Fighting 4 Fear

Fighting 4 Fear is a multimedia performance about fear, mental strength and young female perspectives in martial arts. Based on research into the relationship between female fear and patriarchal dominance culture, martial arts is explored as a means of transforming fear into strength. Martial arts training is a terrain in which the rules are clear and a sub-story is told, seemingly independent of the narratives of society as a whole. Is it possible, in such a historically male-dominated place that does not provide for archetypal stories about women*, to tell oneself as a woman* in a new way and detached from a binary concept of gender? In collaboration with dramaturge Enrico Bordieri, Milena Bühring and Klara Kirsch will share their stage with Aylin Telli and Paulina Karan, two underage martial arts experts. The performative realization is based on lists of concrete actions that a fighter has to go through during fight preparation: Prat training, discussing tactics, choosing a warm-up song, massaging the neck, sweating and weighing in. At the end, there is always the all-important question: will the fight happen? Between the gym, TikTok, academic feminism and the reality of life for migrant teenage girls, the team struggles to find a way of dealing with fear that can withstand the ambivalence between fantasy, desire and real threat.

Funded by Einstiegsförderung Berlin Senate
Coproduced by TATWERK Berlin