HOLY SHIT - A Human Experience
tanzhaus nrw
20 march 2026
In Holy Shit – A Human Experience, choreographer Ben J. Riepe invites the audience into a special stage space situated between cathedral, lounge, and artificial horizon — a space in which the audience is not only invited to watch, but also to become part of a shared experience that requires physical presence and readiness.
Beginning with the figure of a seer — at once human and superhuman, vulnerable and authoritative — HOLY SHITunfolds as a performance session between dystopia and utopia, destruction and promise. From text and music, from sound and light landscapes that affect our nervous system, from AI-generated video worlds and live images, a physically experienced transition emerges: an evening that asks how connection is still possible today — beyond irony, spiritual bypassing, and detached observation. HOLY SHIT is neither a wellness ritual nor a consumable sense of community, but a proposal for a new kind of experience between beauty and imposition, between theatrical event and guided session — one that engages all the senses and releases us into the night transformed.
»HOLY SHIT is the attempt to reach a shared state on stage – not through explanations, but through the body.«
Ben J. Riepe
Concept, Choreography, Direction, Performance: Ben J. Riepe
With: Izaskun Abrego, Dominik Więcek
Stage Design: Aliki Anagnostakis, Ben J. Riepe
Costumes: Dominik Więcek
Music, Sound, Composition: Aleksander Rynkowski, Dario Albiez
Video: Norbert Pape
Dramaturgical Advice / Text Dramaturgy & Outside Eye: Janine Blöß
Concept Consultant: Werner Mikus
Technical Director: Julius Kindermann
Technical Support: Timo Löffler
Project Management: Annegret Debitz
Production Support: Darwin Diaz
Production Assistant: Billy Dering
Assistant Director (Trainee): Emilia Granz
Organisation, Administration: Izaskun Abrego
Communication: Nassrah-Alexia Denif
Social Media: Lisa Carolin Schubert
A production by Ben J. Riepe Company in co-production with tanzhaus nrw, funded by Kunststiftung NRW and the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf.
Ben J. Riepe Company is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
and the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf.
