Christina Wurm

They remember. They remember Christina Wurm. They remember she is a dance. They remember how she got banned. Ever since her ghost has been felt. That is what she wants, they say, that her ghost be felt.   

Christina Wurm is a pre-Christian dance. During the 5th century she started to be frowned upon in the geographical region that is today Switzerland. By the 9th century she got banned the first time due to the risk of losing one's salvation when dancing her.   

Centuries later in 1437 several documents report that she had been sighted near a river. Shortly thereafter she got banned again, this time through official moral mandates. In 1656 Christina Wurm was accused of dancing with the devil. In the same year a protestant priest published obsessive writings about her.  

She reappears again in 1917, this time within Dada circles, alongside expressionist dancers such as Suzanne Perrottet and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.  

During her MA in Choreography (or since 1996) Sophie Germanier established a relationship to Christina Wurm through exhausting and desiring her ghosts across these traces and now invites her on stage.   
 

Credits

Created and performed by Sophie Germanier 
Guitar by Klara Germanier (aka Solong) 
Drama consultant by Lan Perces 
Light and technical assistance by Olle Axén and Freja Forsström 
Supervision by Siriol Joyner and Liz Kinoshita 
Special thanks to Jennifer Lacey, Marie Fahlin and the whole cohort! 

Program

14 and 15 May at MDT

Duration: 45 minutes