14 - 17 AUGUST 2025
at Uferstudios Berlin - Studio 1
Over 4 days Sara Lu, Soroa Lear & Sebastian Abarbanell will transform Studio 1 at Uferstudios Berlin into a living space for creativity in performance, movement and collaboration. Each day we will share different offerings - performances, workshops, dialogues & more.
PROGRAM
THURSDAY 14 AUGUST
20:30 Performance
Room of Eccentricities by Sebastian Abarbanell as Maximise
FRIDAY 15 AUGUST
20:30 Performance
THIS IS A LOVE STORY by Soroa Lear
Ancient Future
Concept & Performance by Eros & Lulu
Sound by Slow Moon
SATURDAY 16 AUGUST
14:00 - 17:00 Workshop
The Embodied Poem by Sara Lu
18:00 - 21:00 Durational Performance:
The place where we remember by Soroa Lear, Sara Lu & Sebastian Abarbanell
SUNDAY 17 AUGUST
14:00 - 17:00 Workshop
VIBRANT BODY into MAYHEM by Soroa Lear & Sebastian Abarbanell
17:00 - 19:00 OPEN SPACE/JAM/CELEBRATION
PRICING
per Performance
pay what you can € 10 / € 15 / € 25
per Workshop € 22
If you are struggling financially but would like to attend GLITTER IN THE CRACKS please reach out to us via sebastian.abarbanell@gmail.com
ABOUT THE OFFERINGS
PERFORMANCES
Room of Eccentricities
by Sebastian Abarbanell as Maximise
Welcome to my Room of Eccentricities where we pay tribute to albums by queer music icons. This first edition is dedicated to Lady Gaga’s latest album MAYHEM - a genre bending master piece by mother monster.
I invite you into my living room, my sanctuary, my space of becoming, as it transforms into a stage for my fantasies to come alive. Here we celebrate the eccentric, the flamboyant, the tender, the defiant, the chaos and the beauty of the present moment. I let the music move through my body as every note, every beat, every lyric, every breath compose my journey through MAYHEM.
Let the record spin and dive in with me.
Concept & Performance by Sebastian Abarbanell as Maximise
with the support of Soroa Lear, Sara Lu & Tuan Ly
Music by Lady Gaga
14 August 2025 at 20:30
THIS IS A LOVE STORY
by Soroa Lear
THIS IS A LOVE STORY is a dance theater piece that tells a story of Cuba and diaspora, family and hauntings, lesbianism, and desire as an outlet for grief. Playing with the boundaries of truth and exaggeration, the piece tells a story of dead grandmothers, crumbling countries, and César: Boy, Dancer, and the ultimate romantic obsession. With a ridiculous and eros fueled crush as an anchor point, THIS IS A LOVE STORY invites you in for a hilariously heartbreaking ride through longing, grief, and the complexities of Latinidad.
Concept, Choreography, Sound & Performance by Soroa Lear
15 August 2025 at 20:30
Ancient Future
Concept & Perfomance by Eros and Lulu
Sound by Slow Moon
15 August 2025 at 20:30
The place where we remember
by Soroa Lear, Sara Lu & Sebastian Abarbanell
In this three hour durational piece, three performers explore their relationships to space, time and each other through the disorderly logics of queerness. Seeing queerness not only as a sexual orientation and gender identity but also as a state of constant expansion, disruption and illegibility, “The place where we remember” seeks to create moments of intimacy in unexpected places. Activating the space and blurring the definition of spectator, the work hopes to invite everyone to linger in the unknown, and to begin, again and again, together.
Concept & Performance by Soroa Lear, Sara Lu & Sebastian Abarbanell
16 August 2025 from 18:00 - 21:00
WORKSHOPS
The Embodied Poem
by Sara Lu
In The Embodied Poem, movement becomes a living language—a way to translate inner experiences into poetic form. Rooted in Butoh methodology and embodied exploration, this three-hour class invites you to delve into the body’s hidden landscapes—its rhythms, sensations, and untold stories.
Through guided improvisation, we will listen to what arises in stillness and motion, allowing our inner worlds to shape outward expression. Weaving together movement, writing, and voice, this practice opens space for deep listening and creative unfolding, where poetry emerges not only through words but through the body itself.
16 August 2025 from 14:00 - 17:00
VIBRANT BODY into MAYHEM
by Soroa Lear & Sebastian Abarbanell
Join us for a collective journey where movement, sensation, and sound collide. VIBRANT BODY into MAYHEM begins with our foundational practice VIBRANT BODY—an open space to tune into the inherent movement that lives within all of us. Through anatomical awareness, sensory activation, and deep listening, we awaken the body’s layers and rhythms, inviting movement that arises from within rather than being imposed from outside.
From this place of vibrancy, we dive into MAYHEM—Lady Gaga’s latest album and sonic world. Together, we navigate the album as a movement landscape, using each track as a portal into emotion, energy, and embodied storytelling. Through guided improvisation and collective exploration, the workshop transforms the album into a lived experience—an ecstatic, chaotic, and deeply personal dance ritual.
No prior dance experience is necessary—only a willingness to move, feel, and be moved.
Come as you are, let the music move you and step into the MAYHEM.
17 August 2025 from 14:00 - 17:00
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Photo by Sara Herrlander
SEBASTIAN ABARBANELL (they/he)
My name is Sebastian Abarbanell (aka Maximise) and I am a queer artist living in Berlin. My work is based in movement and dance spanning performance, creation, facilitation, and drag. My mission is to challenge oppressive power structures—hetero- and cisnormativity, patriarchy, and whiteness—by nurturing and amplifying queer practices and their accessibility. I see queerness as both identity and ideology, fostering self-liberation beyond queer-identifying bodies.
My distinct movement practice is embedded in somatics, groove, trance and authentic movement inspired by queer club and rave culture, spirituality, and contemporary movement and dance practices based in improvisation and authentic expression. Much of this is channeled into the facilitation of my weekly movement sessions VIBRANT BODY at Tanzfabrik, a practice that is meant to make movement and its endless benefits accessible to all bodies through an individual and collective sensorial approach.
As a performer, I have toured internationally with artists such as Sasha Waltz, Sidra Bell and Kianí del Valle. My creations have been presented and honored globally and repeatedly funded in Germany. I teach professionals, students, teenagers and amateurs at institutions like Trinity Laban, NYU Tisch and Dutch National Ballet. Since 2024 I have expanded my performance practice through the art of drag under the name Maximise which has shaped my artistic and personal identity through radical embodiment of queerness.
www.sebastianabarbanell.com / @sebastian.abarbanell @queenmaximise
SOROA LEAR (she)
Soroa Lear is a queer Cuban-American dancer, performer, and writer based in Berlin. She completed her studies in dance and comparative literature at Reed College, which sparked her interest in the intersections of movement and critical theory. Her work is heavily influenced by physical theater, drag, Gaga, and nightclub culture, and sees performance as a way to break hearts and make people laugh. She has worked for the Staatsoper Berlin, Rebecca Howell, Sebastian Abarbanell and Aru Ray Tormann amongst others, and has performed in spaces such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Sophiensaele, and KINDL- Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst. Soroa has also premiered her own works: ‘Look! Lilies, Limerence”, created and performed with Rayne J. Rayney at Ohm Berlin (October 2024), and “THIS IS A LOVE STORY” a solo work created and performed at Ballhaus Ost (May 2025). She is currently a member of the performance collective RAYNE & CEREMONY. Alongside her performance work, she regularly teaches at Tanzfabrik Berlin. Her written works have been published by Penny Press and Confluence Journal.
Photo by Olesya Fedulova
Photo by Tian
SARA LU (they/she)
Sara Lu (b. 1985, Spain) is a Berlin-based artist, performer, and choreographer trained in Ballet, contemporary dance, and Butoh. They work as a movement facilitator, performing artist, and choreographer. They have been an in-house choreographer at RambaZamba Theater, an inclusive theater employing artists with disabilities since 2016. Their practice explores authentic expression and the connection between inner experience and physical form, drawing from somatic awareness, voice, and diverse movement practices. They are part of KDV Performance Group since 2019 and have perform under Kiani’s Del Valle direction in “El Tunel” and “Te veo en el Horizonte”. Since 2024, Sara has also been performing as a drag creature under the name “Lulu”, expanding their artistic exploration into the realms of gender fluidity, transformation, and radical embodiment.