With HIDUADREI, choreographers and dancers Yui Kawaguchi and Ruben Reniers open the year at DOCK11 with a multi-layered triple-bill about time, fire, and distance. This revival brings together three distinct works that re-examine cultural traditions from a contemporary perspective and place themes such as time, transformation, truth, and social distance at the center.

The evening opens with Mis-sing One by Yui Kawaguchi. Inspired by the Japanese folklore of Tsukumogami, in which objects develop consciousness and a soul after one hundred years, the solo unfolds as a poetic reflection on aging as a force that connects all living beings. With subtle humor and a precise movement language, Kawaguchi explores transformation and transience. A light object developed and programmed by Fabian Bleisch appears as an autonomous partner in dialogue, intensifying the interplay of time and change.

In SINTA x DAHANA, Ruben Reniers and Indonesian composer and musician Bilawa Ade Respati explore Sinta’s trial by fire from the Ramayana. Fire appears here as an ambivalent force between destruction and purification, truth and power. The piece combines ritual remembrance with contemporary questions and develops a striking visual and acoustic presence.

The evening concludes with DisTanz, awarded as part of the retrospective Der Faust 20/21. Originally created as an artistic response to social distancing, the work has gained new relevance today against the backdrop of social polarisation. In a condensed stage space, rods function as symbols of both connection and separation—of protection and control, closeness and exclusion. At its core are questions of touch, intimacy, and solidarity.