Claire Vivianne Sobottke & Dolores

Over the past two years, Frankfurt choreographer Fabrice Mazliah and his colleague Marialena Marouda have invited fellow performing artists to enter into dialogue with a handmade object of their choice. In the 6^th duet of the series, dancer and choreographer Claire Vivianne-Sobottke chose to work with Dolores, a sex doll who shares her approximate weight and height. Claire acquired Dolores some years ago and has been collaborating with her ever since, in her own work.

As with previous duets, Duet #6 is a detailed relational study between one human performer and one object. This initial relation between Claire and Dolores, however, led us to a multiplication of bodies and objects. Dolores already being an objectified, sexually exploitable “double” of Claire’s female-identifying body, we thus continued replicating, focusing on female representations in anatomy and the history of art. In the course of the duet, we therefore explore how socially and politically imposed ideas of the female body define what we perceive it to be -and to be capable of- also physically. The act of multiplying those representations is our tool for imagining a shameless and shapeless body, in charge of its own representations.

Duet #6 aspires to form an alliance between Claire and Dolores as a way out of abuse and objectification through a playful sexuality, sensuality, ecology and collectivity. In the process, the female voice increasingly emerges as an urgent, eloquent and forceful physical presence.