Meet artist Julia Hausermann, a learning disabled performer, dancer and creator with Theater Hora. Julia was invited to co-lead the first Europe Beyond Access artist laboratory in Hamburg at Kampnagel. This film is part of a new series of artist profiles produced by Europe Beyond Access that promote disabled artists to international audiences. Julia’s profile incorporates footage from Martin Mallon (Berlin) of Tristan und Isolde, Theater HORA in cooperation with HAUEN & STECHEN.
Enhanced transcript and descriptive introduction
Visually this film is a mixture of to-camera interview footage with Julia Häusermann interspersed with Julia performing in various productions. Julia is a white woman with down syndrome in her 20s or 30s with long ginger hair.
The film opens with Julia performing in two different productions, then a shot of her skipping in front of a group of other performers. Then Julia is looking directly at the camera in Germany’s Kampnagel theatre, a large ex-warehouse building. Julia is wearing a green cardigan. She says: “How I started dancing? I started dancing when I was still living with my mother. That was the moment I started dancing.”
The camera cuts to Julia performing in Theatre Hora’s Tristan and Isolde. She is smiling and wearing a bouqet of flowers on her head as she moves through a black tunnel illuminated by circles of white light. Then, Julia is depicted sitting in a dinghy at sea, looking mournfully at the camera.
Next Julia is depcited dancing in a more hip hop style, doing the splits in front of a group of other performers. As this happens on screen, of it, Julia says: “When I dance, I feel free.
I can do anything. I can show what I can do and what I can’t do. And what I did before.
Julia is then depicted acting dramatically, wearing a sparkly silver dress. The camera cuts to her and 3 other performers holding swords and shields whilst green-screened against the sea. It cuts back to her dancing energetically. Julia says “Faust, a play by Michael Elbe. He’s a director. He chose me to play God, because he thought I would do a great job and I did an audition. I was God. I was so happy. I say: “Light! Let there be light!” and that is how the play starts.” Julia is shown in Faust, being held up by people in yellow rain jackets.
Julia is shown dancing slowly and expressively and then we cut to her being interviewed again. She says: “Music is a part of me. When I don’t have music around, I can’t be myself.”
The credits roll, and then an end card with project and partner logos.