The Milky Way

INTERACTIVE PLAYING, DANCING AND DISCOVERING FOR BABIES AND THEIR ADULTS

 

“The Milky Way” is a walkable, crawlable, experienceable and tangible installation for the very youngest and their adult companions: Objects, shapes and colors inspire the audience to move freely through the space, wander around, enjoy different perspectives, explore, be active or relax in the soft environment. Each object stimulates the senses in a different way.

 

“The Milky Way” invites audiences ages 6 to 18 months to be part of an immersive, all-senses artistic experience full of color, music and movement. Adults are encouraged to be just as active in the event, supporting their child, following along and sharing the experience.

 

The Milky Way dance installation is exclusively for babies 6-18 months!

 

 

ABOUT “THE MILKY WAY”

 

 

VRUM Performing Arts Collective is back on the trail of the very youngest in their latest research. After the overwhelming success of the last baby production Baja Buf in 2011, Sanja and Till Frühwald decided to create a new interactive performance for the pacifier audience. Interaction and unusual stage concepts are becoming more and more the trademark of the collective, so it plays an essential role in the new production as well. The audience is also again actively involved in the play.

 

This time we were inspired by Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet with its geometric and colored forms or bodies, the editorial of photographer Tim Walker for Dazed & Confused magazine, Erwin Wurm and his deformed bodies, as well as the Japanese Artist Yayoi Kusama and her Polka Dots.

 

 

SHAPES AND BODIES IN MOTION.

 

 

The piece invites the audience to experience and grasp movement and motion in space, with the help of a wide variety of forms that fill the space and are usable and movable. The dancers themselves, some of whom manipulate the bodies and forms, or become them themselves, whether through costume, or through quality of movement, are part of the changing space.

 

The experience in Baja Buf, with our differently shaped beanbags, has shown that the little ones understand very early how objects can be used to change space. The Milky Way again takes place in a space that can be walked on and crawled on, allowing the action to be viewed from all sides. Inspired by the dancing figures and forms of the triadic ballet or the formal language of Erwin Wurm, a crawlable world was created that introduces the youngest children to shapes and colors in a playful and comprehensible way. Giving them the opportunity, through interaction, to set the space in motion and discover the magnificent world around them. At the same time, through interaction, through action and reaction, their own body is perceived as a powerful instrument for changing the environment. As in Baja Buf, in order to initiate a change, the children must take action themselves. Of course, the visual stimuli are provided by the abstract stage concept, but the interaction must come from the participant. The bodies are in that sense only receivers, the change in the space a reaction to the impulse of the baby.

 

 

The dancers Sanja Tropp Frühwald, Gat Goodovitch and the actor Till Frühwald have gone on a quest and together with the musician Oliver Stotz and the costume and set designer Mael Blau created a soft, warm environment filled with large and small objects that encourage touching and discovering, accompanied by exciting and pleasant sounds.

 

 

AUDIENCE COMMENTS

 

“We enjoyed it very much! I highly recommend it! Thank you, it was fantastic.”

 

“My baby and I enjoyed every moment of being your audience, the setting was very calm and appealing, the music was soft and pleasant, and your dance and movements a joy for me and my baby. It really was like visiting another planet.”

 

“Watching this performance was as enjoyable as being served a big ice cream cone…”

 

“So magical! Everything about it! I can’t wait to see it again, it felt like a stimulating mystical embrace!”

 

“The performance had the ideal dose of interaction, communication, independent exploration and new experiences (but not too much either). All in all, a big thumbs up.”