as part of the Fabbrica Europa 2025 festival
A captivating and visionary performance staged by two leading choreographers from different continents: UNTIL THE BEGINNINGS is carried by global rhythms and brings together an international team of eight dancers from Senegal, Germany and France along with musicians from the fields of percussion and spoken word. Together they create a moving dialogue about the nature of hospitality.
Giving and taking. Embracing, releasing and experiencing boundaries. The artists embark on a journey to deconstruct the concept of “at home” in an alternation of encounters, ruptures and new beginnings. In this mesh of transcultural movement they explore the possibilities of a shared groove.
Current political enfoldings of the criminalisation of hospitality in many parts of the world as well as thoughts on unconditional hospitality of Jacques Derrida and Anne Dufourmantelle found their way into the project.
Directors Alesandra Seutin (Artistic Director École des Sables, Senegal) and Stephanie Thiersch (Artistic Director MOUVOIR, Germany), both from different artistic and cultural realms, weave a choreographic tapestry that poses questions, shakes things up and challenges. This is melancholic and at the same time it carefully plants the seed of hope and joy.
The creation of UNTIL THE BEGINNINGS was accompanied by MOUVOIR’s online magazine SYBL. The interactive platform encourages participating and non-participating artists, friends and interested humans to contribute their own ideas on the topic of hosting and thus take part in the production. Being part of it is easy: try www.sybl.de.
Stephanie Thiersch (MOUVOIR) is a German choreographer and media artist. She is the artistic director of the MOUVOIR company (Cologne) and has developed over 50 stage works, which have been shown at festivals and in theatres around the world, as well as films and installations. Her work is characterised by transdisciplinarity and she constantly challenges the genre of dance by combining choreography with new media, visual art and, in recent years, especially with music. The main themes of her works are the phenomena of community building and hospitality. Her major independent productions, some with orchestra, choirs, string quartets, new music ensembles and folkloric music or DJs, have been part of the Ruhrtriennale, Theater der Welt Festival, Ultima Festival Oslo, Théâtre de Nîmes, Beethovenfest Bonn, Tanz im August Festival, various German state theatres (Kassel, Darmstadt, Bielefeld), Biennale di Venezia, and the Greek National Opera Athens, among others.
Alesandra Seutin (École des Sables) is an internationally active and award-winning multidisciplinary artist, performer, choreographer, and teacher. She has been one of the artistic directors of the renowned École des Sables in Senegal since 2020, succeeding the iconic Germaine Acogny. Her work is performed worldwide and she lives in Senegal, Belgium and the United Kingdom. For her multidisciplinary theatre performances, she expresses herself through dance, song and music on social, political and economic realities. She regularly tours with her company Vocab Dance’s own productions and has received over twenty choreographic commissions including Sadler’s Wells, KVS, Merce Cunningham Company, Wellcome Collection, Channel 4, Phoenix Dance Theatre and the National Youth Dance Company.
choreography: Alesandra Seutin and Stephanie Thiersch with the ensemble
with: Latif Arafan Wa-hab Diedhiou, Nadia Gabrieli Kalati, Cola Lok Yee Ho/Clémentine Herveux, Kezia Jonah, Margaux Marielle-Tréhoüart, Alexandre Nodari, Joel Suárez Gómez, Christ Zié
music: Tarang Cissokho, Shelly Quest
stage: Stephanie Thiersch, Alesandra Seutin with the ensemble
Costumes: Lauren Steel
lighting design: Begoña Garcia Navas/Ansgar Kluge
sound: Thomas Wegner
arrangements/music advisor: Yvan Talbot
management: Josefine Sautier
production: Sarah Heinrich (MOUVOIR), Hervé Breuil, Paul Sagne (École des Sables)
Financing: Béla Bisom, transmissions
PR, social media: Nina Lobinger
press: neurohr & andrä
produced by: MOUVOIR e.V. and Freihandelszone – Ensemblenetzwerk Köln, École des Sables Senegal
coproduction: tanzhausnrw, Sommerblut Kulturfestival
funded by: Kunststiftung NRW, NATIONALEPERFORMANCENETZ. Koproduktionsförderung Tanz funded by der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung
MOUVOIR/Stephanie Thiersch is funded by: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln.
photo: Martin Rottenkolber
