What happens when a Chemist, Molecular Biologist, and a Behavioral Scientist turn to their artistic expression and join with other dancers and musicians to explore and express the message of LISTROS GALLERIE in Berlin?

Tuesday 15.04.2014
18:00 Uhr
St. Matthäus-Kirche at Kulturforum | Matthäikirchplatz | 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten 

a part of the 2. BERLINER GLANZWERKE
An Initiative from LISTROS e.V. in collaboration with the Foundation St. Matthäus,
Cultural Foundation of the Protestant Church Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz

Tickets 12€ & 10€ reduced rate
[reserve tickets by emailing mail@listros.de]

Stepping - Out of the Box
A Dance Theatre collaboration, 'Stepping - Out of the Box' is an exploration of the significance of Work and Character as agents of growth and inspiration. This thought-provoking, poetic Dance Theatre program employs original live music as well as beautiful imagery and movement to honor the light in every conscious, work of a loving heart.

Following the old Christian tradition of veiling the altar before Easter, Berlin-based LISTROS GALLERIE art initiative will install 3.500 shoe shine boxes from Ethiopia to cover the altar at St. Matthäus-Kirche in central Berlin. In Ethiopia, teenage shoe shiners and their boxes are called Listro - after the Italian lustro, "make shiny, spread gloss". The art installation calls for a change of perspective and for overcoming prejudices about the Listros as the "poorest of the poor" and socially humiliated, although the contribute greatly to society with the "shining jobs."

"Out of the Box" as an expression is usually employed to describe the action of daring to be dissimilar. It may also describe a person who refuses to completely give up and mimic the prevalent fashion of her times. 'Out of the Box is also an expression that describes non conformal, creative thinking. In this case the expression is used as a symbolic way to denote the bringing out the best of self, from the depths of our heart and our consciousness.

In every seed there is all of needed information In every heart there is all of creative hope When there is light in our heart, all of the space surrounding becomes luminous The 'emergence' of colors produces the brightest of lights Out every individual 'box' there is a shining beam into the future When we dream of future full of love and kindness, we also may reveal our inner light.  Only by bringing out your unconscious nature, your deep nature, you may approach the Divine. -Toni Bravo

This is a collaboration between Toni Bravo, award winning Dancer/Choreographer, and Russ Smith, film maker and composer, in partnership with an international dance community.

We take educational influences of dancers such as Pina Basuch, Zena Rommett, Maggie Black, Jennifer Muller, and Michael Jahoda blended with the classical musical influence of Arvo Pärt and various African musical influences as well as modern day folk rock - Blend it all up into a unique and powerful program that will bring your heart to new places and your mind to deeper understanding of the Listros and their world.

In this way Stepping - Out of the Box brings together artistic expression and social change activism in order to raise awareness about Human Rights issues throughout our global dynamics. We create an eloquent tribute to an endangered resource that sustains us, 'hard work' as character builder and builder of community.

Dance:
Toni Bravo (USA)
Mariam Ribón (Ireland)
MariaGiulia Serantoni (Italy)
Claudia Albrecht (Germany)

Music:
Christoph Hillmann
Meike Goosmann
Anna Vierling
Russ Smith

	Maria Antonieta (Toni) Bravo originally from Mexico City has studied and performed throughout the planet before she settled in Austin, Texas. Most notably she studied in London at the Royal Academy of Dance and the Imperial Society of Dance, with Ruth French, John Field and Dame Ninette de Valois. In New York she worked with Zena Rommett, Maggie Black, Jennifer Muller, and Michael Jahoda. Her work with Pina Bausch's company in Wuppertal had great impact on her professional life as a dancer. In the USA she has performed with Ballet Austin, Ballet Memphis, Discovery Dance, and The Early Dance Institute. She is founder of the Diverse Space Dance Theatre (1995). Austin Chronicle awarded her 'best choreographer' three years in a row. Her youth company travels every year to perform and study in the Irish Youth Dance Festival and at LISTROS, Berlin. Ms. Bravo is also a full time faculty member for the Ballet Austin Academy where she also directs the Dance in Education continuous projects taught in AISD schools. With her curriculum on dance and movement classes in schools "Leaps and no Bounds" she taught in the USA as well as in Europe. Her work consists of different dance and dance theatre styles including Modern/Contemporary Dance, Musical Theatre, Ballet, and Dances and Rhythms from different sectors in the World.
	Mariam Ribón originally from Spain, moved to Dublin late 1995. As a professional dancer she has worked with New Balance Dance Co., Daghdha Dance Co., MaNDaNCe, Cois Céim, Opera Ireland, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Shakram Dance Company and with Catherine Young Dance Co in early April 2014 amongst others. She graduated with First Class Honours in her Master in Contemporary Dance Performance at UL. Since 2003 she is the Artistic Director of the Dublin Youth Dance Company and the Irish Youth Dance Festival. Her choreographies have been seen in Ireland, UK, Czech Republic, Spain, Germany and USA. In January 2014, Mariam was commissioned to create a dance piece for Diverse Space Dance Theatre, in Austin, Texas. Though Dublin Youth Dance Company, Mariam is continuously exploring opportunities for youth dance in Ireland; also she created a cultural exchange between DYDC and Debla Danza from Spain. Mariams style is fluid and dynamic, her movement has an emotional response to the space, the music and sounds and the concept or idea behind the piece. She is a believer of creating your own path by following the energies of people and places that are in harmony to your own energy. Nothing should be forced, not even dance... Mariam is very exited to be performing at the Lystros Art Gallery in Berlin.
	MariaGiulia Serantoni was born in 1987 in Busto Arsizio, Italy. She started dancing at the age of 9 at Chorea Studios in Bologna where she first approached Graham and Limòn Techniques. In 2009 she received a Dance-Theater Postgraduate Diploma in Paolo Grassi School of Drama, Milan, Italy. In the same year she founded the Fattoria Vittadini Dance Company, sprouted from the Paolo Grassi artistic environment. The Company was born with the idea of hosting different artists to work with the established group. Interesting collaborations came out of this concept as My true self,project created in 2010 directed by Maya Weinberg and performed in differents international Festivals. In 2012 the company counts another appealing collaboration with Matanicola Company which gave birth to intervention #1, 2, 3 performed in Milano and Les Grand Traversèe Festival in Bordeaux. The mutual interest of both comes from the desire to structure different creational appointments based on the same score line with the goal to create a piece. In 2010 she attendended the Modem Atelier Course, a six month professional training at Roberto Zappalà Dance Company in Catania. In the year after she produced a solo called Whatami performed in various Festivals and worked as freelancer for different companies as Samotracia Dance-Theater and Shuko Company. Keeping her italian artistic activities, she is currently living in Berlin involved in a research project with Labor Gras under the direction of Renate Graziadei and Arthur Stäldi.
	Claudia Albrecht is a dancer, theatre pedagogue and psychologist born in a little village in the south of Germany now living in Berlin. After being trained in classical ballet with the Royal Academy of Dancing she went on studying other dance forms and approaches to movement. Amongst others she worked with Louise Lecavallier, Lior Lev, Joe Alegado, Marco Santi or Jermaine Brown. Dancing, performing and acting in a variety of ensembles, collaborations and projects, she was inspired by intuitive and imaginary techniques while studying theatre. Her passion for these techniques led her to Israel and a residency with the Gaga Movement Language. Her research on the work with imagination in Performing Arts "Die 'Bildung' der Vorstellung" has been published in 2013. As a teacher she worked as a movement trainer for actors as well as with kids and adult so called‚ non-dancers'. She's driven by the curiosity to learn, experience and get new impulses on dance and got in touch with Toni Bravo and the "Out of the Box" project in 2013.
	Christoph Hillmann - studied at the Conservatory Arnhem and finished with a degree as music teacher and concert exam. As a drummer, he was awarded prizes at the Jazz Festival Leipzig, Euro Jazz Brussels, Jazz Festival Münster and the Leverkusen Jazz Days. His productions SUBLIM III and ROOMS RESTORED received an ECHO JAZZ in 2012/13, and the ensemble TRIA Lingvo was honored with the New German Jazz Award in 2014. Christoph Hillmann describes the shoeshine boxes - the material of the LISTROS art project MOVING BOXES - as a resonator in the physical and spiritual sense . "What fascinates me about the boxes ist the feeling of equality and difference, distance and proximity, individual and collective power and their role as ambassadors, " says Christoph Hillmann . Christoph Hillmann composed the "Hymn for Listros" for a diatonic kalimba and "1000 Steps" for the Udu. In his music he symbolizes the individual qualities of the boxes, their former owners and the encounters with their customers. [christoph-hillmann.de]
	Meike Goosmann (Reeds, composition), hailing from a classical tradition and influenced early on by jazz music, Meike Goosmann studied jazz and popular music at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Based in Berlin she performs within the German music scene and is inspired by the cooperation of artists from different art disciplines. These include Portuguese bass virtuoso Carlos Bica, pianist Julia Hülsmann, composer Hazel Leach, actress Hannelore Elsner, dancer Tabea Tettenborn and poet Ewa Boura. >As a composer Meike Goosmann focusses primarily on her leading role within the Meike Goosmann quintet and published her second CD "Tender Tales" in 2013. She also performs with the Marching BrassAppeal quartet, the trio Lézarde and the Composers' Orchestra Berlin. [meikegoosmann.de]
	Anna Vierling is a psychologist and musician from Berlin. Born in 1981 in former West-Berlin, to an East-German mother and US-american father, she was raised bilingually at home and at an international public school. Building bridges between cultures has been a common theme not only in her personal life but also in her career as an educational psychologist. Here she has developed and conducted violence prevention programs with children of all age groups, giving workshops to teachers and chaperones of extra-curricular activities. Inspired by the movie "Rhythm is it!" she conducted an evaluative study of a Berlin based choreography project for children of different cultural backgrounds "Tanzzeit", thereby providing this project with the scientific perspective necessary for funding. She currently holds a research and teaching position for educational psychology at the Humboldt University Berlin. Anna Vierling started to sing before she could speak. She took up playing the piano at the age of eleven and continued to teach herself by ear. Throughout her life she has sung with musicians from across the globe, the styles ranging from Jazz to Soul to Rock to Folk. In 2008 she joined the acoustic-pop band "String Theory" and started exploring song-writing. In 2013 she began playing solo concerts of her own material, also lending material to beneficial concerts (for example a medical aid concert for children in Syria). With her lyrics she tries to strip the human spirit of all its guards, thereby uncovering the fragility common to all people. With her warm and intense voice and sensitive interpretations she creates an intimate feel that surely moves any audience. In building a bridge of soulful understanding between the listeners, her hope for this event is to help LISTROS e.V. lay another brick for a bridge of compassion to Ethiopia.
	Russ C. Smith originally from Texas now based in Berlin is a freelancer producing and creating Media Arts, Film, Video and Photography. He holds a degree in Molecular Biology and worked in Medical Science for more than a decade. His fascination for exploring the relations between form and behavior compelled him to work as a producer in arts and music. He directs, creates and produces with artists of all fields, mindsets and nationalities. Russ also designs and creates interactive and multimedia exhibitions shown in the USA and in Europe. In his years of traveling the world he worked on numerous social projects. Amongst others he was assisting Sister Helen Prejean in her Moratorium Campaign, and worked directly with the Deaf and Hard Hearing communities as well as volunteering at a clinic in Bali, Indonesia. [ChocolateMedia.de]