BIO

Hannah Krebs is a dance artist working within storytelling, flirting through a dancing body, set material, world building and serious playfulness. Their solos reveal an urgency for fractures, working with techniques of semi- fictional world buildings from a feminist and critical perspective. Within the craft of dance, Hannah is creating scenarios to insert and widening the cracks as a joint effort to help imagining a radically different world. Using written language, spoken word, strange karaoke and dance as a portal. As a dancer they are working with Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Chikako Kaido, Ellen Söderhult and Judit Förster amongst others.

“Hey superbutch, I can see your body moving
And it's driving me crazy
And I didn't have the slightest idea
Until I saw you dancing (yeah)
And when you walk up on the dance floor
Nobody cannot ignore the way you move your body, girl (just move)
And everything so unexpected, the way you right and left it
So you can keep on shaking it (let's go)”
--------- Shakira - hips don’t lie

Once upon a time there were stories of superman written where a man that was “super” and a woman that needed to be helped followed by an action scene that is dramatic and loud. CUT CUT CUT, Loud music, bang, man 1 hits man 2, so much blood, then happy end. But for what? For whom? How did he really change anything in the aftermath? This is such an outdated way of speaking of heroes I would say, because at this very moment, I am telling you that new heroes have arrived, now, today, bringing with them hope and sparks of a future stardust from a world we are still so far away from. Those sparks reveal the immense journey that is in front of us, announcing radical shifts that let the world become a place of ancestral knowledge, multiple voices, kinships, softness and dancing. It has started to shift and I want to tell you about one of those heroes, a superbutch who uses their power to shake and shiver hips and norms. Their name is Shirley aka Marimachi aka the next Shakira aka another Dj Mendez (...) People kept on calling them different names and all are a part of them, all are living within.
A SUPERBUTCH? You may ask.
Yes, a superbutch! They exist! I mean, I myself have never believed that this could be real, but as I have seen them flying up in the sky of Stockholm with leather gear to keep a grip on the city of white people, I can confirm that they exist!
Everyday they land on different occasions remembering that being radically yourself means to have wounds from previous fights. Their superpower protects them in healing through dancing. No wonder that they are wearing gear around their vagina, because once the hip starts to circulate in figuring eights, time zones start to quiver.
Is the world vibrating or was it actually my butt that kept on joining the shake?
This hip dance can oscillate you to different places and times: suddenly you get teleported to be one of the backstage dancers from Beyonce or you end up being the actual front leader from Rage Against the Machine. …I tell you things have happened. Things that happened while the hip was moving that are beyond written language and cannot be documented in the exact same way as when you experienced it. The hip, vagina, butt as a magical portal to other worlds, is a superpower which the superbutch is aware of and is even sharing generously with others. Shirley aka the next Shakira have the strength to channel their latina ancestors in any possible place listening to their body. This is the reason why they have so many names, because you are never alone with them but moreover their ancestors are always in the room with us as well. These ancestors are in a constant dialogue with the superbutch, supporting them, discussing, grounding and exchanging. There is this fascinating aura around them, built through softness and badass strength that has inspired me the most. Marimachi or Shirley are part of a movement that I think is so crucial in this dance world: to question the common norm by radically existing and unapologetically practicing queer and non-white aesthetics. A movement joined by the ones who do not fit. Who proudly do not fit in the norm. DANCE is their superpower, when they are dancing, it is like a ritual of becoming another gender, playing an oppressor, switching from humor to tragic. I wonder who is healing while observing the superbutch in their power dance. It is like a collective experience, healing through dancing. Healing through witnessing a dance.

I have to take a pause here.

Take a step back and read through it all again. Well, now I am thinking, I mean I wonder: Is this really a fairytale? Or would I lie to you, dear reader, by choosing this fairytale form of “once upon a time” in the beginning? Following along you might have noticed that this is actually real. It may have happened once upon a time but it also has happened here at “within practice” approximately two weeks ago.
Being in the dance for a reason and having it as a way to have a voice in a society formed through norms, to give space for grief, for pain, for joy in changing perspectives.

This end will be messy, I might not end how I have started but I felt deeply touched by Shirley's workshop and practice presentation. Dear Shirley, you are a big inspiration for me to keep on remembering that strength lies in being soft with yourself while unapologetically existing in this not so soft world.

WORKSHOP BY SHIRLEY HARTHEY UBILLA

WRITTEN BY HANNAH KREBS