a hybrid performance by Lisa Bless feat. Pankaj Sihag on screen
based on the dance film OXY-GEN by Lisa Bless & Pankaj Sihag - supported by SANSKAR India
about
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Oxy-Gen / Z(8) creates a post-apocalyptic future. Planet Earth has become unbalanced – the richest people have already emigrated to Planet B. Most of those left on Earth die young because they have to breathe in the poisonous air. Temperatures of over 50° C have rendered many places uninhabitable. Dead landscapes have been spreading and now cover most of the rivers, seas and oceans. L1Z8 is a member of the Oxy-Generation called in short, Generation Z(8). They are most likely the last people born on planet Earth. Their mission is to find the few oases that are left – places where there is still breathable air.
Lisa Bless has developed a hybrid performance which includes the interaction of video projections, dance and experiments with space. she explores the effects of her post-apocalyptic scenarios on her own physical body and discover possible ways of moving in the everyday life of this bleak future.
context
In 2021 India based dancer Pankaj Sihag and Germany/Belgium based dancer Lisa Bless started a project via Zoom. This resulted in the film OXY-GEN. For which they each created 15 minute solos in shared rehearsals and recorded it in India and Belgium. The dream is to eventually develop it into a live performance. But since travelling is increasingly getting more still very difficult to travel to or from India and as we also want to pay attention to our climate footprint, we have also decided to develop a solo or hybrid version that can be performed in and around the countries we are based in, incorporating recordings from the film version OXY-GEN.
Oxy-Gen| Z (8)
Credits
Concept, Choreography & Dance Lisa Bless
Dance on screen Pankaj Sihag
Video Mapping + mentoring Alexander Nikolaev
Music (original score for OXY-GEN) Rushi Vakil (IND), David Ramalho (PT/BE)
supported by Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei Mannheim – residency & mentoring program
The Project is funded through a scholarship by the ministery of science, research and art Baden-Württemberg.
Film OXY-GEN:
Concept, Dance, Choreography Lisa Bless & Pankaj Sihag Camera Yash Shah (IND); Gaia Zuffa (BE/IT)
Mentors Roberto Olivan & Sanjukta Sinha
supported by SANSKAR India – Rakesh Sukesh & Narendra Patil;
Tic Tac Art Center/ David Zambrano & Sanjukta Sinha – studio support
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Tic Tac Art Center Brussels, for Studio Space; Sanjukta Sinha Dance Company for Studio Space; and of course SANSKAR – Rakesh Sukesh & Narendra Patil for believing in us.
Biographies
Lisa Bless is a freelance dancer/ performer and maker currently based in Heidelberg, Germany and Brussels (BE). 2016 She finished her BA degree in Contemporary Dance at the Centre for Contemporary Dance in Cologne. In July 2018 she graduated from post- graduate performance program ‚Performact’ in Portugal. She is currently working for the Belgium based dance company Sandman by Sabine Molenaar and for the German company La_Trottier Dance Collective. Besides that she has been studying under the guidance of David Zambrano, developing further her practice in improvisation and instant composition.
With her own work, she has been a young resident artist in ZAIK Cologne, Tanzfaktur Cologne and Tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf. She was invited with her performances to several festivals such as Now & Next Düsseldorf (2017), Made in Köln by Zaik Cologne 2017, Summer Intensive Portugal (2018) Auf dem Sprung Festival Aachen (2018) and is often a guest in the festival series Tanz im Delta, Mannheim. The video version of her Solo ‚(In)endlichkeit‘ is currently shown in the Exhibition ‚Frauenkörper – der Blick auf das Weibliche von Albrecht Dürer bis Cindy Sherman‘ in Kurpfälizisches Museum Heidelberg.
Lisa Bless 