Planet [wanderer]

A dark field begins to glow like a starry sky. Eight bodies drift across it, subjected to the weight of gravity and the resistance of materials, yet in constant motion. The dancers traverse an ever-changing landscape of black sand, smoke, liquids and light. Their bodies encounter elements that shape, slow, limit or engulf them. The piece is inspired by the Japanese creation myth Kojiki, in particular the section on Ashihara-no-nakatsukuni, the “land of reeds,” whose swaying, seemingly endless movement becomes a choreographic principle. Planet [wanderer] unfolds as a cosmic ritual: a choreography of wandering, searching, the precarious balance between humans and the earth. The title refers to the Greek root of “planet” – planaomai, to roam – opening up a space of experience in which bodies become wandering celestial bodies.

In the collaboration between the French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet and the Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa, dance and visual art merge into a shared language of image and movement. The stage becomes the living surface of a planet that responds to every touch. Between expressive choreography and sculptural experiment, a sensual cosmogony emerges: a world in the making, fragile and resistant at once. Jalet continuously confronts the performers with material, gravity and instability. States tip over; bodies become liquid, mineral, dusty or tectonic. Individual impulses interlock, affect one another, and merge into collective formations. Migration, transformation and vulnerability are not narrated but experienced physically. Planet [wanderer] presents a tragic love story between humanity and the planet – intense, visceral and of archaic force.

Damien Jalet is among the most influential choreographers of our time. Born in Belgium and based in Brussels, he is internationally renowned for monumental works at the intersection of dance, visual art, film and pop culture. His choreographies – including collaborations with Marina Abramović, Madonna and Luca Guadagnino – are conceived as corporeal landscapes in which movement becomes a sculptural experience. With Planet [wanderer], Jalet continues this signature approach while articulating a powerful reflection on our existence on a planet that is itself in motion. Since their first joint project, VESSEL, he has enjoyed an ongoing collaboration with Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa, driven by a shared fascination with the transformation of matter into movement and bodies into living sculptures.

This event is part of Focus Japan initiated by Berliner Festspiele.