Tipping Point

Tipping Point is a breathtaking balancing act, in which six performers confront a big, barely containable hemispherical object.

The object looks like a broken-off piece of a shipwreck or a piece of space junk. As soon as the six climb it, it tilts and they have to react immediately to stay upright. This instability increases both their vulnerability and their dependence on each other; every movement has an effect on the object and on each other.

The performers search for balance – of the object and of their mutual relationships – but discover that they mercilessly collide with the limits of their individual freedoms. Only by surrendering to the laws of gravity and each other can they play the object and stay upright. Only by working together can they find perfect balance and control for a moment.

Tipping Point is a challenging performance about dependency, changing power relations and large uncontrollable elements. With a unique, powerful language on the border between dance and acrobatics, full of risks, Panama Pictures knows how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

The movements are accompanied, propelled, magnified or even weakened by a specially composed musical composition that is at times larger than life, but at other times emphasises the emptiness and makes the intimacy of the performers palpable.

Tipping Point is a co-production of Panama Pictures, LOFFT – DAS Theater (Leipzig) and Strijbos & van Rijswijk.

PIA MEUTHEN
‘We live in unstable times and it is becoming increasingly clear how much we are globally dependent on each other: every decision has an impact, sometimes the consequences of our actions (or the lack of action) can be felt on the other side of the world. Tipping Point questions our individual freedom and collective responsibility.’

ABOUT PANAMA PICTURES
With Panama Pictures, award-winning choreographer Pia Meuthen is developing an authentic signature: unpolished and raw, in which dance, circus and music flow into each other with a natural suppleness. With its cross-border language, Panama Pictures is a pioneer in the Netherlands and a welcome guest abroad.

Panama Pictures creates sensory theatre with a very powerful, sometimes downright spectacular but nevertheless refined movement language, in which dance and acrobatics naturally flow into each other. Choreographer Pia Meuthen translates literary and philosophical sources of inspiration into poetic images and knows how to touch her audience with the human appearance of the whole. She shows worlds that are recognisable to the audience but also always offer room for personal interpretation.

In the work of Panama Pictures, the movement enters into a challenging dialogue with architectural decors. The objects and spaces created by permanent designer Sammy van den Heuvel not only determine the atmosphere but also form a challenge, obstacle and motivation for the performers, who explore the boundaries of what is possible. As a spectator, you feel the impact of the movements and the risks that the performers take. Something is at stake here.