In Kafka’s incomplete story Der Bau, an animal’s den is described that is created from a body and made up of it – its forms, traces, smells, excretions and reserves, its hopes and despair within. It serves as a metaphor for our title, and the point of departure for a continuing research into the special relationship between the body and space that we began in 2008 with the series of pieces called Unturtled.
In Unturtled #1-4, costumes become transitional objects, a prosthesis (the last nonexistent layer of the body) and the first layer of cover of the outer space. Seeing costumes as organs allowed us to investigate the body and the surrounding space that is generated from it: as a stage and as a stage set. During the Der Bau work process, it became clear that the space is itself an organ and an extension of the body. To understand this idea, Rilke’s perspective on the sculptor Rodin helped us: according to him, Rodin didn’t form the bodies into a sculpture, but rather the spaces around the bodies. We create a flat and flowing space out of big pieces of cloth: the material as external layers (fabric) is treated like internal layers (fabric). They react in a surprisingly lively way, simultaneously like a body part, vessel and partner.
With Der Bau Isabelle Schad and Laurent Goldring continue their successful cooperation in the series Unturtled. The aesthetics of the performances produced within this series is unique. Unturtled #1-4 has been touring worldwide since 2008.

Source : Isabelle Schad and Laurent Goldring

More information : www.isabelle-schad.net/

Dancer and choreographer Isabelle Schad first studied ballet  at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. After working in various classical ensembles for six years, she moved on to contemporary  companies, including Ultima Vez, led by Wim Vandekeybus, in Brussels. From 1999 onwards she initiated her own projects. Her work focuses on the body and its materiality, processuality and knowability, as well as the relationship between the unity of body–mind–soul, choreography and (re)presentation, and the issues of community-building and political engagement. She has co-initiated several collaborations in her search for new research methods and working possibilities. In 2003 she founded the international artist network Good Work with Bruno Pocheron and Ben  Anderson. In 2010 she co-founded the Tanzhalle Wiesenburg, a place for artistic research, creation and interdisciplinary collaboration in  Berlin Wedding. Here she initiated the Open Practice Sessions, a format  aimed at sharing her movement research with the Berlin dance scene and  beyond. She also collaborates on a continuing basis with the visual  artist Laurent Goldring, with whom she created Unturtled #1 & 4 (2008), Der Bau (The Burrow, 2012/13), Personne (2021) and Collective Jumps (2014), the latter of which is now part of a trilogy together with Pieces and Elements (2016) and Refection  (2019). She has a long-standing connection with the theatre HAU Hebbel  am Ufer in Berlin as a performance venue. Her works have been performed  at international festivals, including ImPuls Tanz Wien, Tanz im August  (Berlin), Montpellier Danse, International Arts Festival (Beijing) or the Venice Biennale in 2016 as well as in museums and visual art  contexts.

Her pieces have frequently been selected for the Tanzplattform Deutschland (German Dance Platform), and she has  collaborated with the Goethe Institut on multiple occasions around the  world. She is a shiatsu and aikdo practitioner, teaches regularly at  TEAK Helsinki, DOCH (Stockholm), HfMDK (Frankfurt), HZT Berlin and  elsewhere, conducts workshops worldwide and is committed to the  independent dance scene in the Balkans. In 2019 Isabelle Schad was  awarded the Deutscher Tanzpreis for her outstanding artistic  contribution to contemporary dance. Her work Harvest (2021), a collaboration with Theater o.N. and Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum, was nominated for the Ikarus Prize 2022.

Source and more information: https://isabelle-schad.net/