The Ghosts

A production by Constanza Macras | Dorkypark and Goethe-Institut China.
In co-production with Tanz im August, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz and CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del FVG, Udine and Guangdong Dance Festival. Funded by Capital Cultural Fund, Berlin – Governing Mayor of Berlin – Department for Cultural Affairs. Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department and with the friendly support of The Garden Hotel.

TRAILER

DESCRIPTION

“The hard life began the day I retired, I have no flat, no job and no regular income” says the Chinese acrobat Cheng Fei, seven-times national champion and world champion. “The flowers, the applause, the flags – it feels like a different life“. On the scraphead by their mid-twenties, on their own, with no social security, often lacking formal education and job prospects in THE GHOSTS Constanza Macras worked with Chinese acrobats and circus performers. It looks like these artists, who once won fame and fortune for their country with their bodily discipline, have been forgotten and “decommissioned” by Chinese society, even though many of them are still quite young. They recall the “hungry ghosts” – according to Chinese popular mythology, lost souls who have been forgotten by their descendants and lead a miserable existence in an intermediate world. For Macras these artists’ materially precarious, ghostly condition is a metaphor for life in contemporary China, with its contradictions, social injustice and power structures. Those who once brought the country glory and honor are discarded as soon as they are no longer top achievers. “THE GHOSTS”, like the Chinese Ghost Festival in July, allows them a temporary return to the land of living, making their art and their stories visible once again.

PHOTOS

PREMIERE

3rd and 4th September 2015 during Tanz im August.
Additional shows 5th,7th and 8th September 2015 at Schaubühne, Berlin.

CAST & CREW

Director & Choreographer: Constanza Macras
Dramaturgy: Carmen Mehnert

By and with: Emil Bordas, Fernanda Farah, Daisy Phillips, Yi Liu, Juliana Neves, Huanhuan Zhang, Huimin Zhang, Xiaorui Pan, Lu Ge, Chico Mello, Wu Wei, Jiannan Chen.

Music: Chico Mello in collaboration with Wu Wei, Jiannan Chen, Fernanda Farah and Yi Liu

Lighting Design: Sergio de Carvalho Pessanha
Sound: Stephan Wöhrmann
Video & Photodesign: Manuel Osterholt
Set Design: Janina Audick
Set Design Assistant: Veronica Wüst
Costume Design: Allie Saunders
Assistant Director: Nikoletta Fischer

Trainees: Alba Duno, Ariella Karatolou, Chin Kuo, Paul Rabe, Ottavia Tröster, Roberta Petit, Sina Manthey
Translation: Chao Liu, Maureen Luo Yuebing

Production Manager: Katharina Wallisch
Production Office: René Dombrowski
Production Intern: Magda Zielinska
Production Management (China): Xiao Yu
Production Assistant (China): Chao Liu
International Relations + Distribution: Rui Silveira
Tour Manager: Ricardo Frayha