Constantin Trommlitz | Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica | Robert Ssempijja

K3 RESIDENCY: OPEN STUDIO

The K3 residency brings three choreographers from all over the world to the dance studios in Hamburg for eight months. For one evening, the studio doors are opened to give an insight into the choreographers' work: Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica takes on the Venezuelan couple dance Joropo to celebrate the relationship to the feminine; Robert Ssempijja explores the architecture of Kampala and its lasting legacy from the city's colonial past; Constantin Trommlitz explores the experiences of dancers inside and outside the breakdance scene to come to terms with his own chronic pain.

Participation is free of charge, tickets must be booked in advance

Constantin Trommlitz

is a German dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker based in Amsterdam. With a background in Break Dance and after competing for many years in the battle scene, he performed as a dancer for different Dutch companies. In 2021, he started to create his own work, always ranging between dance and film. Currently, Constantin is seeking the development of his choreographic language and the research of (chronic) pain through movement. Constantin’s work is supported by Korzo, The Hague amonst other places.

At K3, Constantin will continue his movement and choreography research Antibodies which addresses the topic of chronic pain. After a medical diagnosis about his chronic pain, he started to use dance and digtal art to to process and express pain. He will explore his relationship with pain as a dancer with a background in breaking, and include perspectives of dancers with other styles. Interested in how movement can be a tool to share pain, Constantin wants to change the narrative of pain being a limitation into a motor.

(Stand: 2024)

Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica

is a Venezuelan dancer and choreographer living in Cologne. Before moving to Cologne to study dance at the University of Music and Dance, she studied modern languages and translation at the Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela. Since 2018 she has been creating her own work in collaboration with various and in 2024 she received the NRW KulturSekretariat Tanzrecherche scholarship. Her choreographies are based on the complexity of rhythm and its perception, and on knowledges of folk and contemporary dance, celebration, and rituals.

For her research at K3 she will be engage in an exploration of Joropo, a couple dance where gender roles are binary, and inspired by the syncretism of Venezuelan spiritism. This dance gives voice and volume to unheard cosmologies, voices silenced due to patriarchal-colonialist developments. Creating a celebratory, ritualistic and interactive environment, Maria seeks, together with the audience, to celebrate, reconnect and heal the relationship with the female voice muffled over time.

(Stand: 2024)

Robert Ssempijja

is a Ugandan contemporary artist, dancer, and researcher who works in traditional and non-traditional spaces in an era of post-colonialism and decolonization. Working between Africa and Europe, he studied at École des Sables (Dakar, Senegal), danced for Christoph Winkler in Berlin, had residencies at PACT Zollverein, showed his own work at Sophiensaele Berlin or received the Pina Bausch Fellowship. Through his work, he is searching for a regenerative art practice that moves away from exploitative relationships.

Departing from the colonial origins that shaped the architecture of his home town Kampala, at K3 Ssempijja will research its contemporary repercussions. The project aims to examine the enduring legacy of the city’s colonial past, the resilience of its inhabitants, and the role of structural design in shaping identity. In doing so he challenges the notion of growth and prosperity for a country, a city, and its people when their foundations were neither constructed nor intended for their benefit.

(Stand: 2024)