HELLZAPOPPIN': What About The Bees?

American choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer is one of the most influential artistic figures of the last fifty years and an important innovator in various disciplines, from dance and film to feminist theory and poetry. As a founding member of the Judson Dance Theatre in New York — an informal experimental collective that shaped post-modern dance in the 1960s — Rainer was one of the leading figures of a generation that revolutionized the conventions of dance and performance by redefining how to deal with banal, everyday actions and tasks such as standing still, walking and running.

Her work HELLZAPOPPIN': What about the bees? touches on worlds of text, experimental film and choreography and reflects America's ongoing struggle with systemic racism. Based on Rainer's previous performances, it combines text, dance and film excerpts from two classics: the Hollywood musical HELLZAPOPPIN' from 1941 and the short film Zero for Conduct by French author Jean Vigo from 1993.

Yvonne Rainer has announced that HELLZAPOPPIN': What about the bees? It will be their “last dance.” The work represents the culmination of over 60 years of activity in the fields of choreography, filmmaking, writing and teaching, which form an iconic body of work that has had a lasting impact on generations of artists in the USA and internationally. Gorky is all the more pleased to be able to present this special guest performance in Berlin.