In While We Were Holding It Together, a tribute to the power of the imagination, Ivana Müller subjects notions of body and mind, and the relationship between the two, to a closer inspection. This results in a poetic, humoristic and philosophical production that draws the audience into Müller’s clear logic. While We Were Holding It Together creates images in becoming, always changing, depending on who is looking. Is it a rock band on tour? A picnic in the forest? A hotel room in Bangkok? We look, imagine and re-invent while searching for what is hidden and for what we want to see.

Created in 2006, the piece has been shown more than 70 times in festivals and venues in Europe, the United States and Asia. In 2007, While We Were Holding It Together won two prizes at Impulse Festival (DE). The jury of this internationally renowned festival awarded the performance with the first prize for the best off-theater production as well as the prize of the Goethe Institute.

The piece was also nominated for the 2007 VSCD mime-prize, which is the annual prize of the collaboration of Dutch theaters and concert halls for the best show of the year in the category of physical theater.

The piece exists in the original English version and, since November 2008, also in a French version.

Concept, direction: Ivana Müller

Performance: Katja Dreyer/Sarah van Lamsweerde/ Albane Aubry, Pere Faura/Ricardo Santana/ Arnaud Cabias, Karen Røise Kielland/ Hester van Hasselt/Anne Lenglet, Stefan Rokebrand/Jobst Schnibbe/ Geert Vaes/ Sébastien Chatelier, Jefta van Dinther/Bill Aitchison/ Julien Fallée – Ferré

Text : Ivana Müller, Bill Aitchison, Katja Dreyer, Pere Faura, Karen Røise Kielland, Stefan Rokebrand, Jefta Dinther.
Artistic advice : Bill Aitchison
Sound design : Steve Heather
Light design & technics : Martin Kaffarnik

While We Were Holding It Together is produced by LISA and I’M’COMPANY, in co-production with Sophiensaele Berlin (DE), Productiehuis Rotterdam / Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL), Dubbelspel (30CC and STUK Kunstencentrum Leuven, BE).

This project is financially supported by the Nederlands Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten and the Mondriaan Stichting.

About the Artist:

Ivana Müller is a choreographer, artist and author of texts. She grew up in Croatia but most of her life lived and worked as a foreigner.

Müller’s dance and theatre performances, installations, text works, video-lectures, audio pieces, guided tours and web works have been presented in venues and festivals such as Rotterdamse Schouwburg, STUK Leuven, brut Vienna, Frascati Theater Amsterdam, Kampnagel Hamburg, La Villette Paris, Wiener Festwochen, Theatertreffen Berlin, DTW New York, National Museum of Singapore, Saddler’s Wells London, Springdance Festival Utrecht, HAU Berlin, Centre nationale de danse Paris,  Kaaitheater Brussels (for a more extensive list of works and  venues please look at the page WORKS).

Some of the recurring subjects in Müller’s work are body and it’s representation, self-invention, place of imaginary and imagination, notion of authorship and the relationship between performer and spectator.

In 2007 Müller received the Charlotte Koehler Prize from the Prins Bernhard Funds (NL) for her œuvre, as well as Impulse Festival and Goethe Institute Prize for her piece While We Were Holding It Together.

Ivana Müller is one of the founding members of LISA (2004 – 2009), a collaborative production and discursive platform based in Amsterdam.

Ivana Müller lives in Paris and Amsterdam and works internationally.

References

Maaike Bleeker: Thinking Through Theatre
Published in Deleuze and Performance.
Edited by Laura Cull, Edinburgh University Press, 2009

Maaike Bleeker. “You Better Think!. Het denk-theater van Ivana Müller en Carly Wijsz/Ryszart Turbiasz” in:
Theater Topics 2: De Maker als onderzoeker.
Edited by Maaike Bleeker, Lucia van Heteren, Chiel Kattenbelt and Kees Vuyk. Amsterdam University Press,  2006

Jörg Huber/Gesa Zimer/Simon Zumsteg: Archipele des Imaginären
Institut für Theorie(ith) und Voldemeer AG, Zürich
Springer-Verlag Wien New York, 2009

Ramsay Burt: History, Memory, and the Virtual in Current European Dance Practice
Published in:  Dance Chronicle, Volume 32, Issue 3 September 2009 , pages 442 – 467 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a916957751&db=all

Working Titles – etcetera (in Dutch)

Working Titles -  der Standard

Working Titles – Trouw

Working Titles – Corpus

Working Titles – Volkskrant

Playing Ensemble Again And Again – Ballet-Tanz International

Playing Ensemble Again And Again – Volkskrant

While We Were Holding It Together - Theatercentraal

While We Were Holding It Together - Rotterdams Dagblad

While We Were Holding It Together - de Morgen

While We Were Holding It Together - radio Klara

While We Were Holding It Together - Inktpot

Jonas Rutgeerts: Onteigende beelden (in Flemish)

Under My Skin – De Standaard

Laura Karreman: ‘There Is More To This Place Than Meets The Eye‘

Under My Skin – De Tijd

How Heavy Are My Thoughts – De Morgen

Laura Karreman: Gewichtige Gedachten (in Dutch)

How Heavy Are My Thoughts – Volume

How Heavy Are My Thoughts – Vjesnik

Ivana Müller: Thoughts Spectacle

Ivana Müller: Letter to Bojana For The Conference On Future

interview for dance-tech.net

interview Novi List

blogs

http://www.festivalier.net/article-ivana-muller-59078245.html

http://reflectionsondance.blogspot.com/2008/09/on-ivana-mullers-while-we-were-holding.html

http://derstandard.at/1265852102924/Brut-Wien-Geschichten-sind-Dummies

http://www.corpusweb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1556&Itemid=35

http://www.corpustoneelkritiek.org/ptj/search.py?s=Ivana+Müller

http://www.arcadi.fr/rendezvous/calendrier.php?seance=230&Arcadi=f8e4eaf20b64680904b801b3b8ed93fb

http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/dance_ivana-muller_0110.htm

http://astudioincoventgarden.blogspot.com/2010/01/ivana-muller-lilian-baylis-studio.html

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article7001984.ece

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/arts/music/27mull.html

http://www.urbanhonking.com/pica/archives/2005/09/how_heavy_are_m.html

http://www.prognosen-ueber-bewegungen.de/en/wise-guys-of-movement/bojana-kunst/

http://www.theatercentraal.nl/weblog/entry/1661/Filosofische_trip_duizelt_met_

http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=GA6EDU0Q

This piece is presented by courtesy of Ivana Muller and partially supported by dance-tech.net 2011 partners: