Lukas Marian and Adriana Carlota Berwert
Photo: Muriel Rieben
Lukas Marian (* 1995 in Bern) is a lighting and stage designer. He completed his training as an event manager at the Basel Theatre. During this time, he created his first works for Ballett Basel under the direction of Richard Wherlock. Lukas Marian has been working freelance since 2020 and specialises mainly in dance productions. He creates concepts for renowned choreographers such as Marcos Morau, Jo Strømgren and Edouard Hue and is an integral part of the creative teams of international artists such as Bryan Arias, Frank Fannar Pedersen, Javier Rodríguez Cobos and Muhammed Kaltuk. Lukas Marian is also the technical director of the international dance company Snorkel Rabbit and is responsible for the technical production management of various music and dance tour productions. His team management is described as informal with high standards of precision and efficient work processes. Driven by the desire to ignite a spark in the audience, Lukas Marian creates images that mesmerise the audience with their aesthetics. Subtle and precise, his light spaces create a wide-ranging poetic framework. In recent years, he has created numerous productions, including for Ballett Basel (CH), Ballett Leipzig (DE), Ballett de Genève (CH), Bolshoi Ballett (RU), Philadelphia Ballett (USA), Ballet d l'opéra national du Rhin (FR), NTM Tanz (DE), Stuttgarter Ballett (DE), Ballett Zürich (CH), Bern Ballett (CH), TanzLuzern (CH), Tanzkompanie St. Gallen (CH), La Veronal (ESP), Company MEK (CH), Snorkel Rabbit Company (CH).
Photo: Damian Berwert
Adriana Carlota Berwert (CH/PT) is a dancer, choreographer, lighting and stage designer. in the independent cultural scene. She grew up in central Switzerland (1997) and began dancing with Ihsan Rustem and Salome Martins before completing her training at the Rambert School. She then danced in the Ballet Junior de Genève in pieces by Olivier Dubois, Sharon Eyal, Hofesch Shechter and Emanuel Gat before turning to the independent scene. Adriana will finish her studies in stage design at the ZhdK in 2025. She works with Michael Eigenmann as a lighting designer for Schlossmediale Werdenberg, Astrid Schläfli, Tanzfest Luzern and Bsides Festival, among others, and since 2023 for Theaterspektakel. She also teaches ballet and contemporary at Ballettstadt Luzern. In 2023 she was nominated for the Jungsegler with Louise Mayer-Jacquelin and in 2022 "Apprivoise-moi" won the Tankstelle stage. Adriana works with choreographers, directors, musicians and dancers in various capacities. Her work is characterised by the fact that she sees choreography as a largely scenographic construct and brings together various artistic aspects in and around the stage.
Project
Adriana Carlota Berwert has transitioned to the other side of the stage in recent years, leveraging her experience in dance to work as a set designer and lighting designer. As a dancer, choreographer, set designer, and lighting designer, she is highly versatile and brings valuable insights from each perspective to the others. Her current focus is on uniting these diverse activities into her own artistic language.
In collaboration with Lukas Marian, Adriana will, on one hand, engage concretely with the skills required for lighting design and set design. This includes technical drawing, certain software skills, and how to approach set design in collaboration with a theater house. Together, they will develop a pathway to transition from smaller projects in the independent scene to larger productions. Through Lukas’s experience, Adriana will gain insight into larger productions and receive support in the form of guidance and coaching to find her own way into this realm.
On the other hand, the collaboration will initiate an in-depth exploration of body and space, which will eventually lead to the creation of the project Ariadne – a song for the lost. Adriana aims to merge her experiences as a dancer and choreographer with those as a set and lighting designer, seeking a unified language across these different media – a process she refers to as expanded bodies in moving space. At the heart of this collaboration lies the connection between space and body. The exploration of meaningful translations into space and the sensory influence of set design on the body will serve as central questions.
Ariadne – a song for the lost is envisioned as a roughly 60-minute solitary duet – a solo with two performers. Based on the Greek mythology of Ariadne, it reflects on wandering, longing, and, above all, losing one’s soul. Ariadne will be an evening where body, space, and music merge into a unified staging. The process will focus on finding a shared starting point to develop movement, voice, and material, while exploring expanded bodies in moving space. This production seeks to answer the question of what it means to be lost and to pull on a thread that may no longer even exist...
