How to do a downward facing dog? 2020

Yoga is ubiquitous in the Western world. As a product of colonial entanglements, yoga is a phenomenon in which socio-political contexts from neoliberal self-optimization to cultural appropriation converge. In her first full-length piece as a white Swiss woman, dancer Johanna Heusser goes in search of her role in this web. In a lecture performance, her own body becomes the visual material of the negotiation. Repeatedly she takes on the pose of the dog looking down and places this process in ever new contexts, perhaps in the end finally performing the downward facing dog in a way that makes sense to her.

Credits

Concept, Direction and Performance: Johanna Heusser
Production Management: Sarah Schoch
Stage, Light, Sound, Video Mapping: Marc Vilanova
Dramaturgy: Fiona Schreier
Performance Coaching: Stephan Stock
Yoga Performance Coaching: Abhilash Ningappa
Costume: Diana Ammann
Video: Carles Pons, Gabriel Meisel
Photos: Benjamin Stern
Ethnologist: Stephanie Lovasz
Support: Verein Landholzproductions