The basis of the piece are interviews with rainmakers, including the mother of the Ugandian dancer Michael Kaddu, and climate data on the shrinking of the glaciers in the high mountains. The aim is to tell the often difficult-to-understand data of climate research in a theatrical context in a different way and thus to establish tangible references to people. For this purpose, we try to visualize real climate data poetically and use Holovision, a novel projection method to generate spatial effects. Thus, the piece combines the visual, "cold" world of melting glaciers with a contemporary rain ritual, consisting of dance, singing and holographic projections.

In many regions of Africa there is a long tradition of rain rituals, but some, such as Nigerian dancers, for example, have no word for glacier or snow in their local languages. The glaciers on the African continent will sometimes be the first to disappear completely. The "rainmaking" is still very present in the respective cultures, but it loses importance - just as the mother of the dancer Michael Kaddu was a respected rainmaker for a long time, until she entered the church and stopped practicing.

Rain rituals may not only be reduced to magical folk beliefs. On the one hand, they are based on observations of the environment and nature to understand whether there are signs of a change in the weather, on the other hand, they are also an attempt to deal with the social challenges of drought and drought. The burdens that long-lasting dry periods bring to local communities are manifold. They are on the one hand practical, but also of a spiritual nature.

Collaborators

• Concept and Choreography: Ridwan Rasheed
• With: Femi Adebajo, Micheal Kaddu
• Produced by: Company Christoph Winkler