Passing from one culture to another: the effects of global mobility on the individual, between comic effect and disaster.

Indian IT-specialists in Great Britain, the elderly care nurse from the Ukraine next door, African street cleaners in Paris or the doner kebab seller at the railway station: More and more people are leaving their country looking for fortune/luck, for new perspectives or simply for survival. Departure, arrival, a new life: The uprooting is a deep cut leaving marks. Big dreams are often followed by disenchantment, a laborious time begins and many a migrant loses himself.

At home moving like a fish in the water, now hesitating at every step he takes. Exposed to constant surveillance, often suspicious, always under pressure to justify himself and trying not to offend, he loses all his spontaneity. And even if he has found a place to live: What about language, the “house of our being”?

In his solo, Juan Dante investigates the effects of global mobility upon the human being. With all his heart, from head to toe, with his body and his language, the native Columbian, who has been living and working in Europe since 2006, traces his own exemplary experiences. For 70 minutes, comedy and catastrophe stand close to each other, and even the delightful doesn’t miss out.

REVIEWS, REACTIONS

an unforgettable and brilliant performance - «currently resident in» in Crete

„So great to see you again and to see your dance creation with Dante Murillo in DanceDays 4 Chania! It was an unforgettable and brilliant performance from concept-choreography-dance points of view ...I would love to see it again ...“

Effie Caloutsis, founder of contemporary dance movement in Crete

„The inventiveness, the simplicity of materials, and the dynamics of speech and silence during the performance contributed to a unique masterpiece. Your subject, one so complicated and common, with so many components, was delivered with humor, dignity, and strength without losing the depth, leaving the audience with intense concerns but also a delightful mood.“

Sofia Falierou, festival director, choreographer

«currently resident in» in Salzburg

Pleasant sun-splashed watercolors show life in idyllic poverty somewhere in the Latin American countryside: the brown moving boxes are an ideal screen, making the colors painted on them seem softer and warmer. It must be fun to build a wall by the light of the Latin American evening sun. Suddenly, the scenario completely changes. You wouldn’t even kick a dog out into the dismal, cold snow showers of Salzburg’s suburbs. And yet, Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla lands here, even manages to get a room, if not the right to lead a life of his choosing...

As far as Anif is from Peking’s suburbs or Mombasa’s slums, so distant is Editta Braun’s solo piece from being a “tear jerker”. No cheap ingratiation to people whose fate are often so easily misused as a projection plane for naive fantasies about making the world a better place...

[...] Together with Editta Braun and co-director Arturas Valudskis, Bobadilla developed – based on real experiences – a solo performance that describes hope and optimism, rootlessness and disappointment, anger, rebellion and resignation.

The fact that this virtuously narrated story leaves a lot of room for humor and irony lends it the kind of detachment essential in artistic analysis. In fact, Juan Dante Murillo Bonadilla is not only a dancer and performer who is a master of contemporary dance’s movement language, effortlessly using it to portray to perfection a teenager on a fenced playground. He is also a superb actor and player who knows how to play with “language” – be it Spanish, his mother tongue or German as a foreign language – virtuously.

[...] The big scene ”This is a new regulation” – a tensely built crescendo leading up to complete frenzy in the face of an indifferent world – was a highlight of the good seventy minute performance. Another highlight is the portrayal of the complete loss of speech in the face of the Kafkaesque power plays of an incomprehensive and invulnerable authority. Not only the laboriously acquired German language skills, but also verbal skills and human dignity are lost when an individual turns into an obscure number. An outstanding artistic analysis with an up-to-date topic, a political statement, a moving evening.

Heidemarie Klabacher, Drehpunkt Kultur, 12. December 2013

Don’t try to work in system, which is not yours …     «currently resident in» in Bulgaria

[...] „Currently resident in...” plays with the pain of a modern itch – the itch to run away. It deals with the desperation of being “here”, which turns into the loneliness of being “there”. The stranger enters the stage and asks “Is this my new room?” and it's as if another question shines through - “Is this my new life?” [...]

We understand that somewhere there lives a woman called “Mrs. Happiness”. “Somewhere” in the stage reality, where Dante dwells amongst an empty cardboard-box world, and a dictionary. The play isn't trying to impose any limitations or to evaluate – its power is in its point of view and the frankness with which it is represented. Trying to find a perfect happiness, which by default is a variable value, we can forget who we are, where we come from, what makes us so unique that we were born in this “rotten country”. [...] The physical boundaries of the play are not limited – Dante runs around the boxes, arranges them, then destroys his arrangement. And again, and again – he creates his reality. He enters a box and we are almost fooled he'd stay there and this will serve as a sad conclusion and finale – but he goes out. And goes mad. Gradually he turns into an humanoid creature, that makes sounds. Sounds of discontent, fear and alienation. The director Editta Braun provokes us to throw away the boxes. Or at least paint them with our own colours.

Katerina Georgieva, translated from Bulgarian by Elena Doynova

«currently resident in» in Beijing

The reaction on our performance in Beijing of a youg women expelled from Iran for political reasons:

„As a middle eastern woman I found my deepest sadness in your piece. I have experienced all your story but it's necessary for most people to see how their country's instructions, rules and prejudgments destroy us as a human being. I'm living in China, surrounded by all the instructions; political, cultural and religous. So I really feel I'm leaving in a box but not as young and strong as your guy to ruin the box. I'm feeling the cold at the end of your show for years . About your performer Juan Dante Murillo, I should say I saw he was aging in so few minutes!!! He is a genius and I hope to see more work of him. It's not easy to perform in front if emotionless Chinese faces. You can't interact and you need to count only on your energy and inner strength. He could afford it in the best way. 

At the end, I again thank you for keeping a mirror in front of ugliness surrounds us and are vanishing our identity as a human, citizen or even resident !“ Pooyan Samimi


«currently resident in»

by editta braun company & Dante Murillo

premiere: 13 December 2013, ARGEkultur Salzburg

performance, creation: Dante Murillo

choreography, creation: Editta Braun

co-directing: Arturas Valudskis

composition: Thierry Zaboitzeff

dramaturgy: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau

coaching dance: Tomaž Simatović

lightdesign: Thomas Hinterberger

paintings: Evelyn Braun, Sigrid Linher

visuals: Editta Braun

photos: Bettina Frenzel, Leo Fellinger, R&M Kirchner

«currenctly resident in» -  Technical Rider