LAUSR

I experienced the future, an intercultural future. It was in the rehearsal space of Gintersdorfer/Klassen, a German-Ivorian performance group based in Berlin and in Abidjan (the capital of Ivory Coast). As opposed to the actual mise en scène, which represents only one out of different possible outcomes, the unstable rehearsal processes permit the experience of the many possibilities surrounding it. This article considers the participatory rehearsal practice of Gintersdorfer/Klassen to demonstrate how creative collaborative processes emerge beyond the theatrical stage. More importantly it contributes to current debates about contemporary performance practices along the North–South axis that are often a priori condemmed as being essentialist, eurocentristic, and/or paternalistic. By scrutinizing how Gintersdorfer/Klassen members collaborate in their daily rehearsals, I demonstrate how they subvert dominant conceptions of art, politics, ethics, and personal commitment. Contrary to top-down and hierarchical performance productions, Gintersdorfer/Klassen represents a case of ‘collaborative interculturalism’, which emphasizes the processes and politics of intercultural exchange. Gintersdorfer/Klassen’s ‘rehearsing’, which etymologically originates from the Middle English word ‘reherce’, meaning ‘to repeat’, has nothing to do with the repetition of arrangements but can better be described as the assemblage and discussion of people, places, and material(s). These collaborations are not characterized by a collective ideological identity; rather, collaborating here implies confronting all participants with otherness by connecting their different competencies with each other. For the past decade the group has established artistic strategies that challenged essentialist, Eurocentric, and imperialistic aesthetic representations. As I 1. I thank the cast and directors of Gintersdorfer/Klassen for granting me access to their rehearsals and for patiently answering my many questions. I am indebted to Dominic Johnson, Sara Malou Strandvad, Tobias Hagmann, Omid Soltani, and two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their constructive comments.