Skatepark | Mette Ingvartsen

Legend has it that low waves forced the surfers of Los Angeles out of the water and onto the asphalt one day. Gliding through the streets and overcoming every new obstacle, skating has now become a unique choreography that has reclaimed public space, overcoming obstacles with daring movements and initiating its own subculture.

In her new work, Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen transforms the Muffathalle into a skate park. Obstacles, edges and railings turn the skate park in public space into a stage setting and make skating part of the dance vocabulary. A large group of dancers and skaters, together with skate communities from Munich and Bavaria, seek the thrill of speed and the special energy of movement on wheels - a physical memory from Mette Ingvartsen's own youth. Rather than virtuoso tricks, Skatepark shows a community whose members tirelessly try out, fail and constantly test the limits of what is possible, but also hang out, listen to music, laugh and dance together.
While Mette Ingvartsen works with a fixed group of dancers and skaters, she seeks out young local skaters for each performance venue in order to create encounters and convey the feeling for this particular subculture of skating. Like all her works, this one is characterised by the search for points of contact between dance and extended choreographic practices outside the stage space.

19. & 20. november | Muffathalle