Have you heard…? Initially, long before the existence of gossip columns or the yellow press, the term ‘gossip’ referred to close friends and a space for sharing private things. Dancers Julia Maria Müllner, Camilla Mercedes Schielin and Yoh Morishita combine loud whispering and gossip, truth and fiction into an alternative narration. The three parts of shining rose are connected by the motif of a rose as a metaphor for sprouting, flowering and withering. The piece is about volatile moments and transience, but the titular rose is also a symbol for romance and passion, or in its own words: ‘Bathe me in hot water and I will ease your pain and cramps. I can confess your feelings when you gift me to your lover. When you pluck me from my garden, I will sting. In my love and my proclivity for romance, I am passionate. I rock in the wind with sensual timelessness. Call me Vibrant Red! In my inscrutable complexity, I am drama and magic. I nest beguilingly. Call me Velvet Plum! In my self-denying admiration and longing, I bid farewell and welcome new beginnings. I cling to the walls of innocence. Call me Pearl White!’

maria mercedes consists of Julia Maria Müllner and Camilla Mercedes Schielin. They live and work as dancers and choreographers in Vienna and Stockholm. As a duo, they make choreographies inspired by popular culture and move them into bizarre settings. Both of them are interested in fluctuating encounters between audience and performance. Since autumn of 2020, maria mercedes’s pieces have been shown at WUK, Tanzquartier Wien, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Haus.Wien, Mühlbauer, Bridging Cologne and KEX Fringe Kyoto in collaboration with Yoh Morishita.

Yoh Morishita is a choreographer and performer based in Vienna. Upon acquiring her bachelor’s degree in architecture and design, she studied contemporary dance in Austria and Belgium. In her practice, she also concerns herself with the fusion of Asian and western cultures in her biography as well as in modern Japanese history. The world premiere of her performance Chrysalis was shown at imagetanz 2024.