UNCHARTED

Joy is not inherently given - it emerges only under fragile conditions. In UNCHARTED, a group of friends passes through a rupture in time at an ordinary train station and enters the Sphere, a nonlinear space where past and present overlap. Within this unstable terrain, choreographer Karolin Stächele and her DAGADA dance company reveal fleeting moments of purposeless joy, detached from productivity, success, and permanence.

Between synchrony and disintegration, the dancers explore how time and collectivity can be continuously reconfigured. Through transitions reminiscent of zoom in, temporal overlap, and jump cut, they distort institutional time and re-enter spaces of memory. Time no longer moves linearly, but expands, overlaps, and fractures. Within these ruptures, the performers recalibrate present actions, emotions, and sensations. The past is encountered anew, revealing the present not as fixed, but as something still in the making.

In a world governed by anxiety, efficiency, and survival, Karolin Stächele unfolds the question of how much joy we are still capable of experiencing and imagining.

UNCHARTED is a production by DAGADA dance company in co-production with E-WERK Freiburg. The project is funded by the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V. with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg, and the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). Realised through the residency programme of Tanzlabor at ROXY Ulm and the Réseau GRAND LUXE network with the special support of the dance division of Theater Freiburg.

Artistic direction, concept & choreography: Karolin Stächele
Concept & dramaturgy: So Young H. Kim
Co-creation & performance: Marcella Centenero, Olivia Grassot, Paco  Ladrón de Guevara, Paolo Chiarenza
Music composition & production: Paul Tinsley
Light design: Tim Weseloh
Stage design: Johanna Kaudewitz
Production assistance: Liese Demol, Sarah Minarik
Graphic design: Belçim Yavuz
Press: Christine Eyssel
Graphic design: Belçim Yavuz
Photography: MiNZ&KUNST PHOTOGRAPHY
Video: Harry Delgas, De-Da Productions, Yanick Lampe, Raphael Federer