Dance ambassador Mira

10 years Club Oval - Crossover Dance Battle

An experience report

The Club Oval is a crossover dance battle that has been hosted by TanzZeit / TANZKOMPLIZEN for ten years. Our dance ambassador Mira attended the Birthday Edition in October 2023 and captured her impressions for us.

Colorful light flickers through the crowd, some people already secure the best seats around the oval-shaped stage. They are people of different ages, gathered this evening for a common interest: To watch, to be carried away. Outside, the rain splashes on the dark streets, orange lantern light reflects like Fanta in the fresh puddles, and the snake grows in front of the entrance of Podewil.

The anteroom between the door and the counter, in which the crowds are waiting for admission, stands on the bumpy border between the windy night outside and the exuberant party atmosphere inside, where you can forget everything else for a few hours. Involved in the crowd placed on the floor, good music and explosive dance. Just a neon green band around your wrist and you can mix with those present! People are talking and laughing, ordering drinks or arguing about the seat cushions. In the back of the room, some dancers stand together, gather again before the performance or walk through their steps in silence.

And then the presenter enters the stage, dressed today in a trouser suit strewn with colorful glitter. That fits. Because this Club Oval is not just an ordinary battle, but actually its 10th. birthday. A very solemn occasion. In addition, the jury also has a surprise in store, because unlike usual, the two introduce themselves to the audience through their own dance unit! Then follows the name of today's DJ and the first of the dance groups registered in advance enters the stage.

They are three dancers from the contemporary, a style that should not be neglected in such a battle. This is followed by three women coordinated with tremendous energy and precision, joined by a group of only two dancers, who will perform this evening despite the illness of their third member. Their piece is interspersed with several acting and experimental units, a white tape serves as prop, with which they hang themselves in all drama at the end.

And everyone dances. Partly wild and exuberant, partly rather nervous and uncomfortable. Is anyone watching them? Are you in the spotlight yourself?

Now it is time again for a short lecture, which deals with the history of the Club Oval, in relation to its round birthday. A short video is also projected onto a screen stretched at the edge for this purpose. The same was originally created for the third or fifth birthday of the Club Oval, but is still - or just because of it - great fun to watch. Now dance break. This means both a break for the performing dancers and an invitation to the audience to use the dance floor themselves.

A previously carefully bypassed place is now being stormed by people. And everyone dances. Partly wild and exuberant, partly rather nervous and uncomfortable. Is anyone watching them? Are you in the spotlight yourself? Well, what's up. Music is playing, that's the main thing. Everyone else is dancing too. Besides, what's better than being on stage in a battle without actually being on stage?

After the break, the solos continue. Individual dancers now improvise to partly unknown music, let themselves be surprised by the notes and surprise the audience with their representations. The different dance styles of the performers sometimes only take seconds to become friends with the nature of the songs assigned to them. And already they are merging with each other, becoming one and the same. It's as if it's not the dance that's tuned to the music, but the music that's tuned to the dance. After all, this constantly changing sound is the only law to which he has to bow, with which the otherwise unconditional art of dance has to form a whole. However, this is not a problem - on the contrary. Because the two elements dance and music are not only dependent on each other, they build on each other. As well as a good song in its quality impresses with the fact that it ignites in people's ears the urge for dance gestures, for movement of even the smallest kind, so the dance needs the music with the same urgency as pure glass a silver coated substrate in order to function as a mirror. As a mirror of feelings, in this case, or as whatever dance you may see. Club Oval © René Löffler

After the solos, there's a break. And indeed, a gigantic cake is now being carried to the stage, adorned with two golden balloons, which form the number 10. Of course, it is not a real cake, but four packages stacked on top of each other, wrapped with glittering gift ribbon and covered with tons of chocolate bars. Baked with love, they say. And everyone can take something. Of course, it doesn't take long for all the chocolate to disappear, and we'll move on to the next category: Duets.

However, not rehearsed, but wildly improvised. The principle works as follows: Two people from the audience each draw a note and read out the names of two of the performers who have already performed. They draw another piece of paper and thus choose a style. In my opinion, this is the best part of the evening, when two strangers meet and in a few minutes become as familiar as in other circumstances in weeks. And there are some really funny situations, such as when one duo pulls hard rock out of the categories, or when another tries to throw hip-hop into the room, even though the note says nothing but classic. The two now make one on Schwanensee and dance around the room with exaggerated dramaturgy.

After all, the jury has to make a decision. Must announce those who will be in the final tonight. In the category solo dancers, two of the favourites for the final have already been determined, two more have to dance again.

And after that's cleared up, they all dance again. It is their opportunity to draw the audience to their side, because this ultimately also makes the decision as to which of them is allowed to win. So they're getting into it, and they're all doing it by their own method. Fill the stage with their dance and let waves of energy spill over the edge into the audience like agitated spray. A candidate even repeatedly includes objects from the audience area, for example, grabs a mobile phone with a running video camera and swivels it back and forth on stage. However different their performances may be, they all dance to the same song.

And then it's time: The public can decide now. Each person can give his favorite a voice by standing in the corner of the room assigned to him, waiting for it to be counted.

It takes a while, but the winner is finally determined. For teams and duos, too, the winners are now announced by the jury, although sometimes it seems to be clearly difficult for them to destroy the hopes of the rest.

But even those who don't win certainly don't regret having competed, and everyone gets a big applause. The winners will also receive an amount of money as ‘prize money’ and the 10th prize. The birthday of the Club Oval is officially declared to be over. Stripes of colorful light cover the ground like streamers, and it's still raining outside.