laborgras feat. Liam Byrne & Ensemble
A evening on the poetry of failure

In a culture driven by performance, efficiency, and constant optimization, failure is often seen as something to avoid or correct. But what if failure also holds a poetry of its own, one that is more than mere defeat?

In their new performance “Joyful Failure,” laborgras explores precisely this fragile moment of failure. Here, failure appears as a state of relational openness in which perception and possibilities for action constantly rearrange themselves. The stage unfolds as a place of unstable relationships where the familiar is thrown off balance: a little too late, a little too early, never quite right.

Movement and sound are tightly interwoven. Bodies meet and miss, support and release each other, drift apart and reconnect in unexpected ways. Liam Byrne’s composition, performed live on the viola da gamba, blends electronic textures and early music into a richly contrasting musical space—raw, poetic, and contemporary. Within this choreographic-musical landscape, six dancers navigate themselves without fixing meaning or structure. Each action leaves a trace. What was just precise slips into absurdity. What was funny tips into melancholy. Nothing starts from scratch.

The piece asks about other forms of coexistence, beyond contemporary logics of speed, control, and self-optimization What emerges when we let go of the logic of control and self-optimization? Instead of viewing failure as a disadvantage, the production focuses on its creative potential: the everyday, the connecting, and the deeply human.

Try again and again. Fail again and again. Fail differently.

Drawing on Samuel Beckett’s line “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better,” failure is treated here as process rather than judgment, as continuous opening up of possibilities.

Joyful Failure invites audiences into a slower mode of attention, tuned to those fleeting moments when something briefly slips out of place, revealing what would otherwise remain hidden: our vulnerability, our ambivalence, and the contradictory demands of connection.

Concept / Artistic Direction: laborgras (Renate Graziadei & Arthur Stäldi) Choreography: laborgras in collaboration with the dancers Abraham Iglesias Rodriguez, Tian Gao, Miguel González Padilla, Rosalind Masson, Djamila Polo Dramaturgy: Arthur Stäldi Music: Liam Byrne Costume Design: Claudia Janitschek Lighting Design: Kevin Sock Press and Public Relations: Marcelo Vilela da Silva Distribution: Micaela Triggo Graphic Design: Mia Sedding Photography: Phil Dera Hair and Make-up Pictures: Adriana Metzlaff Artistic Production Management: Urszula Heuwinkel