based on scores by
Naima Akkar, Lindy Annis, Bettina von Arnim, Antonia Baehr, Ulrich Baehr, Frieder Butzmann, Valérie Castan, Manuel Coursin, Nicole Dembélé, Nathan Fuhr, Frédéric Gies, Christian Kesten, Heather Kravas, Antonija Livingstone, Andrea Neumann, Stefan Pente, Isabell Spengler, Steffi Weismann, William Wheeler, Henry Wilt, among others
concept, interpretation, composition and choreography
Antonia Baehr
artistic collaboration and choreography
Valérie Castan
dramaturgy
Lindy Annis
sound design and composition
Manuel Coursin
light design
Sylvie Garot
administration
Ulrike Melzwig, Alexandra Wellensiek / www.make-up-productions.net
duration
70’
I like to laugh. I laugh often. I am often seen laughing.
Laugh is a piece about laughing as laughing. For the length of the piece Antonia Baehr explores this expression as a sovereign entity, in separation from causal baggage; jokes, tickles, narrative, humor, joy, looking at the thing itself: the sound and shape, the music, choreography and drama, the rhythm and the gesture of laughter. Comedy is not her goal, but contamination is an unavoidable by-product that sometimes contagiously trades sides of the “fourth wall”.
Laugh premiered in April 2008 at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, France. Parallel to the show, Antonia has published also a book Lachen / Rire / Laugh documenting project but also being a kind of manual for laugh scores and exercises to be practice alone or in larger groups. Book shows laughter both as personal expression and artistic exploration. The tasks described are proposed as a useful tool for mastering an act of laugh.