LUCKY TRIMMER #30

Known for short, high-energy dance performances and programs that love to turn conventions on their head, LUCKY TRIMMER brings a selection of international artists to the stage. The festival presents compact pieces full of ideas, risk, and surprise. The 30th edition takes place at the Gallus Theater in Frankfurt and at DOCK11 / DOCK ART in Berlin, thus connecting two cities known for their vibrant contemporary dance scenes.

Since 2004, this platform for unconventional ideas and bold experiments in contemporary dance has presented the work of both emerging and established artists. The time limit of ten minutes per performance challenges artists to distill their ideas—concisely, directly, and with great impact. Here, the avant-garde meets pop culture, and movement blends with theater, circus, music, and installation art. The result is a curated mix of very different artistic styles. LUCKY TRIMMER was founded in Berlin in 2004 and developed within the city’s vibrant independent dance scene, characterized by experimental energy, artistic openness, and the courage to continually question existing rules. After a hiatus of several years, the festival is now returning to DOCK11. This return feels less like a comeback and more like a homecoming: back to the place where the idea for LUCKY TRIMMER was born.

The anniversary edition, under the artistic direction of choreographer Raffaele Ir, brings together a group of bold artists from around the world, who push boundaries with their work and each bring their own unique perspective on movement, narrative, and performance.

Program:

SOMEBODY’S WATCHING ME MIILA KAARINA (NL) A performative negotiation, a constant tug-of-war between the desire for control and a body that simultaneously longs to let go. On a stage strewn with red buckets—vessels for fear, refuge, and chaos—shame takes on a physical form. Each bucket contains fragments of struggle and protection and marks a carefully constructed yet fragile path in the search for order. The dance unfolds as an exploration of control and surrender, in which vulnerability finds its own rhythm. The boundaries begin to blur: the attempt to let go becomes, at the same time, an attempt to be real. What do we hold on to? What holds us? And when we finally let go—what remains?

• Choreography, Performance: Miila Kaarina

LOVE-LOVE LIOR LAVAROF (IL)

A dance theater piece inspired by the worlds of tennis and war. The starting point is the paradoxical tennis term “love,” which can mean both zero points and devotion. This dual meaning forms the basis for a choreographic language rooted in repetition, endurance, and the tension between control and surrender. The stage transforms into a hybrid space—both a tennis court and a battlefield. Two dancers move between rivalry and partnership, between competition and care. The work explores how gestures of sport evoke gestures of survival and how the desire to win collides with the need for connection. Through physical intensity and subtle playful moments, the fragile balance between choice and necessity, play and struggle, becomes visible. Ultimately, “LOVE-LOVE” asks what remains when victory becomes impossible—and whether love can exist in a space governed by the logic of zero.

• Choreography: Lior Lazarof
• Performance: Omer Tichauer, Romi Faigler
• Costumes: Maayan Sheris
• Music: Elad Cohen Bonen

ALL HONESTY ASIDE ZACH ENQUIST (SWE)

This work is a retelling of that argument you’ve had with your own partner a thousand times—yet you don’t know if it’s really the argument you need to have, or just the one you know, the one that feels familiar. With a distinctive physical language of movement and pointed, sharp wit, the work explores the subtleties of communication and the quiet power of what remains unsaid. Supported by the Mary von Sydow Foundation Fund. Awarded the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship Award at the 39th International Choreography Competition in Hanover (June 2025).

• Choreography: Zach Enquist
• Performance: Zach Enquist, Riley O’Flynn

Wú | Yī (無｜壹) FELIX CHANG (GER)

The dance performance takes up the concept of “public solitude” coined by Konstantin Stanislavski and combines it with spatial concepts from Taoist philosophy. At the heart of the performance is the history of the so-called White Terror in Taiwan—a period of political persecution spanning from February 27, 1947, to July 15, 1987. The work refers to the fate of Shih Ru-Chen, who was persecuted by the government during this time after being accused of espionage for reading Marxist literature. To avoid arrest, he lived in hiding for nearly eighteen years in the cramped spaces of his own home. Despite this isolation, he held fast to the conviction that ideas were the true expression of his freedom.

• Choreography, Performance: Felix Chang

LIF CLAUDIO SCALIA (IT)

The universe bends under the weight of Ragnarök: Three long winters shroud the world in ice, followed by three devastating battles that reduce everything to ashes. From the ruins, Líf and Lífthrasir awaken from their hiding place among the roots of Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree that has preserved the spark of life beyond the destruction. Their journey, marked by fear and uncertainty, leads them into a future that has yet to be built. The two figures become symbols of continuity and hope. At the center of a shattered universe, they demonstrate that even in moments of utter destruction, new life can emerge. Líf celebrates the resilience of life and reminds us that after every ending, there is room for a new beginning—rebuilt step by step.

• Choreography: Claudio Scalia
• Performance: Ismaele Buonvenga, Marco Di Dato
• Music: Danheim, Asaf Avidan
• Technical direction: Sammy Torrisi
• Dramaturgy: Claudio Scalia, in collaboration with Sergio Campisi

COPPÉLIA PROJECT CATERINA MOCHI SISMONDI (IT)

A mechanical doll, an illusion, a broken body—out of balance, suspended like a marionette. This solo explores the theme of identity and the masks we wear in everyday life. Inspired by the ballet “Coppélia – La Fille aux Yeux d’Émail” (1870), originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to music by Léo Delibes, dancer and acrobat Elisa Tutto combines classical dance movements with contortion—the art of extreme bending—as well as the circus technique of hair hanging. In this unique technique, the performer rises from the floor into the air using only her hair—made possible by the work of rigger and artist Michelangelo Merlati. The music is by Bea Zanin, who draws on motifs from Delibes’ ballet and combines them with electronic sounds and live compositions.

• Choreography: Caterina Mochi Sismondi
• Music: Bea Zanin
• Performance: Elisa Mutto
• Rigger: Michelangelo Merlati