on a creative and inspiring future.

We are all strongly interwoven with nature – not only in a spiritual sense – but also very directly: we live together with and through a large number of viruses, fungi and bacteria in our own bodies. Are these symbionts “others” or also “me”? And when trees communicate with each other – can we find a common language (again?)? In the midst of nature at the BUGA, the ensemble tests what this communication with nature could look like – they engage sensually, vividly and humorously with a life in which we all benefit from each other: Insect, human, microbe, plant …

Concept & Direction: Eric Trottier / Choreographic Assistance: Michelle Cheung / Music: Peter Hinz / Dramaturgy: Susanne Brauer / Dance: Katharina Wiedenhofer, Georgia Begbie, Laura Börtlein, Kirill Berezovski, Tobias Weikamp, Lisa Bless, Lorenzo Ponteprimo, Seung Hwan Lee, Malika Ali