Alexander Wenzlik: Urban Dionysus
With Urban Dionysus, Munich-based Butoh dancer Alexander Wenzlik brings an extraordinary dance and performance project to the stage and into public spaces. Situated between theatre and the urban environment, the project explores how Dionysian energy – ecstasy, wildness, radical individuality and transformation – can be made visible and experienced within the reality of contemporary urban life.
The starting point for Urban Dionysus is the premise: We are all Dionysus. In a society characterised by self-discipline, functionality and digital overlay, the project asks which spaces remain open today for the uncontrollable, the non-productive and the physical. Dionysus appears here not as a mythological figure, but as a physical state and an energetic force that disrupts existing orders.
Central to the piece is the use of an impressive bull’s mask, developed in collaboration with puppet and mask maker Peter Lutz. The mask is not a decorative element, but a choreographic tool: it fundamentally alters the body’s perception, movement and presence, and opens up a space between human and animal, individual and archetype. Movement shapes the mask, and the mask shapes movement.
Urban Dionysus unfolds both in the BlackBox theatre space at FatCat and at selected public locations in Munich’s urban landscape. A particular tension arises precisely within the urban space: the masked body suddenly enters everyday life and confronts passers-by with a presence that defies the logic of efficiency and consumption. Those who watch are not left on the outside.
The project is aimed equally at a broad urban audience and the dance and performance scene, and is intended as an invitation to engage in dialogue about the body, masking, and the question of what forms of ecstasy and transformation are possible within urban society.
Artistic direction, choreography and dance: Alexander Wenzlik
Make-up: Peter Lutz
Photography/film: Sebastian Korp
Lighting: Christian Zeitler
18€, red. 10€ via rausgegangen.de
FatCat at the Gasteig
Rosenheimer Straße
581667 Munich