In the shadows it looks like a suspended trapezoidal mat is dangling before us. A few ropes or chains angle nearby, suggesting that at some point they will give aerial dancers a lift. There is no curtain rise or a clear beginning. We hear rattling off stage, sounds like a critter scurrying, then bells, water sounds dripping louder and louder. There is a thud so deep it shakes our seats. Electronic sounds ribbon into the hall louder and louder.
This cacophony soundscape will surround us for the next hour+ . We feel smothered by it even before the volume crescendo that works on our psyches to make us search for an exit door. When the seven performers emerge into this sonic landscape of hell, you too might initially feel their presence as an afterthought.
Not that we were expecting a pas de deux or the like, but when the performers first use their aerial lifts to dangle and bob like just hooked fish flailing on land ,they seem to grab the spotlight from the composer. They wrestle like Sisyphus with the moving parts of the trapezoidal platform to find terra firma and never do. This is what desperation looks like, seems to be the point that choreographer Diana Niepce is making, with each dancer adding their imprimatur to this dark ballad.
A Conversation in Keeping with Tanz Im August 2026 Theme
At the performance’s conclusion one of the stage hands comes out wearing a keffiyeh, which he takes off as it becomes a prop joining the choreographer and cast as they take their bows. You too might take this as a suggestion that this work is about the Nakba, the Palestinian Catastrophe and genocide. This reviewer will certainly be re-running tapes of Hornfuckers in mind’s eye as a foreground to news flashes of Gaza rubble.
If nothing else, Hornfuckers seems to flesh out the Tanz Im August theme outlined eloquently by the festival’s artistic director Ricardo Carmona when he says, “…Current fascist tendencies and right-wing governments are creating a political climate with altered conditions: pressure builds, alliances shift, tensions increase and erupt like a sudden summer thunderstorm. In times like these, art—like the weather—is never merely background noise: it is a reciprocal political force that shapes our present condition. It influences and reflects our movements, feelings, and encounters. This year, the festival unfolds like a weather map: shifting currents, heat fronts, and emerging winds. In this changing climate, encounters between artists, their work, and the audience create moments of awareness and possibility….”
Editor’s Note: Read Carmona’s full statement here — Tanz im August – Picture Preview
TICKETS:
For more information and tickets visit the Tanz Im August website.
Photos: Alipio Padilha, unless otherwise indicated
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About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
