“You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and this sight makes our dance.”

Maria Hassabi has been performing shows since childhood and Robert Steijn began dancing rituals at forty-five. In this first duet they make together, they ask themselves where outside differences meet inside similarities as they commit themselves to an act of unconditional devotion.

Created and Performed by: Maria Hassabi and Robert Steijn
Lighting Design: Ji-youn Chang and Maria Hassabi

SHOWS

2013
– Nottdance Festival 2013, Nottingham, UK (March 15)

2012
– Festival Contemporâneo de Dança, São Paulo, Brazil (November 16-18)
– Panorama Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 13-14)
– Frascati, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (May 1-2)
– Springdance, Utrecht, The Netherlands (April 21-22)
– DANSPACE PROJECT, NYC (January 9-10)

2011
– Tanz im August, Berlin, Germany (August 17-18)
– ImPulsTanz, Vienna, Austria (August 11)
– NEW YORK, deSingel Internationale Kunstcampus, Antwerpen, Belgium (January 28-29)

2010
– Premiere: DANSPACE PROJECT, NYC: Platform 2010: ‘i get lost’ Curated by Ralph Lemon (April 15-17)

PRESS

Robert and Maria really is full of love. Like all good art – like all real lovemaking – it absorbs you in the experience without making you feel like a creep. (5 stars)
FINANCIAL TIMES, Apollinaire Scherr, April 20 2010

CREDITS

PLATFORMS 2010 is a component of Danspace Project’s Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW2), a multi-year commissioning and presentation research and development project which has received major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. As part of Platforms 2010, Robert and Maria is made possible with funds from the 2009-2010 Danspace Project Commissioning Initiative with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition, Robert and Maria has received support from the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York. The work was also made possible through a research residency at DANSLAB, Den Haag at The Netherlands and creative residencies at Pa-f, St Erme, in France.