KorFest: BA Graduation Performances by Merilin Kruberg and Georg Eller

KorFest BA graduation performances: Merilin Kruberg and Georg Eller

Merilin Kruberg “What if ... cabbage...?”

Dancers: Sofia Kruusamägi, Mariann Onkel, Monika Annijerv, Polina Albert
Musician: Igor Lider
Artistic assistance: Eva Orupõld
Lighting design: David Truusa
Dramaturgical assistance: Laura Kvelstein
Supervisor: Oksana Tralla-Anger

What if, instead of food, cabbage becomes an object of research, a partner, a character, an obstacle, or an extension of the body? “What if cabbage...?” is a performance about attempts to find meaning where perhaps there is no need to look for it. Eight bodies—four dancers, four cabbages, and an endless number of “but what if” questions—gradually create a space where the familiar acquires a strange context, and the strange becomes surprisingly pleasant, familiar, and even desirable. But what if cabbage remains simply cabbage? Or what if we tried becoming a worm instead?

Merilin Kruberg is a graduate of Tallinn University BFM’s BA programme in choreography. Her creative practice is based on physical research, where the physical and psychological, control and chance, technique and freedom, seriousness and absurdity meet. This inspires her to find ways of moving beyond habitual patterns. As an artist, she is interested in the relationship between humans and the body, and in how thinking through the body can change our understanding of ourselves and our surroundings. Her current creative research focuses on anthropomorphism, the shifting positions of subject and object, and the question of what happens when familiar things and situations are viewed from another angle.

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Georg Eller “No Shade”

Dancers: Georg Eller, Rasmus Suurpere, Edgar Rahhimov, Evita Limareva, Anita Derjagina, Karina Vonberg, Eva Golubeva, Ksenia Kuznetsova, Karina Andrejeva, Arsenij Tšurdaljov, Laura Taal, Amalov Mana, Varvara Selivanova
Technical support: Sofia Martila
Lighting artist: David Truusa
Dramaturg: Henri Hütt
Supervisor: Oksana Tralla-Anger

The performance “No Shade” takes the audience into the world of vogue ballroom, where two vogue Houses face off to win the title of the best House of the year. Vogue culture and body language fill the space, turning it into a place of competition, opposition, and self-expression.

What are ballroom and vogue culture? How might this culture relate to a performance context? How can one be within this culture, together with it, and part of it? This performance is an experiment that examines vogue culture, its language, traditions, and rules, as well as ballroom as the composition and structure of a complete event. The performance asks what happens to a distinctive culture and its essence when it enters a performative space governed by different dramaturgical and compositional principles.

Vogue is not merely the movement of the body, but an art that turns personal searching into a stage image. It is a journey about the formation of one’s sense of self and self-definition. Vogue expresses a bold and eccentric version of oneself and makes it possible to experience that moment intensely within a stage format. Vogue is a manifesto for freedom of self-expression. Vogue is a lifestyle.

How can this culture enrich the space through its presence, language, and atmosphere without losing its essence? The aim of the experiment is not to colonise ballroom culture or separate it from its original context, but to create a new performative space for it—one that allows the essence and language of the culture to emerge and enrich the existing stage space. The performance explores how different elements of vogue and ballroom can be transferred into this new context and how they can come together as one cohesive performance work.

Georg Eller is a graduate of Tallinn University BFM’s BA programme in choreography. He has represented this culture and been part of the vogue community for almost four years. For Georg, vogue is a way of getting to know oneself and expressing oneself. In his creative work, he approaches vogue as a subculture with its own traditions, rules, and dance language. Georg believes that ballroom is a chosen family—a space where belonging, opposition, and self-expression come together.

Dates:
5 November at 19:00 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava
6 November at 19:00 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava

The evening consists of two performances.

NB! On 7 November, after Karin Aarelaid’s performance, at approximately 19:00, there will be a discussion with Merilin, Georg, and Karin.

Information: heilili@tlu.ee