Figure 8 Race
The First Woman to Drive Around the World

Figure 8 Race

“Figure 8 Race” is about motor sports and the fascination for movement, as well as crashes. Maren Strack and POST THEATER narrate the story of Claerenore Stinnes, the first woman to drive around the world by car (1927 – 1929). The main choreographic tools are tires and flags which Maren Strack learnt how to operate in various ways – including catching video projections with them. The figure 8 is the eternal and most efficient movement in dance and sports – the “figure 8 race” is a demolition derby that is all about the disruption of movement. Cars both, in normal motion and in crashes, create sound. Live Foley artist Max Bauer generates noises on stage as a live-commentary on the performance – he remixes performance to make it sound right.

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In 2004 the concept for “Figure 8 Race” was awarded with the Bremer Authorship Award. The jury for the award pointed out the “highly interdisciplinary quality” of the project. The Fonds Darstellende Kuenste (Foundation for Performing Arts) additionally provided a grant for the realization of the project which was presented in November 2005 on Sylt (Germany) and in January 2006 in Bremen. The current version has been further developed on residencies at Schloss Broellin and at Kuenstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop in the summer of 2006. The most recent version opened at the Tanz im August Festival, Berlin, in August 2006, funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

The performance toured to the Japan Media Arts Festival, and several festivals in Germany.

Premiere and Touring

Premiere: August 2006
at Tanz im August, Berlin

Press Quotes

“… The dramaturgically skillfully woven scene-collage of image, movement, language and sound… the notion of trivial teaching has been avoided with intricate and clever performative composition of signifier and signified: visual film tricks, the editing of the text fragments and the dance with the colorful light of cracking signal flags. …
the dream-dancing and always surprising multi-talent and post theater stay down to earth with their new and creative tour de force. A sovereign “Figure 8 Race” drives flawless and without real crashes, but with grace and full of sense of humor.”
(Klaus Witzeling in Ballet Tanz, January 2006)

“A postmodern cabinet of horrors, a very accessible dance performance and an unsentimental piece of heroine-myth.”
Annedore Beelte in Die Tageszeitung (taz), January 14th / 15th, 2006)

Documentation
Credits

Artistic directors: Max Schumacher, Hiroko Tanahashi, Maren Strack
Performer, choreography: Maren Strack
Foley artist, sound design: Max Bauer
Video, installation: Hiroko Tanahashi
Text, dramaturgy: Max Schumacher
Choreography of final scene: Diane Busuttil
Costume: Sarah Pontius
Metal works: Gobi Hoffmann
Car mechanic: Bernd Kurowski
Translation Engl. Version: Julie Randall, Max Schumacher
Editor: Peter Gilbert Cotton
Speakers: Peter Gilbert Cotton, Rike Lau
Light design and head technician: Fabian Bleisch

Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin. Earlier versions have received funding by the institutions mentioned above.