April 2023 – DO-PO-DO

30. April 20234. July 2024

Exhibition:
This may be the place
Performing the Museum

Javier Arozena, a member of the Dance On Ensemble, co-curated the exhibition “THIS MAY BE THE PLACE. Performing the Museum” at the Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, which brought ephemeral art forms such as dance and theatre to the space of the museum. What they have in common is that they use body and the performative gesture as raw materials, without producing objects or lasting artefacts. How then can dance have a presence in the museum? How can it be preserved and recognised?

The exhibition focuses on the frictions between the performing arts and museums, and the absence of the so-called living arts in traditional museum spaces. It features material and immaterial pieces, voices and gestures, remains of actions, but also stage and film pieces, as well as the bodies of the performers, which are memory archives in their own right. All these are activated by the movements of the visitors as they walk around the exhibition.

27. April 20234. July 2024

Making Dances
Cunningham, Monnier & Dance On Ensemble

The radically experimental dance piece “Story” (1963) by Merce Cunningham is one of the most memorable works in modern dance history. In the historical work, the dancers were able to make decisions about space, time and the sequence of their movements. In the first part of the evening MAKING DANCES at Kampnagel, this historical masterpiece of postmodern dance is reimagined by the Dance On Ensemble. Based on fragmentary archive material (a single film recording, choreographic notations, anecdotal reports), the dancers integrate new elements into the indeterminate structure of the piece. At each venue, a local artist now takes on the historical role of Robert Rauschenberg, whose décor at the time consisted of objects he found near the theatre. In Hamburg, the work of Hamburg-based visual artist Anik Lazar will be part of the stage choreography. The second part of the evening is a contemporary, choreographic response to “Story”: French choreographer Mathilde Monnier responds to Cunningham’s work with “never ending (Story)”, using the poetry of David Antin, a contemporary of Cunningham/ Cage, as a starting point.

24. April 20234. July 2024

Symposium Dancing Diaspora: Opening Up European Dance

Symposium

On 24 April 2023, Cultural Studies (KU Leuven) and STUK House for Dance, Image & Sound host Dancing diaspora: Opening up European Contemporary Dance, a symposium that brings together speakers from different theoretical fields with dance scholars, practitioners and interested audiences to think about dance and diaspora cultures.

Despite its air of neutrality and inclusivity, European contemporary dance has for a long time systematically excluded choreographers of colour and dance styles that originate within culturally diverse communities, or has included them through mechanisms of cultural appropriation and exotification. In the last 10 years however, choreographers of colour have increasingly claimed their position in the European field of dance. Building on different cultural experiences and references, these choreographers have introduced new choreographic strategies and have drawn attention to underrepresented aesthetics and forms of (embodied) knowledge.

Speakers:

Funmi Adewole (performer, dramaturge and dance researcher), Fabián Barba (choreographer, performer and dance researcher), Cecilia Lisa Eliceche (mother, dancer, choreographer and campesina).

Research seminar

The Symposium is followed by the Research Seminar Dancing diaspora: Rethinking Contemporary Dance discourses on Tuesday April 25th. Organised by the KU Leuven, Ghent University and Antwerp University, the Seminar welcomes (PhD) students and academic researchers as well as artists, dramaturges and practitioners who are engaged with the theme.

17. April 202325. August 2023

Choreographic Turn #7
Deborah Encounters

CT#7 focuses on the notion of dance practice. Since the 1960s, everyday dance practice has been established as a type of everyday dance work where dance artists explore their work and occasionally share the results of this exploration with the public.

With this event, we provide affirmation and visibility to dance practice, and its practitioners examine what dance practice can and could become in our wider environment at this moment in time? In addition to Deborah Hay, four of her collaborators from different periods of her and their work are invited to Choreographic Turn #7 to expose the notions, forms of work and outcomes associated with dance practice.