feminine delight

My work was never about flying
My work was always about the human desire to fly
When you have the desire to fly you must not be afraid to fall
Actually my work is more about falling
Falling into the unknown
Lets bring a toast to the unknown
And drink a lot

Three men put the role of women in modern dance under the microscope, with plenty of added humour. The dramaturge and writer Robert Steijn plays a woman who believes devoutly in everything she does. He becomes a ‘Martha Graham’ and thereby reaps great success, until he goes out of fashion and takes to drink. He dies, but is reincarnated as a ‘Trisha Brown’, who takes a postmodern approach to seeking contact with a new audience. The dancer and choreographer Frans Poelstra remains his supportive muse throughout this transformation process. Martin Siewert provides live musical accompaniment for the duo. The result is an absurdly comical musical on suffering, working hard and living as a diva.

Robert Steijn & Frans Poelstra / United Sorry. For the last four years, Frans Poelstra and Robert Steijn have been operating from their bases in Vienna and Amsterdam under the name ‘united sorry’. Three years ago they took stock of their work in Frans Poelstra, zijn dramaturg en Bach. It was shown in the Netherlands, Belgium (Kaaistudio’s), France, Germany, Estonia, the USA, Austria, Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Italy, and is still touring today. Three years later they thought it was time to concentrate on somebody else, though without going too far afield. In feminine delight they take up the roles of the women with whom they grew up and with whom they have worked in the dance world. Any similarities to existing people are purely coincidental. Though Poelstra and Steijn have to admit that, after reading books about Martha Graham and Trisha Brown, they are now dancing as they have never danced before.

Martin Siewert is active on the Viennese contemporary music scene and has played with such bands as Trapist (with Joe Williamson and Martin Brandlmayr), the Year of (Fleischmann, Kurzmann, Dafeldecker, Siewert, Kling) and EFZEG (Hauf, Stangl, Roisz, Siewert).