SunBengSitting

From farmer's son to performing artist

SunBengSitting is a mix of Austrian folk dance, traditional yodelling and contemporary dance. The performance plays on Simon Mayers’ farming background and is both a journey to the past and a humorous quest for identity. In the dialect of Upper Austria, a ‘SunBeng' is the traditional bench beside the front door where you sit in the sun. Mayer offers the audience an insight into his life, its contradictions and his dislike of thinking in terms of established categories and conventions. His transition from farmer’s son to performing artist proved as liberating as it was limiting.

SunBengSitting is constantly shifting between opposites such as city and countryside, home and abroad, and artistic freedom and relentless compartmentalisation.

• Simon Mayer (1984) studied in the dance department at Vienna’s Staatsopera, dancing there for a year in the corps de ballet before continuing his studies at PARTS in Brussels. In 2009, he founded the band Rising Halfmoon as a singer, guitarist and songwriter. As a dancer, choreographer and musician, he has been involved in performances by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/ROSAS (The Song), Wim Vandekeybus (Frisking) and Zita Swoon. 

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