POINTS OF DEPARTURE is a stage piece in three parts building a narrative across time-lines and media.

The piece starts with a video prologue of footage (cinematography: Diara Sow, editing: Dafne Narvaez Berlfein) of Ian Kaler performing with a hawk in a forest. The idea to work with a hawk in this piece stems from a conversation with set designer Stephanie Rauch who’s creating an abandoned suburban parking-lot-meets-edge-of-the-forest scenery for the piece. The video is structured as an expanding loop, blending layers of spacial perception, physique/body image and movement of the hawk and the human protagonist. This over-layering of characters for the video-prologue is inspired by the mythological figure of the „harpy“ which is described as a character with a birds body and a woman’s head. Hyphen, the title of the ImPulsTanz premiere, emphasizes the connection between the two otherwise unjoined figures.

For the second part Kaler invited choreographer Jen Rosenblit to write and direct a monologue for him. Starting point for the text and character was working on a teenage character who fluctuates between inner monologue, storytelling, memory recollection, diary entry and sporadic, casual addresses to the outside (ie. audience). The character blends auto-biographical and fictional narratives and develops more and more of a physicality as the text and performance progresses.

For the final part of the performance the choreographer and movement director Stéphane “Peeps” Moun shares techniques from his practice informed by elements of housedance, hip hop, Tapdance & jazz- dance. Together they work on blending Kaler’s own movement practice with Peeps’s methods and approach to co-choreograph a powerful as well as subtle, hypnotic movement sequence.

Berlin-based music producer rRoxymore aka Hermione Frank plays the electronic live soundtrack weaving a thread and performing together with Kaler. Lighting designer Thomas Zamolo contributes live lights to the piece.