Christina Ciupke lives and works as a choreographer and performer in Berlin. She develops her projects in cross-media collaborations. Within these projects, specific spaces and situations emerge in which proximity and distance, intimacy, sense of time, and the togetherness of spectator and performer are constantly renegotiated. She has collaborated extensively with choreographers Nik Haffner, Mart Kangro, Jasna L. Vinovrški and Ayşe Orhon, dramaturg Igor Dobričić, composer Boris Hauf and organizational sociologist Anke Strauß. Since 2020, she has had an ongoing collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Darko Dragičević. They developed the projects Silent Trio (2020-21) and Take me somewhere nice (2022 - continuing in 23). In 2013 she received a Master of Arts in Choreography (AMCh) at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. From 2016 to 2020 she was represented as an artist with Tanzfabrik Berlin in the European network apap- advancing performing arts project.

"Being both author and performer, it is a fundamental basis of my daily practice to work towards a state of expectation and speculation. each of my performances quietly requires you to phase-shift your perceptions and anticipation. My artistic practice pursues an intention to create a particular experience for an audience and each piece of work is an invitation and challenge at the same time – aiming for a state of being sensory, associative, contemplative and unresolved. How can the unexpected provoke and complete the expected?

Making a performance is for me an exciting process involving negotiations: between the intention and a place, between individual collaborators and between predictable as well as unpredictable parameters.

Some of the things I make are more resolved than others. Some give a lot, whilst others are more open, challenging the willingness of the spectator to actively, (imaginatively) join in and investigate. The moment an audience walks in, the quality of resolution reveals itself. Up until then, it is a matter of projection and speculation. The unpredictable diversity of an audience as individuals and its dynamic as a group matters, and determines how the work is perceived. Moments of uncertainty, moving between different levels of perception and sensual provocation hold a strong attraction for me. In my work I examine fragile situations in dialogue with my own body and in dialogue and cooperation with other partners.

The content of my solo work is more abstract and focused on the fragmentation of the body, structured by means of a composition, which is based on a concentrated reduction of the range of means and movement. Further on a rigorous development of detailed and complex repeated structures creates over an extended temporal duration a physical intensity and a specific relationship between time and space.

Intensive collaborations are an extension of my solo work and have taken a specific place in my working-practice. Collaborations on an equal level in direct exchange and confrontation with one or two partners, I find very productive and exciting, similar to working hand-in-hand, which takes place in many areas of everyday life, where people - time and again - create something together in a surprising way."

Artistic Work

2022
Take me somewhere nice, Performative Installation, fall-programme 2022 FOLD-NEW WORKS Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Berlin Pilgrimage, curated pilgrimage (duration 4-6h) Mühlenbecker Land between Station Schönwalde and S-Bahn Schönfliess, 11,8 km
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Travelling without Travelling; a series of curated events in collaboration with Darko Dragičević: Insular Walking with Eirik Sördal (Iceland), Treptower Park / We are going to Mostar with Ayşe Orhon (Turkey), AULA at Milchhof, Berlin / A walk trough a phantom city with Ayara Hernández Holz (Uruquay), Parallel Walk Montevideo Center and neighborhood Prenzlauer Berg connected via Telegram / Views of the New Zealand Landscape with Lisa Densem (New Zealand), AULA at Milchhof

Remixes 1 + 2, Premiere, The last Open Spaces? Tanzfabrik Berlin, Wedding
collaboration with Boris Hauf and Darko Dragičević

2021
Silent Trio, Epilogue, fall-programme 2021, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Chapter#3: Spomenik (Wiederaufnahme) Audiowalk, fall-programme Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Chapter#6: In Situ, Guerilla Aktionen, Interventions in public places
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Spomenik, Global Exchange Grant (Teil 1) Residency at StationOne, Stanica/Station – Service for Contemporary Dance Belgrade
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Spomenik Global Exchange Grant (Teil 2), Rresidency at LOKOMOTIVA, Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture, Skopje
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Workshop and Presentation: Displaced Bodies, Displaced Objects
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

2020
Silent Trio, Chapter#5, Digital Postcards, Video- and Voicechoreography, MontagModus
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Chapter#4, Unfinished Archives, Performance, Open Spaces Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Chapter#3, Spomenik, Audio-Walk with Darko Dragičević, Tanznacht Berlin Part 1, Vertigo
collaboration with Darko Dragičević

Silent Trio, Chapter #2, Videoinstallation, 10th anniversary Uferstudios Berlin
collaboration with Alan Cunningham and Darko Dragičević

2019
Life and Death of a Melody (new development), Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with composer Boris Hauf

Blind Date, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with Ayşe Orhon, Clément Layes, Igor Dobričić, Jasna L. Vinovrški and Litó Walkey

2018
Now and Then, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with choreographer and dancer Jasna L. Vinovrski

2017
At Close Distance, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with choreographer und dancer Ayse Orhon

2016
Assembling the Object of Discomfort, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with dramaturge Igor Dobricic, composer Boris Hauf, and light designer Mehdi Toutain-Lopez

life and death of a melody, Uferstudios Berlin
collaboration with composer Boris Hauf

2015
edition #1 und #2, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with dramaturge Igor Dobricic

2014
undo, redo and repeat
collaboration with choreographer/dancer Anna Till

2013
what moves moves, Uferstudios Berlin
collaboration with composer Boris Hauf

invitation to dance, Tanzfabrik Berlin
collaboration with dramaturge Igor Dobricic

2012
wait and see, Uferstudios Berlin
a trio collaboration with choreographer/ dancer Nik Haffner and Mart Kangro

by invitation only, aula
collaboration with dramaturge Igor Dobricic

2011
a lot of body, a lot of work, Uferstudios Berlin
a re-collection of 8 choreographic works

kannst du mich umdrehen, Uferstudios Berlin
collaboration with choreographer / dancer Nik Haffner

2010
yes. no. a bit. not really, Sophiensaele Berlin,
collaboration with composer Boris Hauf and artist Lucy Cash

from the other side, Sophiensaele Berlin
collaboration with Lucy Cash

2008
dealing with life, Tanznacht Berlin 08 Uferstudios,
collaboration with choreographer/dancer Nik Haffner

nochmal, Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin
performative installation in public space
collaboration with visual artist Lars ø Ramberg

winners vs losers, Kanuti Gildi Saal, Tallinn, Estonia
Aula, Ateliergemeinschaft im Milchhof Berlin
collaboration with choreographer / dancer Mart Kangro

2007
longer than expected, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
a collaboration with Mart Kangro

2006
subtitles, Tanzplattform Deutschland, Stuttgart
collaboration with choreographer/dancer Nik Haffner

subtitles / film
collaboration with interdisciplinary artist / film-maker Lucy Cash and Nik Haffner

2005
it could all begin again/kill the king, Centre national de la Danse, Paris (cnd)
collaboration with Myriam Gourfink and Kasper Toeplitz

2004
souvenir, Tanztheater International, Hannover
in collaboration with composer Martin Schüttler and dramaturge Kerstin Follenius

souvenir 2, Tanznacht Berlin
in collaboration with Lina Lindheimer and Kerstin Follenius

2003
bildbewegung 003, Tanztheater International, Hannover
in collaboration with Kerstin Follenius

2002
bildbewegung 001, Theater am Halleschen Ufer, Berlin
dance and photography in collaboration with photographer Gisela Dilchert

bildbewegung 002, Stadtbad Oderberger Strasse, Berlin
photography and dance

2001
rissumriss, Theater am Halleschen Ufer, Berlin

christina ciupke

Artistic Work