OPEN STUDIO (Sep 27) Junior Company / CocoonDance (Bonn)

What: OPEN STUDIO to learn about the Junior Company and CocoonDance, their current productions and to get an insight into their work methods

When: September 27, 2 to 3 pm Protected content 15 hours)

Who: Everyone. Old and young, new and old Bonners, families and friends of the Junior Company. Refugees are warmly welcome!

Where: Tapetenfabrik, Studio 5, 1st floor, Auguststr. 10, Protected content

At the start of the new season and on the occasion of the national Intercultural Week, the Junior Company and CocoonDance cordially invite families, friends, new and old Bonners, and everyone interested in dance to an OPEN STUDIO. Knowledge of German is not necessary. Dance is our common language!

At the OPEN STUDIO, members of the two Bonn based contemporary dance ensembles will offer an insight into their work methods by presenting showpieces of their current productions: “Look At Me!”, “What about Orfeo?” and “Revisiting Wonderland”, an amazing solo piece and co-project with French animation artist Simon Rouby.

Rafaële Giovanola, artistic director of CocoonDance and the Junior Company, will also talk about exciting upcoming guest performances and plans for the new season. It includes a 2-year project (work title “Biography of the body”), funded by the national endowment for the arts (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), in collaboration with the Theatre Osnabrück and in Osnabrück living adult refugees.

The Junior Company Bonn - THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS is young and diverse dance troupe with about thirty members between 8 and 18 years of age. Founded in Protected content , the company is the youth ensemble of the CocoonDance Company and supported by the City of Bonn and the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In the Junior Company, the young dancers learn how to improvise and work “on an equal footing” with professional dancers. Each year, they develop together a full-length dance production. The documentary “Dancing with the Junior Company” shows the creative process and how the members of the two ensembles collaborate.

The latest work of the Juniors, “LOOK AT ME!”, is based on the Orpheus myth and conceived as a double production with CocoonDance. After its successful premiere in June, the piece will be shown again at the Theater im Ballsaal on December 4/ Protected content , followed by a CocoonDance “WHAT ABOUT ORFEO?” performance. Earlier this year, the Junior Company won the youth cultural award NRW ("Auf dem Weg zum Kinder- und Jugendkulturland NRW“) for its Protected content ARE SPACE” production (see Trailer Protected content ).

CocoonDance was founded by Rainald Endraß and Rafaële Giovanola in Protected content . Rafaële, a Swiss choreographer born in Baltimore, was a member of William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt for eight years and worked with Pavel Mikuláštik at the Choreographisches Theater. The company directs and curates the dance division of the Theater im Ballsaal in Bonn-Endenich and has established itself as an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance institution that offers a vibrant and stimulating environment for creative self-expression and teamwork. Over the last decade, CocoonDance has developed several innovative arts education projects in partnership with local schools, which subsequently led to the founding of the Junior Company.