A New Dance Piece by Reut Shemesh
Premiere 21.11.2025, Performance, tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf
BUT YOU PROMISED.
Anger, Androids, Ritual. Motherhood.
In her latest work, choreographer Reut Shemesh and her team conjure up the figure of the mother as a hybrid of a dragon, cyborg, and a nourisher: fierce and resilient, unapologetic and often tired.
A body of contradictions: exhausted yet unstoppable, fragile yet unyielding.
Shemesh collaborates with performers of various genders, ages, and life experiences to challenge traditional views of motherhood. Personal stories clash with societal stereotypes and clichés that often define motherhood, exposing the gap between lived reality and idealized roles. She explores the ambivalence of bringing a child into a brutal world, the desire to find purpose through motherhood, and the emotional weight of mirrored identities and gendered expectations within mother-daughter relationships.
ELECTRAS – extends her exploration of the theme that originally started with her piece „Bad Mothers” (2022), commissioned by the Oberhausen Theatre.
Credits
Choreography, Artistic direction: Reut Shemesh
Performance: Paula Pau, Lucija Romanova, Brit Rodemund, Beatrix Trisha Simkó, Enis Turan
Rehearsal Director & Assistant: Katja Pire
Music: Simon Bauer
Costumes: Andrea Barba
Stage- and lighting design; video: Ronni Shendar
Graphics: Florian Egermann
PR: Anna Luella Zahner
Production: Sabina Stücker
Financial Management: transmissions GmbH
ELECTRAS is a production by Reut Shemesh in co-production with tanzhaus nrw, supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The Reut Shemesh Company is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia within the framework of the Spitzenförderung and by the multi-year project funding of the City of Cologne | Cultural Office.
Duration: 60 Min.
Upcoming & Past Performances:
- 21.11.2025, *Premiere*, 20:00 , tanzhaus nrw, DE
- 22.11.2025, 20:00, tanzhaus nrw, DE
- 23.11.2025, 18:00, tanzhaus nrw, DE