Lake Studios Berlin

“I never felt so comfortable telling secrets to strangers.” 

“I thought I was done thinking about the effects of the pandemic, but after this weekend I am not sure I ever even started to really think about it.” 

“Sometimes I wanted more time with each score, but then I saw value in every new task.”    

“I want to use these scores in my regular life, not just for artistic purposes, not just for pandemic purposes, but for general life purposes. I can imagine doing these with my partner or family … or my cat … or just with myself …”  

The Introduction Score: 

First, strike a pose! Hold the pose throughout your introduction. 

Next, introduce yourself and include in your intro each of the following elements: 

~ 1-2 things about yourself. 

~ Where you are coming from on this day. 

~ Where you will go after this day. 

~ Why you are here. 

~ Include somewhere in the above points one thing about yourself that is not true! 
 

The Stop Dance Score: 

This score alternates between movement/dance explorations (with music) and guided conversations (no music). The movement explorations last for the duration of whatever song is being played (some song suggestions below). Each conversation is guided by a specific question and lasts 5 minutes. There are six rounds.  

Round 1: 

Movement Guide:  Shake (music suggestion: The Knife- a tooth for an eye) 

Conversation Question:  What has changed for you in the last 1.5 years? 

Round 2: 

Movement Guide:  Circles

Conversation Question:  How did the pandemic affect your relationship to physicality, sensation and touch? 
 

Round 3:  

Movement Guide:  Pump/get the fire going (music suggestion: Gijensu-Raveheart) 

Conversation Question:  What places and spaces have you visited in the last 1.5 years? 
 

Round 4: 

Movement Guide:  Stretch (music suggestion: Rihanna- Love on the brain) 

Conversation Question:  What do you need more of? 
 

Round 5: 

Movement Guide:  Connect with your surrounding landscape

Conversation Question:  What do you need less of? 
 

Round 6: 

Movement Guide:  Connect with the space and people

Conversation Question:  What question do you want to ask? 
 

The Mental Map Score: 

This exercise goes with The Stop Dance Score. Write single words or short phrases that came up during the “Stop Dance” conversations on post it notes. Lay all the notes out on the floor, or stick on a wall, so that you have an overview. Spend about 15 minutes doing this, then move on to “The Body Research Score”. 

The Body Research Score: 

Choose 2 mental map words and explore them physically. How can the words be embodied?  
 

The Cloud Gazing Conversation Score: 

This score is done in pairs. Partners lay side by side, on their backs, gazing up at the sky if possible, otherwise, simply gazing upwards.  

Partner 1 will speak for 30 minutes, uninterrupted. Partner 2 listens but makes no response. After the 30 minutes, partner 2 has 10 minutes to respond/reflect on what they heard. During the response, partner 1 listens and does not speak. Switch roles.  

Talking points: What is your practice / work at the moment? How is it changing, is it changing? What are you questioning? Are there problems, are there things to zoom in or affirm or enhance? What is / has been going on? What is bothering you? 

In a nutshell: 

30 minutes of uninterrupted talk. 

10 minutes of uninterrupted response. 

Switch roles. 
 

The Warm-up Ping Pong Score:  

(suggested by Antje Pfundtner who knows it from Jenny Beyer)  

This one gets the blood flowing! 

One person offers any physical warm-up exercise, the group follows along. When  the person leading the exercise is ready to pass the guiding on to another person they shout “Ping”  … anyone in the group can pick up the imaginary ball by shouting “Pong” and thus become the new warm up leader! Continue to ping and pong for 15 to 20 minutes, or until good and warm and centered in the body. 

The Mental Map Development Score: 

Returning to the words written down in “The Mental Map Score”, start arranging the notes into groups of likeness. What notes go with each other? If doing this score in a group, no need to take turns, but do work in silence. Each person can continue to rearrange the notes into different groups as they see fit. Once a series of groupings are made, stand back and observe. 

The next phase of this score is to re-arrange a note or set of notes one person at a time. After moving a note (or several), the person making the arrangement should explain to the rest of the group why they chose the new grouping. A chance to shed light on the internal decisions that guide the mental map groupings! 

~~~ 

All of the scores recorded above carried the forum towards a grand finale. After moving, conversing and reflecting on the past, the forum launched into the future with the help of a very unique guest … 

Johan from the Future: 

We were visited via Zoom by “Johan from the Future” who gave a short talk on cultural perceptions of time, followed by a guided meditation in which participant’s imaginations were invited to envision far into the future. On the heels of the meditation, the group began creating a collective timeline that ran from point zero (a moment from the preceding year and a half that represented a point of change) to 100,000 years into the future.  

While working on the timeline, participants were able to consult (via Zoom) with Johan From the Future, asking questions that ranged from what is the largest volcano in the world to what year the first theater will open on Mars. 

The Letter score: 

If you have made it this far in the scores, then it is time to write your future self a letter. Reflect on what you want to remember from the above exercises and write it down in a letter to yourself. Seal the letter in an envelope, add your address, and then give it to a trusted friend who will mail it to you at some unknown future date. Now carry on with life and forget about the letter! 

The Final score: 

The final action is a group hug … pandemic style.  

Stand in a circle with friends and sweep your arms out to the side to energetically encompass the whole group. Then wrap your arms around your own chest and squeeze tight. Hug yourself to hug the whole.  

Sick Woman Theory, a manifesto by artist Johanna Hedva 

johan forsman is part of the team running the platform and venue skogen in göteborg, Sweden. skogen tries to work with artists in longer collaborations with an ambition to learn and think together. In the last years skogen also became a publisher and a press, and we develop software to organize artist driven spaces or local communities, and to manage and share common resources. As modernity is collapsing in global crises, we believe in getting entangled in various art initiatives and local community processes and in concrete, practical issues around how we live, work and eat, and in how resources are used, owned and shared.

lea martini works internationally in the field of dance making / transmitting / performing. berlin is her homebase. attracted by intense physicalities she started out by learning gymnastics and later found her way into the world of contemporary dance. pieces she‘s part of – often created in collective structures- are physical approaches and realisation of socio-political issues. lea is part of psr, a collective running and envisioning heizhaus, a space between artistic laboratory and cultural neighbourhood centre at uferstudios berlin. 

antje pfundtner in Gesellschaft (APiG) stands for different artistic  activities of Hamburg based choreographer Antje Pfundtner, developed together with core team A. Kersting (dramaturgy), H. Melder  (production management) and J.Lüthje (distribution) and collaborating guest. APiG creates stage works and initiates formats of artistic sharing. https://www.antjepfundtner.de/en/tischgesellschaften/

noha ramadan (they/them) is a dancer, performer and educator based in Amsterdam. Their artistic work starts with the body and manifests as text, performance and moving image, creating situations in which perception and logic are destabilised, allowing subjects to appear as suggestive and poetic traits. Noha is co-founder of Jacuzzi, an artist-run space at the crossroads of performance, visual arts, and  time-based media in Amsterdam. They graduated from Das Choreography in 2017 and are a mentor and teacher at the School for New Dance Development and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.