Kareth Schaffer

• Fellow 2018
• Choreographer, based in Berlin
• Cooperating partner: Evie Suyadnyani and Vaughan Hatch, Mekar Bhuana Centre for Classical Balinese Gamelan and Dance, Indonesia

Kareth Schaffer
Mekar Bhuana Centre for Classical Balinese Gamelan and Dance

Kareth Schaffer is a freelance choreographer and performer. She was named Tanz magazines greatest hope of 2016 and develops her subtly conceptual, ambiguous and mostly humorous works in Berlin together with her long-time collaborators. These works include "Unheard Of" (2016), “Dirty Money Mudwrestling (2015) and the dance mystery musical "An Animal Went Out" (2016). Schaffer studied dance at HZT Berlin and European ethnology at HU Berlin. In addition to her choreographic works she can be seen as a performer for deufert & plischke, Tino Sehgal, and Stefanie Wenner. Schaffer teaches at the UdK Berlin and regularly gives guest performances in Germany and abroad. She is currently engaged in "Cassandra Has Turned" with the scorned Seherin Kassandra (Premiere Sophiensaele Berlin 04.2018).

Kareths' reports

„It was interesting to see in Schaffer’s letter that she had such a strong feeling for Balinese dance, and to note her own surprise that she had learnt about this dance just recently in her life though having grown up in the Netherlands, which has a strong history with Indonesia. Her own work displays a conceptual approach, and strong theatrical elements combined with movement, we were struck by her desire to “tell stories” through dance and her notion that dance is not a very good medium to tell stories: Balinese dance revolves around telling stories! This partnership is exciting for many reasons: The distance that separates Kareth’s dance training and cultural environment from her chosen place of immersion promises a plunge into a totally new world, with all the stimulation, challenges and discovery such a journey will trigger on multiple levels, be it pure movement i.e. how you think and feel the movement, what typer of muscle structure is needed, to what motivates movement, and what it seeks to convey, express and portray, through specifically codified tools. We are very curious to see what will be the outcome in Kareth’s work and life, from this totally different approach to dance, movement and storytelling.“

- Jury-Statement