Dance Piece

»Good evening, my name is Beatrice Cordua. I was born in Hamburg in 1941. Everyone calls me Trixie.«

These words mark the beginning of the documentary piece about the life of a German dancer who danced for John Neumeier in Hamburg and Johann Kresnik in Berlin. Not without humour, this portrait’s subject sketches out her biography in anecdotes and memories from her long career. By using the tools of language and dance, she not only shows how the body has changed, but also revives a part of dance history.

Beatrice Cordua tells her unbelievable life story: she received her dance education at the Royal Ballet School in London and at the Ballet School of the Hamburgische Staatsoper. In the course of her career, she met Mary Wigman, Georges Balanchine, the 80-year-old Igor Stravinsky, Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham. Thus a poetic homage is created for an aging dancer who – in the sense of the title-giving poem by the American actress Edith Bouvier Beale – was and is actively in search of »The wanderer’s peace«.

Nicole Seiler, born in Zurich in 1970, belongs to the most important choreographers in Switzerland. She studied dance and theatre at the Scuola Teatro Dimitri in Verscio, Vlaamse Danseacademie in Brügge and Rudra Béjart School in Lausanne. She danced and performed in numerous projects, among others with Philippe Saire and Massimo Furlan. In 2002, she founded her own company and has toured with her pieces in over 20 countries.