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Sergiu Matis: Neverendings, Season 1&2. 24.08.2018, Tanznacht, Tanzfabrik Wedding/Uferstudios, Berlin.

Many artists employ “labor” as a theatrical device that enables them to weave a wide range of concepts and politics into their work, but few do it as thoroughly as Sergiu Matis’s abridged three-and-a-half-hour opus neverendings (Season 1&2) featuring the 100-year span since the October Revolution. The range of “industrious” scores and movement qualities affected me insofar that they were uncomplicated physical representations of a recognizable thing – dance can be effective when it is stupid, as in you dance the thing and we all see it and it’s funny because it’s literally productive, beautifully coherent, admirably executed, and we remain in it together. Like the communist dream, „baby.“

“All gender non-conforming people, gender non-conforming grandparents, women, and men rise up!” but honestly the seemingly random or off-topic insertion of gender politics made me feel like the audience was given permission to laugh at the apparent joke of gender non-conformance.

I stayed very much involved and engaged in this long-ass show, and the seamless dramaturgy, the half-time vodka, the humble yet Seven Sister-esque cardboard stage design, and the parallel between the performers adrenaline levels and the rise and fall of the Soviet empire indicate a kind of mastery I want more of.