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A vertical dance show took place this Saturday afternoon at the Bluefactory silo in Friborg as part of the Dance Festival.
The show ended when the two artists reached dry land. © Charly Rappo
Published on 05.05.2024
Rows of deck chairs stand not against a backdrop of beach and sea, but on the asphalt, in front of the silo at Bluefactory in Fribourg. A strange idea to laze around on an industrial site when the sky is rather gloomy. Everything is explained when two silhouettes appear in the windows, at the very top of the tower. The rest unfolds like a poetic dream.
Rebekka Gather and Laetitia Kohler begin a ballet by moving vertically against the facade, suspended from ropes and accompanied by live music, with Mara Miribung on cello. The two women swirl and turn around in the air under the fascinated eyes of the many spectators. “We represent the third generation to do vertical dance, a practice born in the 1930s. I started in 2016,” explains Rebekka Gather, who comes from the field of contemporary and acrobatic dance and trains on a wall in Basel.
The level of security remains very high, and both artists work with rope access technicians – Rebekka Gather being one herself. The longer the rope, the more amplitude the movements take on, indicates the resident of Basel, because a rope that is too short means remaining pressed against the facade. “The balance is different, compared to what we have on the floor. The same weight rests on the hands as on the feet. The most complicated figure is the one where you stand on the facade, arms raised, because it’s hard on the abs,” explains the 31-year-old artist.
As for the show, it was inspired by Hilde Domin, a German and Jewish poet, who had to go into exile during the Second World War. “His poems are like stars in all this pain and this situation of conflict. She explains, for example, that air is nothing, but still carries us,” greets Rebekka Gather.
