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 SHIT unfolds 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.
“Light, sound and voices, but above all the strong presence of his body and the images created through it, transport us into another world, into a universe in which the human experience is conceived as a space for perception and sensation — with the potential, if one is willing to engage with it, overcome resistance and quiet the mind, to reach a state that reflects one’s own perception and sparks a reflection on one’s own being in the world.”
Ann-Kathrin Günzel, Kunstforum International, on HOLY SHIT, mar 26, 2026
»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.
