With an unlikely mix of Brian Keenan and Stanley Kubrick's work, Wolfgang Hoffmann is setting a new pace, writes Michael Seaver.
The political consequences of German unification are well known, but it was also a culturally transformative event, particularly in former East Germany. A few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 a toolmaker and a history student - Wolfgang Hoffmann and Sven Till - formed a theatre company in an abandoned brewery in their native Potsdam. "I wanted to bring the dance forms that I just had encountered in my first visits to West Berlin to my fellow East Germans," explains Hoffmann.
"Although I had only started to dance myself, I already felt the urge to teach what I had just learned," he says.
The company, Fabrik, quickly gained a reputation as a centre - both physically and ideologically - offering education, exchange and production for those working in the most contemporary forms of dance and physical theatre.
In 1992 Sabine Chwalisz joined the team, leaving a dance career in Berlin, and now Fabrik Potsdam has a full programme of workshops and performances, notably the annual international dance festival, Potsdam Tanztage.
In order to create within such an underdeveloped cultural infrastructure it was necessary to self-produce. Rather than regarding all that administration as time stolen from his artistry, Hoffmann happily enjoys the dual role of producer and creator.
"I love both sides of my work, creating possibilities for others to be creative, as well as using them myself. Of course that hasn't always been easy. I could have made faster progress in one area or the other had I decided to concentrate on only one of them."
But he hasn't done too badly in either career. As well as the acclaimed Potsdam theatre, a programme of music, dance and physical theatre called Aurora Nova at the Edinburgh Fringe - curated by Fabrik and the Brighton-based Komedia - has received critical praise and awards since its inception in 2001. And in that time his works have also scooped honours in Edinburgh: Fallen and Hopeless Games won Fringe First awards and last year Pandora 88 won a Fringe First Award, a Herald Angel Award and a Total Theatre Award. It's this pedigree that has led to his appointment as artistic director of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival, succeeding Australian Vallejo Gantner.
Artistic experience not only affects the content of Hoffmann's programming decisions, but also constantly influences how he interacts.
"Because I'm an artist who runs his own venues, I have a natural empathy with those that I invite to perform. I think that I've been able to create a space and structure in a spirit of collaboration and good-heartedness, without bureaucratic and commercial pressures. The other good thing was that I have been able to invite artists that I was interested in working with, and as a result I feel that I have received a great education over the last 15 years."
Prospective Dublin Fringe Festival participants will no doubt be anxious to seek out a curatorial credo in Pandora 88, which will be performed at the Belfast Festival and the Novemberfest at the Pavilion in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. They needn't bother. Hoffmann is clear about embracing different type of work and separates personal taste with what he chooses to produce. "I often programme work that I wouldn't make myself. Of course I'm aware that there are many different means and ways of expression, which are all valid. The question for me as curator is whether the work engages my imagination. I like to be moved emotionally when I go to the theatre. To achieve that, the performance needs to be true and have a certain simplicity. Work that is too explicit often fails to move me and I'm likely to feel patronised if there is no space for the audience's own imagination."
This year's Dublin Fringe was felt by many to be over-stretched, with too many performances and too wide a range of quality. Hoffmann was unable to attend, so he can't comment, but he seems to envision the festival as a beast that he struggles to control rather than a tame pet project.
"My vision for next year's festival is to engage as many artists from the Dublin community as possible and make it their festival by facilitating their creative input. I also have many ideas about international exchange projects and artistic partnerships that should have a resonating effect on the Irish arts scene. Some work will be more mature than others, but that's OK, as long as the spirit is right."
Years of producing and self-producing explain this openness and encouragement, yet after years of existing on the fringe, Hoffmann finds himself in the limelight with a hit on his hands.
Pandora 88 has received floods of invitations after its success in last year's Edinburgh Fringe. Inspired by an unlikely mix of Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the duet for Hoffmann and Till takes place in a box with just 1.5 square metres of floor space. Descriptions of Keenan's captivity along with John McCarthy sparked the work, which initially had props and more space, but eventually got distilled down to its present restrictions through the performance process.
"It's certainly the most satisfying work that I have ever been in. But it's also the most personal and simple work I've ever helped to create and that is probably the reason for its success. We were overwhelmed by the shower of awards in Edinburgh last year and didn't expect that it would hit such a chord with so many people."
Although constantly pushing himself in new choreographic directions, he reckons that for some reason his work has become more accessible in recent years rather than more austere.
Pandora 88 has been performed in Singapore and the Sydney Opera House already this year, and Hoffmann reckons he could probably tour with it for the next few years. Instead, he is moving to take up the post in Dublin, which will allow him to spend more time with his wife and newly-born son.
Sven Till and Sabine Chwalisz will carry on the work at Potsdam, and in some ways these final performances of Pandora 88 are a kind of signing off of the professional relationship between Hoffmann and Still, in the short term at least. Beginning their careers together by rehearsing in tiny attics in Potsdam, it is probably appropriate that these performances will take place in a similarly small and restricted space.
Season ticket
The Pavilion Theatre's short and intriguing Novemberfest of dance and physical theatre, programmed by artistic director Polly O'Loughlin, runs in Dún Laoghairefrom November 8th to 13th. It is an extension of the theatre's dance programming, which has included the excellent Daksha Sheth from India. O'Loughlin discovered the group, along with some of Novemberfest's companies, at Hoffmann's Aurora Nova festival at the Edinburgh Fringe. Having already made its mark with the Festival of World Cultures, the Pavilion seems set to add another significant event to the dance diary. Booking: 01-2312929. Highlights include:
Pandora 88
Fabrik Potsdam's multiple award-winning production. One Edinburgh reviewer wrote: "Wolfgang Hoffmann and Sven Till . . . The thinking woman's beefcake!" (Belfast Festival, November 4th-6th; then Dún Laoghaire, November 8th-10th)
The Ridge
Ella Clarke and Julie Lockett's ongoing exploration of Deborah Hay's choreography. The Ridge features two solos performed simultaneously, adapted from Hay's quartet, The Match, premièred in New York this year. It begins with a question: "What if The Ridge is the balancing of my perception - like a bird alighting - between time and space, and what if this is the dance?" (November 10th)
Facing Up and No Time For Wasa/Hahmomania
Shows from Dutch choreographer Frank van de Ven and Polish/Finnish duo Trava; the latter are described as "singing dancers, almost the same height, the same stature - and identically bald. Their faces are unusually expressive - a rarity among dancers". (November 12th and 13th)
