Energetic forces as aesthetic interventions

AH!OH! Choreography of Kat Válastur Picture by Dorothea Tuch

Perceptual Policies of the Body / Scenes Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (Studio 11) June 22nd till June 23rd 2018

The scientific-artistic symposium organized as part of the DFG-research project 'Transgressions: Energetic Processes of Body and Scene' explores historic, contemporary, aesthetic and praxeological approaches to the energetic. The ways in which energies are mobilized, directed and addressed do shape the perceptual politics of performing arts. Energetic processes cross dance, performance art and installations. They transform the body, evoke specific states and, manifesting as choreographic structures, push towards intensities.

In contemporary dance and performance, energetic processes no longer seem like mere conditions of form but appear as distinct aesthetic interventions. Following this observation, several questions arise: Which manoeuvres of mobilization, activation, initiation, regulation, navigation and containment of forces are perceptible? How do energetic forces emerge as aesthetic interventions and what draws a choreographer's interest toward them? What kinds of functions, potentials and promises accompany the energetic? How can we describe and analyse energetic processes in dance and performance? The scientific and artistic symposium addresses these questions integrating praxeological, aesthetic, historic, discourse-analytic and sociopolitical perspectives.

Program.

With contributions from Sabine Huschka (Berlin), Barbara Gronau (Berlin), Susanne Franco (Venedig), Meghan Quinlan (California), Lucia Ruprecht (Cambridge), Gerald Siegmund (Gießen), Christina Thurner (Bern), Susan Kozel (Malmö) and the choreographers Margrét Sara Gudjónsdóttir (Reykjavík, Island/Berlin) and Kat Válastur (Berlin)

Conception: PD Dr. Sabine Huschka in Kooperation mit Prof. Dr. Barbara Gronau
Funded by  Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Conference languages: English / German