A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS World Premiere Begins Performances At MAI

MAI will present the world premiere of A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS, by Hamburg/Berlin-based artists Sappho Ton Bogataj, Christopher Ramm and Marco Merenda, artists from the fields of choreography, performance, dramaturgy and multimedia composition.

The three creators invite the audience to participate in a dystopic dinner party filled with dirty confessions, stories, tender moments and existential questions about legacy, ageing, and what it means to exist in queer time; detached from the heteronormative cycles of marriage, reproduction, and predetermined milestones. How do you face the void of not following the same path as everyone else? Bogataj, Ramm and Merenda use this transgenerational queer coming of age performance to share their experience.

Two years in the making, this performance is the culmination of common questions, contemplations and fears that arise after turning 30. No longer young, not yet old, it's a time when the weight of expectations and uncertainty become undeniable.

The table serves as both a literal and symbolic stage at the heart of the performance. A place of gathering, confession, and tradition, the table is transformed into a space where vulnerability and humour give way to cathartic conversations. Each artist brings their own comedic sensibility to invert power dynamics and reclaim narratives of ageing and queerness. Difficult topics are addressed, but humour and irony soften their edges.

The performers navigate between moments of intimacy and confrontation where improvisation with the audience blurs the line between performer and spectator. Movement flows between the absurd and the deeply personal—gestures of toasting, reaching, pushing, and pulling morph into abstract expressions of identity, desire, and memory. As the performance evolves, the dinner table is turned into a dancefloor, confessions spill into collective movement, and the boundaries of performance dissolve. This choreographic approach resists linear storytelling, instead embracing a queer temporality where past, present, and future overlap.

The sound design is created by Christopher Ramm, who took inspiration from queer pop anthems, 90s and early 2000's coming of age music and Nirvana-esque grunge sounds to create soundscapes throughout the piece.

Alongside these influences is the concept of  the "hole", which permeates both the choreography and soundscape. A hole as an abyss, a space of transformation, and a fundamental part of the body. Queer pop anthems and bubbly, slimy liquid sounds merge with analogue synthesizers and glitchy nature recordings, creating a synthetic nature hyperpop soundscape.

Ultimately, A HOLE IS A HOLE IS A HOLE IS offers a moment of relief amid today's turbulent landscape for queer folks. It is a celebration of the strange, the unglamorous, and the deeply human aspects of queerness.

Sappho Ton Bogataj (they) is a trans-non-binary dance maker, improviser and  choreographic researcher based in Hamburg/Berlin. In their dance making they summon queer  futurities through hormonal lap dancing, auto fictional love confessions, and the formation of  softboybands. Their practice is deeply rooted in real-time composition as a methodology of non linear and visceral thinking and worlding. Their work is interdisciplinary, political, auto fictional, and  personal. It has been presented at internationally renowned venues such as Kampnagel and Lichthof Theater Hamburg. Their recent works are Love in the Dark [2021] at Kampnagel Hamburg and Spill [2023] at Wartenau 16/Lichthof Theater Hamburg. In 2021, they received the BKM young talent grant for the dance performance [Love in the Dark/Kampnagel] and were one of five artists in residence at K3 Limited Edition/Kampnagel. In 2023, they received production funding from the BKM for the piece [Spill/Lichthof Theatre], in which they found a queer care community aka softboyband. Sappho's practice is deeply rooted in real-time composition as a method of non-linear and visceral thinking and worlding. As a dancer and performer, they most recently collaborated with artists such as Ana Laura Lozza & Barbara Hang, Christopher Ramm & Marco Merenda, Claire Lefèvre, Jeanine Durning and Yolanda Morales. They graduated from the Master's program in Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg in 2021. They studied abroad for a year at the MFA in Dance at Smith College, USA, and completed the one-year contemporary dance training 'Dance Intensive' in Berlin in 2023. In 2023, they received the danceWEB scholarship at the ImPulsTanz Festival and the Dis-Tanz-Solo scholarship. They are currently studying at the BA in Dance, Context, and Choreography at HZT Berlin.

Christopher Ramm (he/she/they) was born in 1992 in Kirchheim unter Teck. They studied Theatre Studies, Politics, Performance Studies and Multi Media Composition in Berlin and Hamburg. They work as a director, performer and sound artist and are part of the performance collectives Girl to Guerilla (Berlin) and SV Szlachta (Hamburg). As a performer Christopher collaborated with Danish-Austrian performance group SIGNA, Jochen Roller and did workshops with artists like Mette Ingvartsen and Antje Pfundtner. As a director they have a focus on working with non professionals like elderly women, security men, sex and drug workers. Their performative works are mostly side specific, installative and immersive and deal with topics like gender, work and power structures and the ethics of technology.

As a composer and soundartist they are working at the crossroads of performance art and electronic/ electroacoustic music. They are playing live as well as producing music for settings ranging from classical stage to installative multichannel set ups. Christopher worked closely with choreographer Yolanda Morales, Meera Theunert and director Marco Merenda. www.christopherramm.com/de

Montreal Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. THE WIZARD OF OZ (The Côte Saint-Luc Dramatic Society)

21.3% of votes

2. LITTLE WOMEN (Starcatcher Productions)

18% of votes

3. COMPANY (Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society)

12.4% of votes

Vote Now!