VALESKA GERT – THE ANIMAL SHOW

Valeska Gert, given name Gertrud Valesca Samosch, was born in Berlin in 1892. During the 1920s the Jewish actress was one of the most important dadaist dancers in Berlin. After the Nazi takeover, Gert’s art was described as degenerate, so she left the country. Decried in the US as »a disgrace to the entire emigration«, this eternally de-integrated person staggered between stations of exile and remained, quite literally, unfathomable. As a re-migrant she returned to Berlin after the war. Actress, writer, and musician, as well as boundary breaking personified, Marina Frenk summons Gert out of her pink coffin and puts her back on the boards through dance and story in our post-post-post-dadaist period.

The production premiered during the Radikale Jüdische Kulturtage 2017 (funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa)

After the show Celan mit der Axt

Photos © Stefan Loeber