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Songs of the Wayfarer (Working title)

“I really love turning into this sort of four-legged creature. All the little places that you can wedge the crutch really right into a corner or into a crack. In Scotland, we’d say nooks and crannies. I get so lost in that sort of play…when the ground really becomes… my companion.”

 

 

Inspired, in part, by Gustav Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” led by her lived-experience as a disabled person, her memory of training as a classical singer and knowledge drawn from mountaineers and disabled peers, Claire Cunningham sets out to make a show where she traverses known and unfamiliar landscapes.

In this new solo Cunningham asks what it is to wander? To seek to scale great heights? What can be learned from those of us who reach for the ground through crutches as 4-legged creatures, the choreography of crip* navigation and the maps we would re-draw? Of scale and time and energy? What it means to keep going and, importantly, the wisdom to know when to turn back.

Join this internationally renowned disabled leader and choreographer for an evening-length work, where she comes to understand her own journeying as a love song – to the ground, to her disabled peers and the innate wisdom of crip* expertise and joy.

*Crip is a political and cultural identity embraced by some disabled individuals

Credits

A Claire Cunningham Production.
Co-commissioned and co-produced by Mousonturm Frankfurt, Next Festival Kotrijk, HAU Hebbel am Ufer & No Limits Festival Berlin, No Limits Festival Hong Kong, Kammerspiele Munich, Sadler´s Wells London and Dampfzentrale Bern.
Created as part of the Einstein Strategic Professorship „Choreography, Dance and Disability Arts“at the HZT Berlin.

Conceived, choreographed and performed by Claire Cunningham
Artistic Collaborator Julia Watts Belser
Associate Director Dan Watson
Dramaturg Luke Pell
Set and Costume Design Bethany Wells
Lighting Design Chris Copland
Sound Design Matthias Herrmann
Video Design Michelle Ettlin
Executive Producer Nadja Dias
Projects & Access Producer Vicky Wilson
Production Manager Gregor Knüppel
Technician Keir Martin
Company Stage Manager Anastasia Booth
Artistic Access Consultancy Nelly Kelly, Panthea, Angel Alves, Rita Mazza and Naomi Sanfo-Ansorge
Administrative Support (for HZT) Susanne Adam & Jeanette Gogoll
Photographer Sven Hagolani