Photo: © Lys Y. Seng
Premiere 25 Oct 2024 — EinTanzHaus Mannheim
Together with his team, Jonas Frey explores the relationship between dance and music within a pop-cultural context in GROOVE.
Photo: © Lys Y. Seng
Club- and street dances are intrinsically intertwined with music: dancing to music, and music created to dance to. This interplay and relationship are presented, questioned, and decoded. The approach, however, goes beyond examining urban dance as an art form and incorporates the personal experiences of the audience as potential dancers in a club, at a party, or at home.
The collective memory that emerges is reinforced through familiar movement patterns and recognizable music, with a focus on each individual's personal groove, their unique way of moving to music. Associative stories and memories arise through watching and listening, while at the same time a space opens for personal perception, shaped by silence, danced fragments, sampling, and the transformation of both music and movement. Accompanied by a vibraphonist, the choreography of the three dancers unfolds with a sense of pull, almost like being drawn into a current. GROOVE is dedicated to our urge to move to music, while also searching for that moment in dancing when we forget everything around us.
A production by Jonas Frey. Supported by the State Association of Independent Dance and Theatre Makers Baden-Württemberg, funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, and the Cultural Office of the City of Mannheim. Developed at Inter-Actions Studio. In cooperation with EinTanzHaus.
Jonas Frey is a choreographer, dancer and dance educator rooted in hip-hop and breaking, based in Mannheim. His artistic practice is shaped by co-creation — together with Julie Pécard, he founded COTA projects in 2025 as a platform for creation and collaboration.
More about Jonas Frey →
info@jonas-frey.com
+49 179 795 2005
Mannheim, Germany