Rehearsal pictures: ©Staatstheater Mainz/ Andreas Etter

ABOUT SPHYNX 

Walking, running, staggering, tumbling: What appears to us to be the simplest form of human locomotion develops into an entire universe under the scrutiny of the experimental tanzmainz ensemble. Rafaële Giovanola has been artistically exploring the limits of being human for some time now and poses the very elementary and physical question of what actually defines us. Her often spectacular choreographies - which are extremely demanding for the dancers - have received widespread recognition. Sphynx shows unusual perspectives, high intensity and the image of a human being in transition. By shrinking the homo sapiens, the act gives rise to completely new forms and becomes part of a diverse and form-rich amorphous whole.

In 2022, Sphynx won the prestigious German theatre prize DER FAUST, the third time a choreography by tanzmainz has been honoured with this award.

Trailer by Andreas Etter

PRESS CLIPPINGS (translated by DeepL) 

Rafaële Giovanola is constantly rethinking the human body. With tanzmainz, the Bonn-based head of Cocoon Dance has now explored the gait. ... These changing bodies and postures are always fascinating, especially when individual acrobatic walking duets emerge, bodies connect and then separate again, forming strange double creatures for a brief moment, always in motion, except for a brief moment of standstill. ... In just over 20 years, Giovanola, once a dancer at the Frankfurt Ballet, has made a name for herself with her body research, which, in very small groups of usually no more than half a dozen dancers, repeatedly sets itself the task of thinking beyond the body and its conventional functions and possibilities of movement. ... But now, in the much larger ensemble of tanzmainz, even more comes to light that already characterises works such as ‘Vis Motrix’ or, most recently, ‘Body Shots’ in Darmstadt. For Giovanola, it is less about anticipating the essence of things beyond humanity through dance. Rather, she is driven by a search for the most human, in the questioning of what we define or feel as ‘human’. With more than twice as many dancers as in most of Cocoon Dance's works, the virtuoso performance, which is based on meticulous teamwork, is impressively evident. ... In any case, the audience at the premiere was swept off their feet and into rhythmic applause. (Eva Maria-Magel, Rhein-Main-Zeitung/ F.A.Z, 01.02.2022)

Under the direction of Honne Dohrmann, Tanzmainz seems to have sought and found a distinctive niche, a little way from the neighbouring Hessisches Staatsballett. In the small house, they present compact ensemble pieces, each around an hour long, whose (most recent) choreographers devote themselves to the meticulous exploration of movement, but also know how to create something strong in terms of atmosphere and energy. Now it is the turn of the US-born Swiss choreographer Rafaële Giovanola, who is based in Bonn with the CocoonDance company. She has called her newly premiered choreography ‘Sphynx’, referring to the riddle posed by the Sphinx to Oedipus: ‘What moves on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?’ The piece, which lasts around 55 minutes, deals with human locomotion in a very complex way. And only for a moment can one think that it is something like Monty Python's ‘Ministry Of Silly Walks’ – the 14 dancers, together with the choreographer, have developed much more intricate and difficult movements. ... At first, ‘Sphynx’ is above all endearing to watch with amazement, then picks up momentum when the ensemble moves on to more extensive movements, including a four-legged part that occasionally makes you think of a herd of antelopes or something similar. Nevertheless, this dance piece does not achieve the energy of a choreography by Sharon Eyal because of the absence of synchronous ensemble scenes. But you still take images of it with you, on the street, home, where one or the other might try out a few new ways of walking. (Sylvia Staude, fr.de (Frankfurter Rundschau Online, retrieved: 01.02.2022)

The secretof the upright walk [title] Sometimes a brilliant idea is enough for choreographic fireworks. For her latest creation at tanzmainz, former Forsythe dancer Rafaële Giovanola was inspired by the enigmatic ‘Sphynx’, which gives the piece its title. According to the ancient myth, the sphinx asks for a creature that alternately walks on four, two and three legs, which only Oedipus recognised as a human being in the different stages of locomotion of childhood, adulthood and old age. How many ways can you walk? The excellent fourteen-member ensemble from Mainz has answered this question a hundredfold over an exceptionally long rehearsal period. At the beginning, the dancers move as if pulled by invisible strings in straight lines across the almost empty stage. Black blackboards in the background and strips of light on the floor (lighting design: Wil Frikken) provide a strict geometric structure to the stage space. Each and every one of them develops a different way of walking: from almost natural to highly artistic, from highly emotional to surprisingly artificial – not to mention sometimes very funny. The performance is also a convincing demonstration of what dance theatre can do: tell fantastic stories using the body. It is not for nothing that the Swiss dancer Rafaële Giovanola, who has been running the CocoonDance company in Bonn together with Rainald Endraß for over 20 years, is considered one of the most interesting artists in contemporary dance. Driven by the electronic commissioned composition by Portuguese musician Tiago Cerqueira, who, with integrated breathing sounds and heartbeat monitoring, gets very close to the protagonists, the dancers develop a breathtaking spectrum of locomotion. (Isabelle von Neumann-Cosel, www.tanznetz.de, retrieved: 03.02.2022)

Fascinating gaits [title] It is fascinating how dancers are always coming up with new gaits and never seeming to tire of them. What may sound monotonous is anything but, for it shows the huge spectrum that lies behind the simple term ‘walking’... It is equally astonishing to see how a piece of the highest intensity develops from the motif of walking. At some point, the strange and heterogeneous hustle and bustle on stage turns into an extremely sensual and haunting choreography that captivates the audience completely. ... But despite all their individuality, the 14-member tanzmainz ensemble has one thing in common: the absolute concentration and total dedication with which they master this physically and, no doubt, mentally extremely demanding choreography. They rightly receive long-lasting applause and standing ovations for this achievement. (Natascha Olbrich, Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, 01.02.2022)

Movement as a celebration [title] – in the choreography ‘Sphynx’ by Rafaële Giovanola, 14 dancers explore the limits of human locomotion. With the second world premiere at the Staatstheater Mainz in the current season, the ballet ensemble tanzmainz underlines its high artistic standards. (Peter Zschunke, dpa, 01.02.2022) 

The stranger the performance, the better – that seems to be the motto of this production, which may behave in an avant-garde manner, but ultimately takes refuge in ambiguity and vagueness. But no matter how brilliantly nonsense may be presented, it remains nonsense. (Björn Hayer, Die Deutsche Bühne, 31.01.2022) 

More is not possible [title] The artists stalk, teeter or strut. They shift their hips, bend their legs or alternately reach down with their hands while hopping. Bizarre, interlocked movements can be seen and are repeated with perfect precision. Images emerge in which the people become animals. In which they entwine with each other as if by chance and then drift apart again. You watch these alienated bodies as if spellbound, captivated for almost an hour by what their bodies, pushed to the limit and in full concentration, are capable of. US-born choreographer Rafaële Giovanola loves experimenting with extremes. In the highly trained ensemble from the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, she has found excellent subjects for her experiments. Together, the Swiss choreographer and the dancers have embarked on an exciting journey of discovery to explore the human body, which everyone thinks they know well, from new perspectives. ... Her original developmental work is also impressive with the foreign dancers. Not only the enthusiastic audience at the premiere in Mainz will wish that more will come in the future. (Katja Sturm, Strandgut, 3/2022)

Rafaële Giovanola receives the DER FAUST theatre prize for ‘Sphynx’, as the best dance production in the 2021/22 season.

‘Rafaële Giovanola's ‘Sphynx’ impresses with the extremely precise and consistent choreographic realisation of a captivating idea: the declination of the human gait. Here, the human species is questioned in a clever and fascinating way about its evolution, and in the process a kaleidoscope of the human gait is fanned out, which captivates through great dance ingenuity. In a very contemporary visual language, costumes, lighting and stage are precisely coordinated to draw the viewer's gaze back to the body again and again. The individual subtleties of each dancer are meticulously worked out. Rarely has such a great choreographic richness been developed from a seemingly simple idea.’ (From the statement of the jury of the German Academy of Performing Arts, Berlin)