No Dance in Japan
Stephie Hacker
2015, 2020
Artist Statement
I love to travel around the world for being inspired by new people, art, landscape, conversations, etc. I miss working with other artists across the globe but it also brought me back to a new form of solitude and intimacy. The first part of my work is a video of a song called "Dance" which I wrote in Vienna, performed and recorded it in New York City with a great band over there. Then this song was chosen by a Japanese Dance group called "Seel" - a fabulous group of deaf kids, who almost couldn't hear my music, but could feel it - and I was invited to perform this and other songs with the group at the Nara music festival. Back in Vienna, I made this Video. The second part is a video of me, performing alone in my living room, singing a song called "Wellen von Angst" (Waves of Fear), which deals with being alone, not able to perform on stages and fears of losing somebody due to the pandemic and the normality within all this. I wrote this song in German, which also reflects the feeling of being confined in my little world, but also opens a new level of intimacy for me.
I always was fascinated by Japan. In 2014 I played in a club in NYC, owned by a Japanese guy. He told me about his other club in Tokyo and invited me to play there. It was hard work to put a tour together and in the end the support of the Austrian Embassy made the journey possible. At a concert for the Austrian embassy I had the chance to meet some people, who wanted to bring me back for a solo-tour through Japan. Since then I have been in contact with a lot of great people from Japan and people living in this wonderful country. Everything is so different, but the universal language of music makes it possible to connect immediately. I miss Japan.
Artist Bio
Stephie Hacker is a musician from Austria, based in Vienna. She studied piano and singing at the University for Music and performing arts Vienna, received her Master of Arts degree in 2008. As a musician she is active in the areas both of jazz and classical music and works as a musical director and composer for Viennese theatre productions. She found fulfillment in writing her own songs, what conglomerates all her musical backgrounds. Within the last years she released the critically acclaimed albums „Sensibility“ and „Cascade Effect“ an "You and Me". She is playing concerts with her „Stephie Hacker Band“ or as a Solo artist around the world.