EXPOSURE

In the organizer's words:

In the current dance production "EXPOSURE", contemporary dance, Afro-Cuban tradition and spectacular hip-hop culture come together to the live sounds of star composer and film musician Ben Frost in a physical production by choreography greats Julio César Iglesias Ungo and Hans van den Broeck.

It is the fourth piece by the Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr, which was founded in 2023 as Germany's first state-funded professional ensemble from the hip-hop culture. It meets the Danza Contemporánea de Cuba from Havana, a dance company that is known for its Cuban modern dance techniques and has won over 70 awards worldwide.

The new stage work is a radical-physical search for our primal instincts and their release. The audience experiences an immediately moving ceremony of how much nature still lives in us humans. With great physical commitment - immersed in charged and meditative sound spaces - the dancers open up an intimate view of their identity and their connection to each other. In doing so, they raise the question of what it would be like to be able to drop masks and feel what our bodies have forgotten. Lifelines, dreams and stories touch each other and do not need dialog to be understood. The performance of "EXPOSURE" is a journey to the human being, to life itself, that has probably never been seen before.

Sensual Afro-Cuban dance from African and Latin American traditions in combination with contemporary dance characterized by rhythmic physicality and spiritual expressiveness meets the diversity of a powerful, expressive, dynamic movement language of urban dance theater, breaking and hip-hop culture for the first time in "EXPOSURE". The world premiere unites the celebrated Cuban state dance company Danza Contemporánea de Cuba with Germany's first sponsored hip-hop dance theater professional company, the Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr. The dancers and the audience will embark on an intense and shared journey of liberating hidden instincts and perceptions. The atmospherically dense scenario of sensitivity and force is supported by Ben Frost's live audiovisual creation of a sound sphere of soggily experimental ambient noise. The mix of movement, music and light becomes a borderline experience that allows the body and life to be rediscovered - like a trembling of the earth, just before a quake.

Accompanied by the hypnotic music of Ben Frost, which the Australian-Icelandic star composer plays live on stage in a 360-degree audio-visual setting, choreographers Julio César Iglesias Ungo and Hans van den Broeck develop a fusion between urban and contemporary dance. Ben Frost is a star composer with a global fan base, performances in major world operas, galleries, festivals and has composed the cult soundtracks for "Dark" and "1899" (both Netflix), "Raised By Wolves" (HBO, director Ridley Scott) and for the Palme d'Or nominated film "Sleeping Beauty".

The multi-award-winning Cuban dancer and choreographer Julio César Iglesias Ungo has already worked with RENEGADE, the predecessor of the Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr, as well as for the Havana-based company Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. Julio César Iglesias Ungo is familiar with the distinctive dance aesthetics of both ensembles. Together with the legendary choreographer Hans van den Broeck, he is now pooling the potential of the companies and bringing contemporary, physical theater, Afro-Cuban dance and hip hop to the stage together in a world premiere.

The new production by Julio César Iglesias Ungo and Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr in co-production with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, PACT Zollverein and Theater im Pumpenhaus is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Goethe-Institut Havana and the Kulturstiftung Essen. The Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the New Arts Ruhr program and by the City of Herne.

Price information:

May 07, 2025 - Pina Bausch Center (Wuppertal): 18 euros (9 euros reduced) May 13, 2025 (Schauspiel Dortmund): 10 euros