A short semi-digital dance opera
Cleo - Berlin Moves

Avatars dancing hip hop accompanied by an aria written by baroque composer Georg Friedrich Händel, dancers voguing to Egyptian music from the 1960s by Umm Kulthum these differences are bound together by Cleopatra, empress in ancient history, seductress in Händels baroque opera Giulio Cesare, a symbol of todays pop culture.

Her life was told in many films, has been sketched in comics and her style has been copied Beyoncé, Cardi B and Lizzo wear her headpieces, Uma Thurman a Cleopatra bob in Pulp Fiction. The ancient queen is a gigantic projection figure for clichés, cultural appropriation as well as empowerment. BERLIN MOVES with its artistic director and choreographer Lior Shneior explores this field of tension evoked by the different Cleopatra personae through dance and in virtual reality. A 3D virtual platform on which BERLIN MOVES resurrects the ancient Egyptian queen after more than 2000 ears will be launched in conjunction with the once-only pop-up live show at the historic industrial hall Glashaus Arena.

Through motion capture they developed Cleopatra avatars who will perform in the show and whom the audience can take home on their smartphones to make them dance. The semi-digital crossover dance opera Cleo created by a small ensemble of young urban movers from the Berlin-based project BERLIN MOVES takes the audience on a journey from Egypt though pop culture to the infinity of the Internet.