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ABOUT DANCE 2022, Episode 1, Practices of Freedom – focus on Jennifer Lacey

Apr 9th 2022 Apr 10th 2022

“This dance has the power to motivate those who witness it beyond any expected heights while engaging both a sense of hope and gravity”

“It’s a cool, romantic practice, and it’s a true delight for the feet”

~ The above quotes come from descriptions of Jennifer Lacey’s work. They were introduced by Alice Chauchat in her workshop as instigations for participants to interpret into movement explorations.

TALKS: Practices of Freedom

Ben Woodward: Ben talks about biology and freedom, making a case for agency as an alternative to freedom, for how intentionality functions in biology and how biological constraints funnel behavior.

Jennifer Yvette Terrell: Jennifer starts with her personal history, asking what it means to be a token. From there she takes us on an intellectual quest that investigates culture and art’s political functions, as well as how democracy and community engage with each other.

Ana Vujanović: A talk on individuation and the feedback loops between organisms and environments that encompass the individual. Discussing her new book, Ana makes a case for the social, biological, technological, and dramaturgical conditions that come together to form the transindividual.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Practices of Freedom

SPECIFIC BOOKS

Ingold, Tim. 2008. Ways of Walking; Enthnography and Practice on Foot.

Jablonka, Eva & Lamb, Marion. Evolution in Four Dimensions; Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life

Vujanovic, Ana and Cvejic, Bojana. 2022. Toward a Transindividual Self: A Study in Social Dramaturgy. 

ALSO CHECK OUT

Luhmann, Nikolas: sociologist and philospher.

Varela, Francisco: biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist. 

Wynter, Sylvia: writer and cultural theortist.

ARTIST and PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Alice Chauchat, since 2014 I’ve been developing a choreographic research on the ethics of intimacy across radical difference. I use dance to activate correlated issues such as not- knowing tending towards or approximating and I study the qualities of engagement these generate. This ongoing research generates a body of work in the form of dance scores choreographic concepts and performances. It takes place in dance studios on stage and as printed matter. I have been sharing this work with hundreds of peers and students across the dance community in Europe and North America in collegial and educational contexts.Most of my activities revolve around dance: from dancing to choreographing teaching supporting peers making up structures for collective thinking and making writing and generally pondering through choreographic practice on ethics and aesthetics of alterity and togetherness. I’m currently a guest professor at HZT Berlin.

Ben Woodard is an independent scholar living in Germany. His work focuses on the relationship between naturalism and idealism during the long nineteenth century. He is currently preparing a monograph on the relation of naturalism and formalism in the life sciences. His book Schelling’s Naturalism was published in 2019 by Edinburgh University Press.

Jennifer Yvette Terrell is a Term Professor at Regis University in Denver, Colorado; USA.  Her areas teaching include music and society, contemporary feminist and queer theory, and technology studies.  Her areas of research include decolonial theory, democratic theory, and African politics.  She is currently exploring the relationship between myth/creative fictions and  modern political theory.  Her latest publication is “Perhaps They Were Never Human” a sci-fi love story set in the 30th century about the most drastic political event for modernman.  What happens when humans are forced to change their species name, Homo sapiens, to something else?

Ana Vujanović is a cultural worker based in Berlin and Belgrade. As an independent researcher and writer she works in the fields of performance, culture and gender studies.She is also engaged as dramaturge in contemporary theatre, dance/performance and art film. A remarkable part of her work is cultural activism and she has taken part in numerous self-organized, leftist and independent organizations and initiatives in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, and internationally.

Episode 1 Trailer

Perhaps the question is not whether theory and practice need each other, but rather how and in what ways their relationship can be mutual and dynamic. How can theory avoid ending up being a means to justify practice, and equally how can practice not be used to illustrate theory? Moreover, is it possible to engage in theory in ways that don’t homogenize reflection, nor overlook the diversity of bodies, subjects and lives? The starting point must be twofold, can theory or reflection be generative for the individual and boost her/his/their agency? Can knowledge, theory and analysis also be forms of engagement in or through desire and pleasure?

For the series inaugural event on April 9 – 10, the Berlin based choreographer Alice Chauchat will guide the participants into practices of freedom in reference to the work of Jennifer Lacey. Currently active in Stockholm, the American choreographer, for a long time resident in Paris, has been a key figure in regard to improvisation practices in particular in relation to organisation or dis-organisation of freedom. In the online talks following (taking place daily from 15:30 – 19:30), the philosopher Ben Woodard will discuss relations between freedom and agency. Jennifer Yvette Terrell from Regis University will complexify notions of tokenism and bring this in contact with the performance of identity. The performance scholar and author Ana Vujanović will discuss her upcoming book on transindividuality.

How do we today understand, claim and struggle for freedom, a notion that in ourpresent political climate simultaneously has lost its significance and seems more important than ever. How and in respect to what conditions does artworks, artists, institutions etc. refer to and practice freedom, and what is its relations to aesthetic experience is a central theme running though this spring series of events. Dancing, improvisation, and the body form our shared starting point.

Program

10:30-12:30 daily: Live workshops with Alice Chauchat

15:30-19:30 daily: Online guest artists and contributors: Ben Woodard, Jennifer Yvette Terrell, Ana Vujanović

Curated by Mårten Spångberg

Hosted by Alex Viteri Arturo & Mårten Spångberg

Assistance & Documentation: Jessy Tuddenham & Maria Kousi

Camera & Editing: Noam Gorbat

Artistic Direction: Marcela Giesche

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