Practicing Empathy #3

The solo performance “Practicing Empathy #3” examines how the pandemic and being alone with ourselves have affected our ability to empathise. The first solo show in Yasmeen Godder’s 25-year stage career is both a real-time record of the year 2020 – with its moments of isolation, limitations and inner discoveries – and a guide to the ongoing mechanisms of survival. The audience is invited to sit around the performance area on the Schauspielhaus stage.

Yasmeen Godder has been one of the leading exponents of dance in Israel for the past twenty years. Her choreographies often arise from an exploration of questions about coexistence and engage the audience with their precise yet expressive power. In her “Practicing Empathy” series, she and her company have been developing choreographies and events since 2019 which invite viewers to practice empathy. A two-year research period saw the company traveling to various places and coming into contact with diverse communities in Tel Aviv, Bassano del Grappo and Düsseldorf. For a long time, Yasmeen Godder’s work has focused on encounters and emotional connections – between both acquaintances and strangers. The starting point for her sensitive research work has always been her own artistic practice in which the mediums of dance and choreography play a central role.