TRIP

TRIP (2008) WHITE HORSE (LEA MARTINI, JULIA JADKOWSKI, CHRIS LEUENBERGER)

White Horse  was founded in October 2007 by choreographers/performers Lea Martini, Julia Jadkowski and Chris Leuenberger. All three studied among other places at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam.  White Horse is interested in the collision of real bodies with utopian images.

In their evening-length debut piece Trip, produced by the Freischwimmer Festival, pathos-laden gestures of revolution and struggle were physically exhausted to the point of intoxication. The crucial question was what form a collective longing for devotion can take without becoming ideology.

“We didn’t have an opinion, yet wanted a revolution. We cried ourselves empty of all pathos and laughed at the utopias we didn’t believe in.
We got high on hard work and blind faith. We were both victim and perpetrator.
We borrowed heroic bodies from the past to squeeze out their sweat, quench their blood-thirst and trace down meaning. We found ourselves intoxicated by euphoria and banal spasms on an empty battlefield. We were left without a cause to fight for.
We are ready to surrender – yet we don’t know to what.”

Concept and performance: Julia Jadkowski, Lea Martini, Chris Leuenberger Outside eye: David Weber-Krebs Sound: Coordt Linke Lights: Jan Fedinger, Fabian Lehmann, Attila Nemeth Set design and costumes: Theresia Knevel

Past performances: Since its premiere on March 7 2008 at Sophiensaele Berlin, Trip was performed over 60 times at venues such as Dampfzentrale Bern, Frascati Amsterdam, brut Vienna, Gessnerallee Zürich, Operaestate Bassano del Grappa, Kaserne Basel, Festival Danza en la Ciudad Bogota, Teatro Solis Montevideo, Crossings Festival Maribor, Muffathalle Munich, The Place London, Belluard Festival Fribourg, Plaza Futura Eindhoven, Theatre de l’Usine Geneva, La Casa Encendida Madrid and more . . .

In 2010 Krisztina de Châtel, artistic director of Dansgroep Amsterdam, challenged the young collective to choreograph an ‘en masse’ version of the piece for 9 dancers of Dansgroep Amsterdam.

TRIP en masse is a murderous yet fascinating fight to the finish on the theme of fanaticism, mob violence and hysteria, a ‘bubble’ of the hardness of the here and now. White Horse’s conceptual working method and highly physical orientation bring new perspectives and insights to dancers and audience alike. TRIP en masse won the Dutch ‘Zwaan’ award for ‘most impressive dance production’. The jury commented, ‘TRIP en masse is an overwhelming dance performance which is at once hypnotic, fascinating and terrifying.’