CouRage
Available for touring · Solo
Photo: Claude Hilde / Julia Thurnau
Inside CouRage hides rage. In this solo, David Brandstätter asks what links the two: is rage the spark of courageous action, or can something else take its place?
He comes down from the ceiling wearing a shadow mask, a sketchy Mickey Mouse: the ever-brave hero of the culture industry, worn here with irony. His partner is a ladder, a gift from his teacher Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson. It folds and unfolds, carries him and resists him, and at times the audience lends a hand.
The circus artist and the choreographer meet in one body. The music is made from the sound of the ladder itself, with rhythms drawn from Korean traditional drumming and colours from electronic music and hardcore punk. And then there is the guitar, played by a beginner: for him a courageous step at the time. What is most courageous in the piece, the audience may decide.
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Artistic statement
What links rage and courage? Is rage a necessary precursor of courageous action, or are the two connected in other ways? This was one of the main questions behind CouRage.
Rage arises when our existential boundaries are threatened. It is a reaction to protect ourselves, to show and to realise our own limits. Courage is different: it inspires others, because it asks us to step beyond the established frontiers of action. I see courage as a threshold emotion. It separates the self-centred emotions of survival from the emotions that build society and civilisation, such as acceptance or gratitude. Courage makes others courageous too; it serves the individual as much as the collective.
In CouRage I bring together my love for sound design, contact improvisation and object manipulation, and I link different parts of my biography: the circus artist, the activist and punk, and the dance artist and choreographer I am today.
The ladder I use on stage was a present from my teacher, the late Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson, given to me when she left the Netherlands to move back to Austin, Texas. She was one of the biggest influences on my choreographic work, and she gave me the belief that I could become the artist I wanted to be. At the same time, following her work in release dance took away much of the rage I had brought into my studies as a former activist and punk. I discovered more peaceful ways of being and wanted to make them accessible to an audience. Harmony and beauty became more important than radical distance from society or other activist motives. I have questioned this pivot ever since, and today I like to hold both at the same time, to some extent. Can something take the place of rage in giving birth to courage? The answer I am approaching lies in love, an emotion that can bring courage as well.
While working on this production, I came across the work of Thiago Granato, who helped me discover the fascia as a somatic movement template. This fascia work began in the creation of CouRage, kept developing afterwards and led to the research I am doing now.
I started playing the guitar during the Covid lockdowns. Bringing it on stage was perhaps the most courageous artistic act of the piece: I was a beginner on the instrument and had to find a way to integrate it so that my lack of skill could be forgiven.
CouRage deals with loss and gain, in personal life and in society. The ladder becomes a metaphor for the many relationships played out between people and things.
The sound of the piece was created from samples – recordings of the ladder itself – developed further with effects and synthesis. The rhythms are inspired by Korean traditional drumming, the sound colours by a mix of electronic music and hardcore punk.
The mask is a sketchy version of Mickey Mouse: for me a symbol of corporate capitalism in the culture industry, and a character that has always been portrayed as very courageous. So the piece also holds an ironic, sarcastic homage to Mickey Mouse.
Team & credits
Project, choreography, music, texts David Brandstätter || Artistic dialogue and outside eye Malgven Gerbes || Artistic dialogue in movements Thiago Granato || Light design Ruth Waldeyer || Light Max Sautai || Sound Nicolas Tinel || Video Laure Delamotte || Graphic design Yoann Bertrandy || Production management Alix Pellet ||
Production shifts – art in movement || Coproduction Le Phare, CCN du Havre Normandie || Researches for the creation Courage have received the support of Dis-tanzen, a dance-support program as part of Neustart Kultur, an initiative of the German federal government comissioner for culture and media || Artistic residences & rehearsals Le Phare, CCN du Havre Normandie & fabrik Potsdam || with the support of the French Ministère de la Culture / Drac de Normandie, Région Normandie, départment de l'Eure.
Performances
2021 Festival Pharenheit, Le Phare – CCN du Havre Normandie, Le Havre (FR) – premiere
2021 Le Phare – CCN du Havre Normandie, Le Havre (FR) – presentation for professionals (February, during the lockdown)
