SoBo Productions is a contemporary dance company founded and directed by Darja Reznikova, based in Mannheim. 

The company came to life and is driven by Darja’s ongoing research into the interrelationship between body movement and the sound of the voice, particularly the vibrational and transcendent properties of the human body. SoBo’s productions follow Darja’s SoundBody method, blending abstract, integrative, and transdisciplinary approaches to create immersive experiences across stage, screen, and site-specific performances. The company’s raw and visceral works are further designed to produce visually, acoustically, and emotionally transformative content, striving towards a holistic constellation of space, sound, and movement. 

SoBo Productions acts as a project – based Company engaging different local as well as international collaborators from a variety of disciplines based on the individual creative concept of each work.  

Additionally, SoBo also engages in educational outreach, offering programs in schools and communities, promoting inclusive dance projects that challenge conventional ideas about the body and human existence. Through its work, the company seeks to make dance accessible to all while participating in innovative research collaborations, especially related to the science of sound and vibration.

SoBo’s productions are supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg / Landesverband Freie- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg (LaFT), Kulturamt Mannheim, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Nationales Performance Netz /Neustart Kultur/Stepping Out, Mannheim Sagt Ja!, Schwindelfrei Festival Mannheim, EinTanzHaus Mannheim, Inter Actions Heidelberg and Theater Felina-Areal Mannheim.

“A sound body is a free, healthy and expressive body. Hence, the focus is on creating dance that is resonant, invigorating and enlivening to the spirit. My vision is to generate conscious work that captures the core of a person in a deep, authentic and empowering way, highlighting the ephemerality of the human body with its uniquely sonorous, visceral and intangible elements. With each project the further aim is to raise awareness of the healing qualities of vocal sound and movement through the art form of contemporary dance. The resonating state experienced by the dancer or audience member does not only merge the body and its environment, but also serves as a contribution to the expansion of human consciousness and thus wellbeing of all” – Darja Reznikova

Darja Reznikova

“After dealing with the physical body in a very superficial and tangible way as a ‘silent’ dancer, I was drawn to create and produce work that deals with rather integrative and ephemeral aspects of the moving body and its vocal sounds, crossing and even transforming beyond the individual disciplines of Song, Dance and Drama toward an inherent knowledge of the body“ – Darja Reznikova

Darja is the founder and artistic director of SoBo Productions, her contemporary dance company based in Mannheim, Germany. She is a choreographer, movement director, dance educator and researcher in the field of Interdisciplinarity.

Originally born in the Ukraine, she first started her dance education there, then moving to and continuing to train and study in Germany, USA and Great Britain. She holds a Master of Arts in Dance Performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance, a BA (Hons) in Dance and Theatre Performance from Bird College and a PGCLTHE from Rose Bruford College in London.

In her freelance dance career, she has worked with many international choreographers, directors and companies including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Joe Wright, Anh Ngoc Nguyen, Theo inArt, H2 Dance, Cameron McMillan, Angela Woodhouse, Colin Poole, Appetite Dance Productions and Joss Arnott Dance.

She now resides and works as a choreographer, contemporary dance teacher and researcher in the Rhein-Neckar area, presenting her work across Germany as well as organising community projects.

She is faculty staff at the Contemporary Department at Dance Professional Mannheim and after years of teaching and lecturing at Bird College in London, she continues to work there as an external academic tutor and marker.

Darja teaches Release Technique and explores the holistic integration of movement and voice. The latter led to the development of an innovative, integrative, and interdisciplinary training method called SoundBody, which focuses on performers in relation to the reciprocal nature and the inherent knowledge of the body. The findings of her research have been published as part of innovative assessment practices in Higher Education. Darja is fluent in three languages (German, English and Russian) and is a certified Reiki practitioner. Her further interests include holistic and somatic practices (e.g. Yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Klein, Body Mind Centering, Authentic Movement) as well as spiritual and psychic studies.