A site-specific piece created for and performed at The Wapping Project, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London.

Letting the audience revisit long forgotten, dark corners of the memory, Grim(m) Desires exposes five well-known European fairy tales and their underbelly of deeply rooted human instincts, fears and desires.

4 week sell-out London run: September – October 2004

Performance duration: 100 minutes (including 15 minute interval)

“… the British based dance-maker has gone beyond the mere interpretation of individual stories. She has taken five familiar tales and woven them into a single, connected narrative which unfolds so cleverly and with such dry humour that it presents one of the most engaging contemporary dance events of the year…”

Debra Craine, The Times, 18 September 2004

“…This is work of magical intelligence with a grisly kick. Go be entranced.”

Donald Hutera, Time Out, 29 September 2004

 “…Stockert has a unique way of looking at the world – both scrupulously focused and wildly hallucinatory.”

Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, 17 September 2004

 “… a witchy piece of theatre, powerfully attuned to the building’s atmosphere, demanding great daring from six dancers, and with an amusing and often barbaric wit about the stories.”

Ismene Brown, The Independent, Sept. 2004

 “Von Stockert teases out the twisted psychological subtexts of each original Grimm’s fairy-tale with an uncanny synthesis of wit, humor and irony. … The movement is gaspingly daring, violent at times, gestural, highly expressive and erotic. … Each story leaves us with unforgettably disturbing images … For me, and for many others, “Grim[m] Desires” was the dance performance of the year. …”

Josephine Leask, Flash Review, 2004

“A feeling of abandonment and dereliction prevails and there is something of an Escher influence in the surreal landscape of people running at right angles to the floor and cups and saucers sitting sideways on the wall…”

Katie Phillips, The Stage, September 2004

“Von Stockert has cleverly morphed these stories together to make strong narrative, a dance piece for a company of six, with the space itself as a seventh character, its walls serving as a springboard as often as its floors… the four girls echo the disturbing world of suppressed sexuality in the paintings of Paula Rego.”

Robert Hewison, Culture, The Times 19 Sept 2004

“… Von Stockert is an original…”

Jann Parry, The Observer, 3 October 2004

“What these fairy tales have lost in innocence they make up for in maturity that knows which buttons to press to stimulate the psyche.”

29 Sept, 2004 Times Chronicles Series 

Royal Festival Hall, Clore Ballroom Installation

Commissioned by the South Bank, London, as part of an installation for the Luciano Berio Festival.

A major interactive installation celebrating Berio’s music, designed by Dody Nash at the Royal Festival Hall, with site-specific choreography by Maresa von Stockert in response to the installations in the Clore ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London.

For von Stockert the piece marked the beginning of a series of works at the South Bank, London, where she later became  choreographer-in-residence in 2007.

La Sardina is an unorthodox eating ritual involving 2 dancers, 2 white chairs & two tins of sardines.

Running time: 5 minutes

The late Jules Wright, curator of the Wapping Project, commissioned von Stockert to create this short site-specific piece for the restaurant at the Wapping Project London, in 2003. Following the creation of La Sardina, Wright invited von Stockert in 2004 to create an evening long site-specific piece for the large gallery space at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station.

A site-specific piece created for and performed at The Wapping Project, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London.

Letting the audience revisit long forgotten, dark corners of the memory, Grim(m) Desires exposes five well-known European fairy tales and their underbelly of deeply rooted human instincts, fears and desires.

4 week sell-out London run: September – October 2004

Performance duration: 100 minutes (including 15 minute interval)

“… the British based dance-maker has gone beyond the mere interpretation of individual stories. She has taken five familiar tales and woven them into a single, connected narrative which unfolds so cleverly and with such dry humour that it presents one of the most engaging contemporary dance events of the year…”

Debra Craine, The Times, 18 September 2004

“…This is work of magical intelligence with a grisly kick. Go be entranced.”

Donald Hutera, Time Out, 29 September 2004

 “…Stockert has a unique way of looking at the world – both scrupulously focused and wildly hallucinatory.”

Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, 17 September 2004

 “… a witchy piece of theatre, powerfully attuned to the building’s atmosphere, demanding great daring from six dancers, and with an amusing and often barbaric wit about the stories.”

Ismene Brown, The Independent, Sept. 2004

 “Von Stockert teases out the twisted psychological subtexts of each original Grimm’s fairy-tale with an uncanny synthesis of wit, humor and irony. … The movement is gaspingly daring, violent at times, gestural, highly expressive and erotic. … Each story leaves us with unforgettably disturbing images … For me, and for many others, “Grim[m] Desires” was the dance performance of the year. …”

Josephine Leask, Flash Review, 2004

“A feeling of abandonment and dereliction prevails and there is something of an Escher influence in the surreal landscape of people running at right angles to the floor and cups and saucers sitting sideways on the wall…”

Katie Phillips, The Stage, September 2004

“Von Stockert has cleverly morphed these stories together to make strong narrative, a dance piece for a company of six, with the space itself as a seventh character, its walls serving as a springboard as often as its floors… the four girls echo the disturbing world of suppressed sexuality in the paintings of Paula Rego.”

Robert Hewison, Culture, The Times 19 Sept 2004

“… Von Stockert is an original…”

Jann Parry, The Observer, 3 October 2004

“What these fairy tales have lost in innocence they make up for in maturity that knows which buttons to press to stimulate the psyche.”

29 Sept, 2004 Times Chronicles Series 

Royal Festival Hall, Clore Ballroom Installation

Commissioned by the South Bank, London, as part of an installation for the Luciano Berio Festival.

A major interactive installation celebrating Berio’s music, designed by Dody Nash at the Royal Festival Hall, with site-specific choreography by Maresa von Stockert in response to the installations in the Clore ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London.

For von Stockert the piece marked the beginning of a series of works at the South Bank, London, where she later became  choreographer-in-residence in 2007.

La Sardina is an unorthodox eating ritual involving 2 dancers, 2 white chairs & two tins of sardines.

Running time: 5 minutes

The late Jules Wright, curator of the Wapping Project, commissioned von Stockert to create this short site-specific piece for the restaurant at the Wapping Project London, in 2003. Following the creation of La Sardina, Wright invited von Stockert in 2004 to create an evening long site-specific piece for the large gallery space at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station.