Troglodyte

In his new solo, Thomas Hauert intends to deepen a creative process already present in his last two creations: making psychology, inner life, emotions and the unconscious a driving force behind movement. The starting point for Troglodyte is a kind of complex psychological enigma, expressed in the working title and subtitle of the solo “Zaungast/Zaunkönig”, focusing on the experience of the position of the outsider, the one who is not part of the group, the one who looks on from the outside. Zaungast is a German word that describes someone who attends an event to which they were not invited, behind the fence (literally: “guest of the fence”). It’s associated with Zaunkönig, the German name for wren, a small songbird (literally: “the king of the fence”), which we imagine sitting on the fence. Tiny but kingly at the same time. Someone who straddles the fence, who doesn’t take a stand, who doesn’t make up his mind, and who doesn’t commit himself in consequence.

The word troglodyte originally refers to a living creature that inhabits a cave or dwelling dug into the ground, like the little bird Zaunkönig/troglodyte. The term Troglodyte also sounds like an insult, one associated with the “Cave Man”, the boorish, uneducated, coarse man.