Blogs

So happy to serve as a guide during this two-week process at the Lake Studios Berlin, as we attempt to reconsider media and performance, to name the potentials and pitfalls as we seek to see our practice anew.

Digital Body Workshop Journal: Day 1 - Abandoning Preconceived Notions: What are our expectations about performance and media? What are the prejudices and stereotypes we carry inside, our points of excitement and our irritations? We spent several hours exploring these questions during the first day of the workshop. It is our attempt to see the digital materials with fresh eyes so we might put them to use in new and unexpected ways.

Digital Body Workshop Journal: Days 2 + 3: What is an Image? The word slips easily from the tongue, but what do we really mean? We dug in to that topic as Benjamin Krieg shared from his vast body of work with groups like She She Pop and others, as Marlon Barrios Solano pushed us inward and outward with several poetic provocations, and Armando Menicacci led us through a rigorous, analytic examination of the structural implications of the word itself. We responded to all of this by having each participant create and share rapidly improvised scenarios comprised only of a projector connected to a video camera in relation to the performer and audience – each of which led to long, rich discussions of the implications and possible meanings they portrayed. When thinking about performance, what does the word image conjure for you?

Foto: Benjamin Krie

Digital Body Workshop Journal, Week 1 – "What is it?": For the last six days, we have attempted to (re)encounter the image: to imagine it, to read it, to wrangle the hardware and software required to record and render it. We did this within the frame of our overarching goal: to abandon preconceived notions and see these materials in a new way. As we start week 2, I ask myself, "how did we do?"

In the end, it is impossible to ignore or deny thousands of years of seeing and making images, from cave paintings to virtual reality. It's in our bones. Yet, we managed to keep ourselves in a constant state of questioning. As Bebe Miller wisely advised us to do last night, we kept stepping back and asking ourself one question, over, and over, and over again.

"What is it?"

For me, embracing that question was the great success of this first week. Now we will see if we can do the same with "data."

Foto: Benjamin Krieg

Digital Body Workshop Journal, Days 7 & 8– Big Data: As we did with the word "technology" in the first week, we started the second week by asking "what is data?" This question could be debated ad infinitum, but here I will mention three crucial points: "data is interpretation and representation", "data is a reduction", and perhaps most importantly "data has value". But how does this apply to using data, from a performer or from the world, in a performance?

Our guest speakers Ruth Gibson + Bruno Martelli (https://gibsonmartelli.com), and Bebe Miller (https://bebemillercompany.org) helped us dig in to those points with presentations that touched on technologies ranging from virtual reality to motion capture, though they continuously kept their focus on aesthetics and expression.

With this in mind, we began to navigate "the gear": this is a sensor, this is the kind of data it measures and represents, this is how we get it into the computer, and this is what we can do with it – practical realities that can often seem at odds with the artistry.

To assimilate and balance the theory, the "how to", and the desire to express and share our artistic vision, remains the goal of this second week.

Benjamin Krieg

Digital Body No. 1 Journal - Day 9 - Data Invasion: Today's pictures feature only the participants of the lab, because we spent nearly two hours today vigorously responding to the works presented by our guest speaker Christopher Kondek. (https://doubleluckyproductions.org)

I cannot reproduce the incredibly well articulated points that so many of our intrepid explorers offered in a Facebook post. Suffice to say, thanks to Chris' presentation and the ensuing discussion, we could no longer pretend that data was just a stream of numbers captured from a performer's body. Losing control of your data, especially for those who live under authoritarian regimes, is not a game. It is a matter of life and death – a notion that will weigh strong on our minds as we continue through this week.

Berlin-based collective StratoFyzika is currently in residency at Lake Studios Berlin as part of the DanceTech AIR, under the mentorship of Isadora creator Mark Coniglio. As we continue developing our latest project, Phi, we will continue to blog about the process.

Daria (dancer/choreographer):

We're at the point of putting it all together, finding transitions between sections, or conversely, non-transitions (this would be like a blunt change of thematic direction with no legible attempt at a smooth segue). It's interesting to me how the piece can start to become the transitions, and vice versa. That is, how a sharp, sudden shift in tone (resulting from one of these 'non-transitions') can start to inform the structure and meaning of the whole work. For instance, without giving away too much, we're playing with sharp, surprising shifts in lighting to help define segues and lead to what we know as a new section (though the audience, of course, won't necessarily read it that way). As we experiment, I am reminded of just how much lighting – such as a simple on/off – shapes and changes my perception of space and time. Particularly as an audience member attending a performance, sitting in darkness while watching a highly lit area, when the stage lights go off, you are literally blinded, nowhere and nowhen. It can feel like an eloquent palette cleanser, or a disorientng goof, depending on how you use it. Regardless, it always makes me suddenly and irrevocably aware of myself and my body, because that is all I can sense in that moment. So then that dislocation, especially if you use it repeatedly, becomes a palpable feature of the piece.

Movement-wise, I'm starting to settle into it more, to better understand how I physically inhabit it. Formally, this piece can be quite complex. One section in particular is structured very intricately and requires constant counting, but the counts and rhythms between Hen and I alternately go in and out of sync, so I have to be careful not to get so caught up in her timing that I lose all track of my own, or conversely, to become so self-focused that I miss those moments of synchronicity with her. It's a delicate balancing act between autonomy and connectivity. Likewise, the ceaseless counting can start to bind me physically, so I have to remember to find release and abandon within the control, something I think every artist can relate to.  

Ale (visual and lighting designer):

Keywords for the lighting work are 

distance

Depth

density

gravity

time shift

Movement

libration

-

dissolve

retract

expand

overlap

The lighting transforms the stage during the entire performance into an architectural machine . Four stage lights are positioned at the 4 highest corners of the stage, while two projectors are on the ground along two opposite sides of that same square. Playing with the different nature of PAR cans lights and projection, we aim to find interesting ways to reveal the bodies and tell their movement .

From the very beginning of our work on Phi, lighting sound and movement have been developed in parallel. This kind of workflow has been very satisfying in the way every small progress in one of the fields inspires unexpected approaches to the other two.

One of the very first ideas was using quick flashes to highlight small portions of the bodies. This way we could reconstruct the choreography by showing/hiding, putting together small chunks of the original movement and giving it another shape. We could easily notice, during these tests, how the body transformed into a composition of many other bodies while being sculpted and dissolved.

The flashing, coming from different directions, was particularly disorienting when seen from the static point of view of the audience and these body chunks, once immersed into that specific space/time environment, were opening up to new possibilities and interpretations.

When we met again at Cultivamos Cultura (Sao Luis, Portugal) for the first residency, watching an updated version of the choreography where the different materials were coming together in the shape of real sections inspired me to push this flashing idea further. As the simple body movements were chasing each other in repetition and variation, the lighting score could lose its spatial randomness and start following a circular path ( the one of a loop ). This way the stage became a rotating reference frame in which the perception of said repetitiveness could be distorted by speeding up and down this visual looping reference clock.

4 lights at the 4 edges, fading in and out one after the other, as to give a key to read the inner repetition happening in the movement. As your perception of the motion of a train changes if you are you sitting on another train moving in parallel to the first one.

The idea of having an audience on two sides came when we were brainstorming about lighting positions in relationship to choreographic pathways. As we noticed it could be interesting offering two simultaneous points of view, the movement was redistributed in the space according to that, and we added to the set-up two projectors pointing towards the center of the stage from opposite sides .

The use of projectors makes it possible to work at higher speeds, and the character of their light beam, combined with a fog machine,  is able to fill the space with solid dense physical light. The space surrounding the stage disappears in the dark. While the dancers move through it, they pierce that material and phase in and out with a backlight - frontlight repetition game .This particular lighting suddenly brings the audience way closer to the performers, creating a much more intimate environment.

For this piece we decided to win some time using already-assembled sensors systems by x-io technologies, rather than starting from scratch and design our own as we did in the past.

The two sensing units, one for each dancer, are equipped with accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. We are currently experimenting with calculations between these data to be able to extract interesting values to be used to control properties of light and sound.  An interesting approach could be calculating difference values between the two body movements, to be able to highlight the phasing out that gradually happens after a unison.

(Anthony McCall´s work inspired the use of projectors and fog to create physical lighting dimensions).

(Photo edit of Daria Kaufman in rehearsal for Phi)

(Schematic of lighting trajectories in Phi)

Announcing a 3 Month Residency June - August in Berlin, Germany!
Enjoy the beautiful Studio, private flat, swimming, festival in the city (Tanz im August) during the  vibrant summer in Berlin.
3 room apartment (75 sqm) next to the Lake Studios Complex.
Perfect for 2 people/ small family. Completely furnished, Two seperate bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen and bathroom. Waschingmachine available for use. Included with the apartment is the possiblity to use the beautiful Studios.
Up to 100 hours per month for creation, movement research, workshops, etc. Beautiful large garden in the back. 5 minute walk from beautiful lake and forest. Easy access to S-bahn connection quick to the center of Berlin. Shops and all necessities close by.

Cost: 980 Euros/month all inclusive (warm) for two people. 3rd Person - 120 Euros extra.
 Preferred is a 3 month rental, but shorter may also be a possibility. 
Application Deadline March 30th.Please check www.lakestudiosberlin.com for more information on the space.
All inquiries to : lakestudiosberlin@gmail.com

When I dance is now online. Please feel free to have a look and follow

us to get updated about our first Premiere!

http://www.whenidancefilm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/whenIdancefilm/

The Trailer of Connecting Fingers is now online!

https://vimeo.com/130348459

https://www.facebook.com/whenIdancefilm

For a cultural project four dancers from Israel, Spain and Italy explore and interpret with their bodies the stories of some refugees in Berlin.

When I Dance Film Documentary: our teaser is coming soon!
You can support us liking our page (and If you really like it, feel free to share ;()

dance-tech Space@ Lake Studios Berlin
www.lakestudiosberlin.com

Since January 2014, dance-tech Space@ Lake Studios Berlin is offering to international interdisciplinary movement and media artists the possibility to live and make art  for a month in a peaceful artist run working, living and performance space in Berlin, Germany.

The artists will enjoy the recently opened Lake Studios Berlin, a unique living and creative working space with fast connection into the exciting creative center of Berlin and with the advantage of the quiet beauty of Mueggelsee lake and a forest at only 5 minute walk for depth concentration on research, creative process and swim in summer months.

Lake Studios Berlin is primarily a working space for 8 diverse movement artists with the need to go deeper into their work and practice. It is an experience of collaborative living and creation, and the resident will have the opportunity of artistic exchange as well as access to inside information about the dance scene in Berlin.

The artist will enjoy a private apartment and access to a dance space with sprung wooden floors.

The spaced is allotted per month.

The space is offered selected first-come, first-served (FCFS) and a lottery when more than one. 

Interested artists must be dance-tech.net members, and send a brief description of your project or how do you envision to use the space. 

Write an email to marlon@dance-tech.net with dance-tech Space@Lake Studios Berlin in the subject line.

Months available will be announced on this page and via email to the network members.

VERY IMPORTANT:

This is a self generated residency and it is is conceived as an independent (not funded) collaboration between dance-tech and Lake Studios Berlin as a way to facilitate alternative and affordable spaces for independent artists and creative researchers. 

The selected artist will pay his/her transportation expenses and will pay 600 Euros per month to cover costs.

Residency includes:

• The artist will have access to 100 hours of studio space per month, divided between the large and small Studios.
• Possibility to teach classes, workshops and / or organize a performance or work-in-progress showing during the residency period.
• The artists will be featured  and should blog about their process on dance-tech.net for the month of work.
• The applicants must be a dance-tech.net member  

NOTE:  The residency  does not provide any equipment. 

There is one projector available in the big space.

Artists to date:

January 2014 | Shai Faran

February 2014 | Jeanne Bloch

April 2014 | Zoi Dimitriu

May 2014 | Eroca Nichols

June 2014 | In Kyung Lee

July-August 2014 | Jeannette Ginslov

Note: artists for September, October and November  2014 have been selected.

Stay tuned for new for upcoming months available!

Artists, scholars and practitioners can apply for the residency. Their practice and research should relate to the  topical themes (not exclusive):

New media and performance

Movement practices  and economy

Improvisation and real time systems

Screen-dance  and movement based installation

Choreographic scores and new media tools (generative tools)

Movement, somatics and technology

Mobile devices, locative media and choreography

Social media  and trans-local collaborations

Contemplative practices and movement

  

Decisions will be communicated one week after deadline of each residency.

This residency is planned for a single artist but space can accommodate a couple. There is a fee of 150 Euros extra  for additional person.

The artists will live in a small, minimal yet comfortable one bedroom apartment in the Lake Studios Complex.

Questions?

marlon@dance-tech.net

The Paris based interdisciplinary artist  and sustainability specialist Jeanne Bloch was awarded the dance-tech AIR Berlin for the month of FEBRUARY 2014.

Congratulations!

This is her page  in dance-tech.net

http://www.dance-tech.net/profile/JeanneBloch

During her residency she will work at the beautiful  Lake Studios Berlin next February she will work on her project Augmented Dance by light: A research on e-textile and dance

During her Dance-Tech/Lake Studio Residency, she will continue her research on e-textile and dance with the help of Pauline Vierne,http://www.dance-tech.net/profile/PAULINEVIERNE.

By using different techniques to light the body space, she creates a material that is neither light neither movement but can exist only by the combination of both.

"Work at the Lake Studios will help me create a vocabulary based on movement and light. As an outcome of this work, I will design a framework for a 4D dance/light class!!".

This research is part of TAFO#2 - The Temple Had Oblique Window. A dance performance that discuss today's role of climate change discourse.

http://jeannebloch.com/work-in-progress

Jeanne Bloch is an interdisciplinary artist using her mixed background as a choreographer-artist and sustainability specialist. Jeanne worked on issues such as fair trade, child labor, sustainable consumption and global warming…Issues that drive her artistic work as well.

In December 2009, she started at the occasion of the Copenhagen Summit an ongoing artistic project: “The Man with a Dove” and was also a member of the Climate Sustainability Platform at COP15. In the same time, she initiated Twice Out of Paradise, a research program integrating ecological experimentation and choreographic creation, which benefited from a residency “d’essai” at the Paris based cultural center,104. In 2012, she organized in collaboration with the artist Prue Lang a workshop on ecological experimentation in dance performance hosted by Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.  In 2013, she was selected to present her approach at FASTE#1 professional day on Arts and Sciences @ La Faïencerie, Théâtre de Creil.

She was an invited artist to Imagine 2020 (Art & Climate Change) Summer Lab #2 in Portugal.  Jeanne isIRCASE (International Research Chair in Art and Sustainable Enterprise) associate artist and a member of the AACORN Art & Business Network. She enjoyed being a student at Stanford Practice Based Research in the Arts MOOC/course from Leslie Hill, Associate Professor, Performance Making and Helen Paris, Associate Professor, Performance Making.

Jeanne lives in Paris and worked in Europe, the United States, South Korea, Republic of the Congo, Israel and El Salvador.

  
SYMPOSIUM
July 7-12, 2014 
THE LIVE LEGACY PROJECT:  CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN GERMAN CONTEMPORARY DANCE AND JUDSON DANCE THEATER MOVEMENT
 
A PROJECT BY TANZFONDS ERBE

The Live Legacy Project seeks to share the practices and techniques sprouted by the 1960s American avant garde and that migrated to Germany, often through the Dutch institutions (e.g. School for New Dance Development and European Dance Development School). The project reveals these revolutionary influences in German Contemporary Dance training, and highlights the visibility of such corporeal values in choreographic work and practice. What exactly are these embodied philosophies, and what kinds of cultural shifts have been enabled by their transmission?
 
The Live Legacy Project celebrates this movement by bringing together choreographers, dance artists, scholars, and educators, to converge in a six-day symposium. They will share their movement practices and stories through intensive workshops, lectures and conversations, and performances.
 
Funded by Tanzfonds Erbe - an initiative by the The German Federal Cultural Foundation. 
 

Come to tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf and join us for this landmark event.

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Online registration from March 15, 2014. Options and Fees. 

A) Symposium with Workshops
Fee includes morning & afternoon workshops, lectures & conversations, corresponding events, performances, lunch and The Underscore with Nancy Stark Smith & Mike Vargas (music). 
without Lunch: 190 - 240Euro
including Lunch: 230 - 280Euro
 
B) For daily visits:
Lunch: 8Euro. Please note: Lunch reservations only possible until June 15th.

Live streaming lectures & conversations, corresponding events: 6Euro/Day

C) Evening Performances
Tickets for evening performances will be available through the website of tanzhaus nrw: http://tanzhaus-nrw.de/ 
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For more information: http://the-live-legacy-project.com/
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Symposium Guests are:
Ric Allsopp, Angus Balbernie, Agnès Benoit-Nader, David Brandstätter, Fabian Chyle, Trude Cone, Jess Curtis, Joao da Silva, Pauline de Groot, Ingo Diehl, Benno Enderlein, Malgven Gerbes, Yvonne Hardt, Dieter Heitkamp, Ines Heckmann, Peter Hulton, Bernd Ka, Irmela Kästner, Thomas Kampe, Eva Karczag, Gabriele Klein, Stephanie Maher, Nina Martin, Gisela Müller, Martin Nachbar, Lisa Nelson, Mary O'Donnell, Peter Pleyer, Ka Rustler, Isabelle Schad, Barbara Stahlberger, Nancy Stark Smith, Silke Z, Alexandra Waierstall and Gabriele Wittmann.

More Info here

BA Dance, Context, Choreography (degree: Bachelor of Arts)
Start: winter term 2013/14 (October 2013)
Application deadline: Sat, December 1st, 2012 to Tues, January 15th,2013
Admission exams: to be announced

MA Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA) (degree: Master of Arts)
Start: summer term 2013 (April 2013)
Application deadline: Mon, October 1st, to November 15th, 2012
Admission exams: to be announced

MA Choreography (degree: Master of Arts)
Start: winter term 2014/15 (October 2014)
Application deadline: Sun, 1 December 2013 to Wed, 15 January 2014
Admission exams: to be announced

Kyung Lee is a movement, performance, and video artist. She enjoys nicknames and things like nicknames.  She will be in residency at the Lake Studios in Berlin  the whole month of June 2014.

She will be focusing on her inquiry on “performance.” She would like to expand her research on performance through interactions with artists in Berlin. She will meet/interview each artist individually and ask her/him to do a minute of performance, whatever “performing” means to the artist in her/his current artistic research and interest. She will accumulate all the performances into a video art on the theme of performance.

Along with the video project, she will engage in daily research (inside and outside the studio) on what performance is to her.

In her proposal she states:

"At the end of this seemingly unattainable inquiry – for I believe that the seductiveness of performance lies in its ever-changing nature – I will present a performance piece. This work will be shaped by my research and physical practice as well as by the interactions/collaborations with other artists.  I would like to meet you if you are an artist currently in Berlin. Please email me to: dkenlno@gmail.com "

BERLIN

Moderation: Ka Rustler

In English I Free Admission

Read more

The American dancer, teacher and therapist Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of the SCHOOL FOR BODY-MIND CENTERING®, belongs to the pioneers of somatic practice and is one of the most influential and important movement researchers of our time.

Venue: Uferstudios, Uferstraße 23, 13587 Berlin
Directions: U8: Pankstraße, U9: Nauener Platz, S-Bahn Gesundbrunnen