Dance: Andrea Casallas
Sound & Live Music: Reto Weber
Voice & Reading: Cello Wyss

“OFRENDA” is an interdisciplinary performance by Andrea Casallas that brings together body, sound, voice and community in a poetic and ritual space.

At its core lies the body: a place of memory, transformation and encounter. Through Butoh dance, live music, spoken word and participatory action, the performance explores presence, gratitude and the possibility of creating something collectively.

The work opens with a poetic image:

One body.
One voice.
They fill the moment —
becoming space,
becoming presence,
becoming offering.

Inspired by Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and the idea “Alles ist eins” — “Everything is one” — “OFRENDA” approaches the performance space as a place where distinctions between body and sound, individual and community, performer and audience can gradually dissolve.

The performance unfolds as a living encounter between Andrea Casallas’ Butoh-based movement, Reto Weber’s live sound and percussion, and Marcel Wyss’ reading of selected passages from Siddhartha. Silence, movement, rhythm and voice continuously influence one another, creating a performance that remains open to the uniqueness of each moment.

The audience is not positioned outside the work. Its presence becomes an essential part of the performance. During the second half, participants are invited to contribute to the collective creation of an installation of offering and gratitude. Through this shared action, the performance develops from an individual bodily experience into a collective gesture.

“OFRENDA” is ultimately an invitation to experience art not only as something to be observed, but as a space to inhabit together — a temporary community formed through body, sound, voice and presence.

The work premiered in Biel/Bienne on 11 June 2026 with the support of the City of Biel/Bienne’s Department of Culture.

Andrea Casallas is a Biel/Bienne-based dancer, choreographer and Butoh artist. Her work explores the body as a place of memory, transformation and encounter.

Reto Weber is an internationally renowned Swiss percussionist, composer and improviser based in Biel/Bienne. His musical language is rooted in rhythm, improvisation and intercultural exchange. He is also closely associated with the development of the Hang.

Marcel Wyss is a Zurich-based journalist. In “OFRENDA”, his reading of selected passages from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha brings voice and literary language into dialogue with body, sound and silence.