Showing posts with label kampnagel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kampnagel. Show all posts

Friday, May 29, 2015

"NOLA"

This is not wedding related but from my work as a choreographer and dancer.

On April 8th 2015 my latest dance theater production "NOLA" premiered at Kampnagel, Hamburg. It was a pleasure to work with such wonderful artists like Meschiya Lake, Travis Knights, Daniel Larsson, Sandra Kluge and my wife Ellen Marek.
We had an amazing band featuring Russell Welch, Kurt Holzkämper, Markus Voigt, Melf Uwe Holmer and Stefan Dahm.
The show was a huge success with over 2000 tickets sold. Here is a little video clip from the first choreography "Prologue"



NOLA "Prologue" from Thomas Marek on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

In other words

"I am three". This is how Charles Mingus fabulous autobiography "Beneath the underdog" begins.
It is an amazing text and in my last production "DRAMA - love songs and other jazz" we choreographed and expressed the text through the dance. There were different stages how the dance and text worked together and in this short clip you can see the combination of tap and a visual projection of the text.
The dancers are Laura Mogalle, Thomas Kolczewski und myself.
 Enjoy....




Thursday, August 30, 2012

6 years ago Tap Dance project: about_tap vol no 2

While going through a bunch of old photos I came across a tap dance production I did in 2006. It was called "about_tap vol no 2" and it premiered very successfully at Kampnagel, Hamburg.
It was basically a staged, live portrait of six tap dancers of different generations and cultural backgrounds. The show mixed photography, spoken interviews, choreography and jazz.

The title was in reference to a film called "About tap" by George T. Nierenberg, which was a documentary on 3 tap dancers (Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde and Steve Condos). As a youngster I watched that film a million times and it was a huge inspiration for my dancing.
With my show I wanted to create a staged and more abstract version of a tap dance portrait and their dancers. The idea was to photograph and interview each dancer in their hometown and ask them about their opinions and feelings about the dance form but also their career and life. It was a very personal and biographical show and I was lucky to work with some of the best dancers around.

In Paris I interviewed Sarah and Leela Petronio, Brenda Bufalino in New York and New Paltz, NY. Josh Hilberman in Boston, Pia Neises in Cologne and a self portrait of me in Hamburg.

In pre production interviews, footage and music where put together and were a starting point for the choreography. Later we all met in Hamburg for 4 or 5 weeks to put together the show and perform it.
It was a unique experience. Every dancer generously gave me personal footage and background information on their dance lifes that got mixed together into a full evening show.
It was very successful back then and I often feel that it should be revisited sometime. Very good memories.

Here is a video clip of the show and a couple of photos that were taken during that creative process.
Enjoy, Thomas




Brenda Bufalino chair bw sharp
Brenda Bufalino in New Paltz,NY
B069033
Sarah Petronio near Paris
Leela Metro60
Leela Petronio, Paris
2115218
Josh Hilberman, Boston
Pia Portrait Rheinterrasse17 pp sharp
Pia Neises, Cologne

Monday, August 13, 2012

The Shim Sham Shimmy

A student of mine asked me about the roots of the Shim Sham the other day and she had a bit of confusing knowledge about it. So here is what I know about the Shim Sham Shimmy...
The Shim Sham is a tap dance routine that was created in the late 1920s by Willie Bryant and Leonard Reed, who first named it Goofus. The dance steps became quite popular and eventually made it to a show in the New York night club "Shim Sham Club" where the Shim Sham routine further developed. 
Just like most standard swing tunes in the aaba structure The Shim Sham has four parts each 8 bars long (6 bars followed by a 2 bar break). So the whole dance reflects a 32 bar tune in the same structure. 
The 4 parts are : 1. Shim Sham, 2. The cross over , 3. Tack Annie, 4. Half break. 
Since the dance has always been very popular among tap and also swing dancers, there are many many different variations of this dance. It is considered the "national anthem" of tap dance.

Here is a youtube clip of my students perforiming the Shim Sham.....


//Thomas

Monday, April 30, 2012

DRAMA - love songs and other jazz / Video

finally i got a chance to edit some of the footage of my last dance production "drama - love songs & other jazz" that was produced at kampnagel, hamburg. the show was a huge success and i am very pleased with the outcome. i had a wonderful ensemble and some of the finest dancers around. i truly hope we get another chance to perform it again. 

the dancers in this short clip are ellen murray, laura mogalle, thomas kolczewski and myself. on bass is kurt holzkämper. text edits were done by miriam mandelkow.  the show was funded by the city of hamburg. 




If feet can talk, their language is tap dance. And if DRAMA is to take its queue from them, it goes one step further to claim that words can actually dance.
DRAMA explores the creative possibilities of dance and diction, seeking to discover both the peculiarities and the shared qualities of text and dance.
Tap and jazz will counterpoint linguistic rhythm, form polyphonic layers and a collage of sound and image. Texts will be spoken, projected, sung und translated into other languages. Where dance, language and jazz meet, that´s where a powerful, rhythmic, visionary dance show will take place.

KÜNSTLERISCHE LEITUNG & CHOREOGRAFIE Thomas Marek
REGIE & PRODUKTIONSASSISTENZ Johanna Bock
TEXTBEARBEITUNGEN Miriam Mandelkow
TÄNZER Thomas Kolczewski, Laura Mogalle, Ellen Murray, Thomas Marek
BASS Kurt Holzkämper