Tanzquartier Wien

Discomfort and happiness are two human sensations that are not necessarily related to each other. Except maybe when eating spicy foods, taking a ride on a roller coaster – or consuming high-quality heroin. A feeling of dizziness after shooting up, which may even cause vomiting, is supposed to be a mark of quality as well as a side effect of the opioid. According to some insiders, the higher the quality and the purer the substance, the more violent the reaction of the bowels and sensory organs.

Moments of euphoria, a release of the body’s own endorphins and great ecstasy can also be achieved in ways that are gentler on the body, though. Through sex. Through music. Through sport.

Fans and followers of techno culture are familiar with the moment of bliss spreading through the body after a night that leaves the auditory canals and muscles strained. When the pavement doesn’t stop spinning on the way home and you experience exhaustion, happiness and relaxation at the same time. It’s similar to the feeling you get after attending the performance Ghost Writer and The Broken Hand Break by and featuring Miet Warlop: an insane dance trip, a physical borderline experience whose effect doesn’t fail to hit the audience’s sensory systems – dance, techno and religion, concentrated into a few minutes on the stage of Tanzquartier.

Wheel of Fortune

Three performers are rotating counterclockwise around their own body axis for 45 minutes – apparently effortlessly. The whole room is shrouded in darkness, three spots from the ceiling light the stage, framing the action. This is accompanied by pulsating beats that condense from experimental electronic music to an unrestrained Berghain techno beat in the blink of an eye – only to suddenly and uncompromisingly transform into a musical hybrid reminiscent of the music of Einstürzende Neubauten, the energy of punk bands like Suicide and the subversive power of Peaches in her early years. Plus mantra-like chants. As if that wasn’t enough, the three performers themselves start to play all kinds of instruments during the seemingly perpetual revolving dance: they strum the guitar and beat cymbals and tom-tom drums with sticks. The devices are handed to the performers by assistants during the non-stop spinning dance with utmost precision and caution.

Meanwhile, you sit motionless in the circle of chairs surrounding the space of the action and follow the three performers with twitching eye movements as they move progressively faster or slower. The beats bury themselves into the tiniest pore, so that the hairs on your body stand on end. You are aware of a great transfer of energy, think that you can feel each heavy breath, are in tune with each movement the performers make. You feel discomfortable when not only the dancers but also the light cones and the entire performance start spinning, as they come dangerously close to the circle of chairs where the visitors sit. The boundaries between the stage and the audience seem to have dissolved, and every single moment of the performance oscillates between control and loss of control. Watching the spectacle, your own brain also switches to a kind of trance mode: all your thoughts go blank in an instant. In their stead, the most colourful images appear, stored a long time ago deep in the convolutions of the brain: a glistening, warm summer night at a music festival, heavy guitar sounds in the air. A walk in the forest in the winter mist. An exciting night out in a light-filled city. Moments when you felt free. Perhaps this is how you experience those famous last seconds before death, when the most memorable images of your life are played back again in rapid succession: the wheel of life, the eternal cycle, everything keeps on turning.

“Music is a means of rapid transportation”, the composer John Cage once said. Music has the power to put us humans in a different mood in a matter of seconds, experiencing different cultures, other spheres, new universes. And the wise musician Patti Smith formulated a recipe for inner peace: “Put away your cell phones, put everything away, and feel your blood pulsing in you, feel your creative impulses, feel your own spirit, your heart, your mind. Feel the joy of being alive and free.”

The search for this kind of freedom is also the underlying stimulus for the revolving dance of the dervishes, which served as inspiration for Ghost Writer and The Broken Hand Break: spinning in a circle to the point of ecstasy in their ceremonies, they themselves become a rotating wheel, the centre of the universe. Music, dance, body and heartbeat merge in rhythm. The revolving dance is a “ladder to heaven” and a concentration on the present; or, according to the principle of Tawhid, the doctrine of the unity of all that exists, the possibility of achieving “oneness with God” – the ultimate goal in life. It’s a well-known fact that getting there takes a lot of effort. To conquer the inner self, the ego, the interfering mind, all barriers must be removed and broken down.
Whether in a night club, at religious ceremonies or in the theatre: unforgettable moments, bliss, freedom, great art and transcendence await only on the fine line between discomfort and devotion. Moments that we humans strive for and want to bring about in all cultures – just as plants turn their shoots towards the sun and the sky.

“Break the hand brake and roll the wheels” is what you take with you from the musical performance as a call to action, a catchy mantra; and a dash of happiness as a result of simply watching it and being part of it. A massive loss of control – in the best sense.

Alexandra Augustin is a journalist working as a presenter and member of the editorial staff at ORF radio stations FM4 and Ö1. In addition to her work at ORF (Austria’s national public radio), Augustin has also written articles for various magazines, e.g. DATUM, the Austrian women’s magazine WIENERIN and the feminist monthly an.schläge. The focus of her editorial work is on music, art & culture and ways of life. She studied video art, performative art and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.