Lake Studios Berlin

ARCHIVE OF DESCRIBED DANCES

During my residency at the Lake Studios Berlin in June 2020 I asked colleagues to send me a dance of theirs that I would learn, audio describe and add to a growing archive of described dances. The dances that I received exist as words and texts and as shared body memory. They can be listened to or read on paper. They can be transmitted or learned and circulate until they grow into something else that needs a description of its own. 

This first dispatch includes works by FIA Neises, Anna Nowicka, Isabel Lewis and Vincent Riebeek. They are delicate and funny, making up for weird combinations and unexpected trajectories. And most of all they are a great reminder that dance can be at the most beautiful when it extends beyond the visual. 

You can listen to them ( or read their transcripts) here https://www.emmilouroessling.com/archive-1/

Currently I’m preparing for a second dispatch of dances and I would like to ask you, dear blog readers and listeners, to get in touch with me if there is a dance in particular, whether from you or someone else, that you would like to receive in it’s audio described version. Or maybe, if there is a dance that you would like to pass on to someone else via the archive of described dances. 

excerpt from Anna Nowicka – Wander #20

then she stretches out her arms high up towards the neon lights and pulls her body up as if wanting to reach them. once she is standing, her eyes fixed onto the neon lights, her hands drop down to her face and cover her eyes. it’s a childish image of hiding in plain sight. a touching attempt in camouflaging yourself away. she then lowers her hands, while keeping her eyes still closed, she moves through positions and through the space and once again drops down like a goal keeper. this time covering her eyes with one hand again.
she gets up to sitting. her eyes are now open again and looking into her hand in confusion and with curiosity. she spits into her hand and seals the spit with both hands in to the floor.