December 6 & 7, 2025/ Teaching
Weekend Workshop
December 6 & 7 @ DOCK 11, Berlin
10:30–17:30
Join Peter Pleyer for two full days of moving, exploring, and performing! We’ll warm up with anatomical release and partner work, then dive into playful and deep improvisation scores – from Contact Improvisation and Authentic Movement to Contemplative Dance Practice & Six Viewpoints.
► 4 sessions, 3h each
► Sliding scale: 120–180€
More info and registration ►► info@crankybodies.com
Let’s get cranky!
16/ 17/ 18 October 2025
SOLO 2025 + SLOW RAVE
Peter presents his new solo on 16/ 17/ 18 October 2025 at DOCK11 Berlin.
Peter Pleyer – Solo 2025 + Slow Rave
More info & tickets ►► here
Just Dance? Peter Pleyer takes stock: he grapples with his development as an ageing dancer in complicated times and invites the audience to a „slow rave“.
So what remains? The release technique and contact improvisation of Steve Paxton’s solo works, set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the flowing, complex dances of Trisha Brown, which continue to exude physical appeal.
But what of his quiet presence, personal storytelling and meditation? What of his contemplative movement practice with Barbara Dilley and his queer political activism?
Does this solo mark the end of a series of dance works that began in 2014 with the „Ponderosa Trilogy“ at Tanzhaus Düsseldorf, which, in retrospect, can be seen as a ten-year exploration of his personal dance history and the evolution of contemporary dance?
This solo tells the story of changes to the body and its movements, and of a perception practice accompanied by curiosity and a love of dance.
Peter Pleyer presents a two-part evening in the theater hall in co-production with DOCK ART: after his solo performance, the audience is invited to a “slow rave.”
31 October & 1/2/3 November 2024
VIEW.POINT.MARY
Tanz Performance in EDEN***** Berlin
More info + tickets ►► hier
12 October 2024/ OPEN WORKSHOP
VIEW.POINT.MARY
Join us for an OPEN WORKSHOP! ⚪️⬛️🔷🔴🌈
In connection with our upcoming piece VIEW.POINT.MARY, we invite you to explore some of the improvisation-based work methods of Cranky Bodies a/company.
After a warm-up, we will dive into the Six Viewpoints created by Mary Overlie, a visionary dancer and choreographer who developed a new system for theater and dance. Her method is based on the idea that anyone working in the performing arts can enhance their ability to communicate with the audience, as everyone becomes an observer/participant in the viewpoints.
Alongside we’ll explore Contact Improvisation, a key element of our Cranky approach, and how we implement this technique in our work.
► Open to all levels – beginners and advanced movers welcome
► FREE of charge
► Saturday, 12.10.2024 | 11:00 – 16:00
► EDEN Studio, 190 E.G., Berlin Pankow
►► Registration required. Please email saskia@crankybodies.com.
With the support of DOCKART and Hauptstadt Kultur Fonds
2/3 & 7/8/9 December 2023
Terrestrial Transit
Durational Performance/ Video Installation
2/3 & 7/8/9 December 2023
DOCK11 Berlin
More info & tickets ►► here
5-9 June 2023/ WORKSHOP Fabrik Potsdam
CRANKY BODIES DANCE TOGETHER
CHOREOGRAPHY & VISUAL DESIGN | WITH PETER PLEYER & MICHIEL KEUPER / CRANKY BODIES A/COMPANY
05 – 09 JUNE 2023 | POTSDAMER TANZTAGE 2023 | INTENSIVE WORKSHOP
The workshop combines choreography and design by using techniques from contact improvisation, ensemble work, and release technique. Complemented by visual artist and fashion designer Michiel Keuper, it aims to increase awareness of space, shape, color, and objects.
For more info and registration ►► click here
March 2023
Magazine Susch / Artist Booklet
Cranky Bodies a/company was commissioned to design this year’s ‘Artist Booklet’ for Magazine Susch MS#4. More Info ►► here.
6-9 October 2022
Terrestrial Transit
Durational Performance/ Video Installation
6/ 7/ 8/ 9 October 2022
DOCK11 Berlin
More info ►► here
3-4 June 2022
Terrestrial Transit/
KICK OFF
Dance and Talks with Cast and Guests
SOPHIENSÆLE Berlin
More info ►► here
21 May 2022
Lecture-performance Muzeum Susch
‘Cranky Interventions. Dance and visual arts in choreographic dialogue’
Saturday / 21.05
14.00 / Auditorium
in frames of MS Performance Weekend
During their lecture-performance, Eszter Gál, Michiel Keuper, and Peter Pleyer will dance, talk and visually compose in Muzeum Susch’s auditorium along the lines of their history and the research into ‘Terrestrial Transit’ that will focus on how dance and choreography are connected to forms of protest in Hungary and Poland before 1989, and how the work of postmodern dance can be a form of protest in the contemporary crisis – a crisis of Health, of Capitalism and War.
For more info click ►► here
May 2022
TanzRaumBerlin – Magazine Cover
The Kick Off of Terrestrial Transit is featured on the cover of the Tanzraumberlin issue for May/June. You can read the full article ► here
February 2022
Podcast: Good Choices Peter Pleyer
In February Peter was in conversation with Sabine Parzer from the Holistic Dance Institute.
“Good Choices – A holistic conversation about dance, art & life with Sabine Parzer” is a podcast series inviting professionals from the dance, art and related fields to talk about choices they make artistically, personally, environmentally, politically and spiritually. How do these choices impact and inspire their work, physical and mental health, family life, and the communities in which they live?
Listen to the Podcast ► here
August / September 2021
ON SITE / OUTSIDE
Testplatz Wedding – hosted by Galerie Wedding
Rathausplatz, Müllerstrasse, Berlin-Wedding
The interdisciplinary ensemble Cranky Bodies a/company is characterised by the close interweaving of choreographic and sculptural composition, which is constantly renegotiated with the help of structured improvisation. This negotiation process is continued in public, urban space: The ensemble explores the effect of the surrounding architectural structure of the town hall forecourt on its own network of relationships between dance and transitional sculptures.
More info and photos ► hier
Juli 2021
Ponderosa Residency
In July, the company spent a two-week residency at Ponderosa, in Stolzenhagen, Brandenburg.