FolkDanceParty

FolkDanceParty is a participatory project, offering a mix of performances within a collective dancefloor. A dancefloor that creates community through the art and power of celebration and the way towards collective joy. Together with Simon Mayer and Hannah Shakti Bühler, a team of artists and dance groups coming from contemporary and traditional dance/music background, invite the audience into a collective experience. We share old, new, timeless and queer traditions of celebration. In the center stands the coexistance of loud and silent, the peacefully wild dialogue between bodies entering a space of trust in a state of being moved.

Simon Mayer

Simon Mayer, born 1984 in Austria, is a choreographer, musician, and performer. He studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet School and at the PARTS. in Brussels and was a member of the Vienna State Opera Ballet. As a musician and singer, Simon founded and played in several bands (Rising Halfmoon, C.O.P.), released audio performances of his stage productions and creates his own music. As a dancer, choreographer and musician, he has been involved in productions by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas (De Song), Wim Vandekeybus and Zita Swoon. His choreographic repertoire includes solos, duets, group pieces, as well as socially engaged and immersive events – his pieces are performed internationally.

Hannah Shakti Bühler

Hannah Shakti Bühler is an italo-german dancer, choreographer and dance facilitator. Since 2018 she is Professor for Contemporary Dance at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, while also pursuing her career as freelance dancer and choreographer. After a career as performer and choreographic assistant, working across Europe with internationally known choreographers (such as b.o. Anouk Van Dijk and Falk Richter, Iván Pérez, Roberto Olivan, Kristel Van Issum…) she established her work as freelance choreographer in Germany. Her choreographic work spans between artistic documentation practices, interdisciplinary performances (dance, video, music) and participatory work and is supported by Tanzplattform Rhein Main (Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden/Darmstadt). Since 2022 she started a close collaboration with choreographer Simon Mayer (AT), between others co-creating their latest work Somatic Tratata: Rhythm, Rapture and Romance which premiered in the frame of Tanzfestival Rhein Main 2022 and is currently touring internationally.