An Evening on the Poetry of Failure
laborgras feat. Liam Byrne & Ensemble

One step too soon.
One movement too late.
A gesture that strikes the void.

We live as though falling were not an option.
As though everything had to work.
As though control were something we could promise ourselves.

In our performance-oriented society, there is little room for failure and vulnerability. But what if failure is more than just a defeat? What if it holds a poetry of its own—fragile, ambiguous, and truly human?

In their new performance Joyful Failure, laborgras explores this liminal space. Six dancers and a musician come together in a state of in-between, in a space of constant displacement where familiar certainties are thrown off balance—a interplay of too late, too early, or never quite right.

Bodies intertwine, miss each other, lose their balance. They react to one another, depend on one another, support one another, slip away from one another—and start anew. Gestures falter, movements break off and return transformed. What had just been a source of stability begins to topple. What seems lost leaves a trace.

A space unfolds between stumbling and regaining one’s footing, between loss and a new beginning. A space in which failure is not suppressed but remains visible—quiet, humorous, defiant, and alive.

Liam Byrne’s musical arrangement, performed live on the viola da gamba, strikes a delicate balance between early music and electronic sounds. The result is a sonic space characterized by physical closeness, intimacy, and a fragile presence. A constantly shifting interplay of connection and resonance emerges between bodies and sound.

Failure and vulnerability are not an end here. They are a state of openness. An invitation to embrace uncertainty.

Trying.
Failing.
Starting anew.

Drawing on Samuel Beckett’s words—“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”—Joyful Failure understands failure as a movement in itself: as a continuous act of undoing and becoming and reordering of possibilities.

The evening invites audiences into a slower mode of attention, attuned to those fleeting moments when something briefly slips out of place, revealing what would otherwise remain hidden: our vulnerability 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 Trigo Graphic Design: Mia Sedding Photography: Phil Dera Hair and Make-up Pictures: Adriana Metzlaff Artistic Production Management: Urszula Heuwinkel