"Diva"

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Within the framework of the scholarship of the Senator for Culture Bremen, I want to embark on a research journey for my own diva and her traces in my life so far.
By developing a dance/performance solo for the camera and the stage, I want to trace her steps and capture the imaginary career of my coexistence scenically.
Through the documentary nature of this interview with this vision of a woman, she will manifest and provide a glimpse of the highs and lows of her mental landscapes.
Relentlessly, her bitchy escapades, but also her loving sides are captured in this cinematic study.

The term diva derives from the feminine form of the Latin divus "divine".
In the conventional sense, a diva is a woman with outstanding talent in the opera world and beyond in the fields of theater, cinema and pop music.
In Roman antiquity, the attributes divus and diva were reserved for gods and goddesses, respectively.

As a gay man, I have been struggling with the woman inside me all my life. With the little girl, the offended lover or even the diva who constantly demands her right to worship.

Since my early childhood I heard: "A boy does not dance!" Why that should be so was always justified with: "That is only something for gays!
Bad people and spoiled people were these men who are so "polarized". Reason enough to hide behind masks and disguises.

And isn't that exactly the diva's prerogative? To adorn herself with feathers and wear masks that wrap her in an air of mystery?
Even as a dancer on stage, I have always been confronted with my own gender role. How do I stand, how do I walk, how do I present myself, and does the perception of myself match the perception of others? For me, it was always important to be recognized as a man, although I always maintained long hair and fashion statements characterized my everyday life. My androgyny already formed a fragile bridge to my DIVA at that time.

The first liberation of my DIVA came, of course, on stage, in the dance production "Alice in Wonderland" by Roberto Galván at the Stadttheater Giessen in 1998 when I danced the role of Gloria Swanson, Alice's mother. Ten centimeter spiked heels and feather boa included. Another time, as part of the ensemble of the Bremen Theater in the revival of the dance piece "CALLAS" by Reinhild Hoffmann, I was professionally confronted with my DIVA. The Callas as a symbol of this female figure provided me with many levels to enter into a dialogue with my Diva during the production.

I want to continue and deepen this dialogue within the framework of the fellowship.
In retrospect, the boundaries between me and her become blurred. But in the now and today, her profile is sharpened and life is breathed into the myth of the diva.
This DIVA engages in an exchange of blows with the great divas of history and challenges you to a rhetorical as well as physical duel.
Spicy and sour, kitschy and trashy and always with a pinch of self-irony.

Through my intensive connections to the German Dance Film Institute I can count on the expertise and the diverse filmic documents of the institute to transform this artistic idea into a cinematic work.