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Hi All,Here is the latest from Earthdance.JUNE 14 – 28, SEEDS Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, + Science)SEEDS Festival is a unique interdisciplinary summer festival dedicated to arts and ecology. SEEDS features workshops, collaborative design projects, live performances, films, panel discussions, interdisciplinary investigations, and an archiving project. SEEDS cultivates innovative practices, by researching the connections between green, embodiment, justice, interconnectivity, reflection, investigation, art, science, and sacred.SEEDS 2009 will focus on potentiality . Potential for new growth is generated in places where diverse organisms meet. In this year of potential political change, we invite this phenomenon into our interdisciplinary investigations .For full information visit www.earthdance.net/seedsVisit our 2008 Ning site to see more about last years festivalCurators 2009: Olive Bieringa, Melinda Buckwalter, + Margit GalanterBelow is a list of workshops that make up the SEEDS Festival with brief descriptions:SEEDS ScheduleJune 14 - 19 Ritual Dance: Intimate + Universal Spaces with Diego PinonDiego Piñón's Butoh Ritual Mexicano Dance is a creative research practice based around personal experiences, collective symbols, and deep expressive needs. Intense physical training cultivates individual creativity through the use of emotional environments and energetic charges within a supportive, non-judgmental atmosphere. Together, each individual reinforces the exchange and expansion of collective energy in order to realize a communal dance creation.June 14 - 18 Along the Watershed with Simon Whitehead and Jennifer MonsonIn this workshop we shall walk, dance and locate the watershed divide close to Earthdance. We will explore its ecology both as it resides in the movement and scale of this land and in its constant imminence in our lives. The workshop will culminate with a 24-hour dance process and fast, followed by food and a day of performance- making in response to the place and the workings of the watershed.June 14 - 18 Mycoscaping + Ecology of Transformation with Rafter SassLiberation Ecology - Design Studio.What would "sustainability" look like, if it refused to sustain white supremacy? What could "liberation" look like, in a society headed for ecological collapse? Come and help fill in the missed connections between social and ecological strategies, in and environment of creative collaboration.Mycoscaping IntensiveMushrooms everywhere! Food, medicine, bioremediation, and more - fungi have a crucial role to play in creating healthy and abundant landscapes. Come explore the world of wild and cultivated fungi through a holistic permaculture lens. Includes lots of hands-on!June 19, 20, & 21 The Sustainable Landscape R.U.S.T. - Skott KelloggThis is a three-day workshop. It can be taken in its entirety, as a one-day workshop for introductory permaculture principles, or as a two-day weekend workshop for hands-on practice. In this class we will focus on two different systems that can be incorporated into a sustainable landscape: aquatic polycultures(swamp gardens) and compost teas (bio-brews). For the first one, we build an actual pond, and seal it using a method called "gleying". The pond will then be stocked with an array of aquatic plants and animals that can be harvested to make food, fuel and fertilizer, in addition to creating a beautiful water garden that attracts wildlife. We will discuss the many benefits of aquatic polycultures, their use around the world, and how a system could be modified in order to raise fish. Compost tea is a liquid culture of beneficial microorganisms that can be applied as a fertilizer to crops, or be used to remediate contaminated soils. In class, we will brew a tea and analyze it beneath a microscope. Day 1 (Friday) of this class will consist of an overview of these and other sustainable technologies, and day 2 and 3 will be more hands-on oriented, as we do the work of building the pond.June 20 & 21 SEEDS WEEKEND Mini-FestivalThis weekend mini-festival within SEEDS consists of several 3-hour long workshops. There are two themes from which to mix and match. The classes will start Friday evening and continue through Sunday mid-day. You are welcome to come for the whole weekend, or drop in, as well.Green/Body/Local. How might somatic studies create a basis for, inform, expand, and interweave our social and environmental consciousness? These workshops address the body as investigator/mediator of issues concerning environment, ecology, sustainability, and/or social justice. With Sondra Loring + Kavitha Rao (Somatics and Sustainability), Kristin McCardle (Gettin' Your Greeny Green On), Moti Zemelman + Camille Renarhd (Pockets of Resistance), and Karl Kronin (Dry Earth).Contact Improvisation, the Social Experiment Continues. CI, previously described as "confronting comfort culture" and "a political shock absorber," has more recently been called out for its lack of racial diversity. Where is the social experiment at today? These workshops will consider the power of the body in movement to question our social conventions/compositions/hierarchies through the practice of CI. With Neige Christenson (Freeing the Contact Mind), Kerstin Kussmaul ( The Intelligence of your Touch ) , Dan Bear Davis + Sarah Day (Corporeal Permaculture), and Dustin Haug + Tamin Totzke (Redirecting Yes).June 21 - 28 Eco-Art for Everyday Life with Beverly NaidusThis course offers an opportunity both to learn about Eco-Arts and to develop a public project with the guidance of the facilitator. Participants will explore different ways of incorporating eco-art practices into their everyday life and their communities. We will discuss some of the ecological issues facing us both on the local and global level, look at the work of contemporary eco-artists, and develop some collaborative site-specific projects.June 21 - 28 The Prosodic Body - Integrating Interior + Exterior Spaces with Daria Faïn + Robert KocikThrough rigorous warmups and discussion we will trace the interconnectivity of the senses, organs, glands, emotions, and the ways in which language regulates the body. To this end we will draw upon Chi Gong, neuroendocrinology, Chinese 5 Element Theory, and prosody in particular. We will gradually orient ourselves in the external environment by introducing architectural terms. Over the course of the workshop we will draw rudimentary sketches and plans for a building designed for the explicit purpose of integrating interior and exterior environments.June 27 SEEDS PUBLIC COMMUNITY CELEBRATION: This is a full day and evening celebration of investigations that have taken place at SEEDS. There will be performances, classes, presentations, participatory events, and other interdisciplinary surprises for all ages. You are welcome all day or for part. Details TBA

SEEDS is hosted at Earthdance, a dance retreat center in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts featuring two beautiful dance studios, farmhouse, comfortable dorm accomodations, vegetarian cuisine, wood-stove sauna, spring-fed swimming quarry, and 100 acres of magnificent hills.
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I am will be leading a workshop in Geneva. More info here Arsenic – Lausanne - Switzerland from 8th to 19th juin 2009

Image/Motion : New Mediation of the Performance of Motion an interdisciplinary workshop by Marlon Barrios Solano

Guest of honor : Bernado Guiamba and Benedito Cossa, dancers and choreographers, Cie Esculturas Humanas based in Maputo, Mozambic.

In this workshop we will survey and explore the impact of recent developments of new digital technologies on the performance of movement, choreography and image construction within multimedia systems for performances or installations. We will investigate the coupling of movement and image and the creative/aesthetics potential of working with real-time interactive software, portable devices and the www.

Geared to professional dancers, choreographers, filmmakers and interdisciplinary artists teams, an emphasis will be on collaborative experimentation on the prototyping of multimedia works exploring the intersection of image and movement production and mediation. Main language of workshop : english

The workshop includes a technical class (dancers only) every morning from 10AM to 11:30PM. From 8th to 12th of June, i twill be directed by Banu Ogan and from 15th to 19th of June by Gilles Jobin.

Geneva Sessions 2009 is organized by Cie Gilles Jobin with the support of Arsenic-Lausanne, Pro Helvetia-Cape Town, La Loterie Romande, Association Vaudoise de Danse Contemporaine, le Fonds de Formation Professionnelle et Continue Genève and les Rencontres Professionnelles de danses – Genève.

GENEVA SESSIONS 09 MADE IN LAUSANNE Arsenic – Lausanne - Suisse du 8 au 19 juin 2009 Image/Mouvement : Nouvelles relations 
un workshop interdisciplinaire dirigé par Marlon Barrios Solano. Invités d’honneur : Bernado Guiamba et Benedito Cossa, chorégraphes, Cie Esculturas Humanas basée à Maputo, Mozambique Nous travaillerons sur l’impact des récents développements des nouvelles technologies numériques sur le mouvement et la chorégraphie, ainsi que sur la construction d’images dans les systèmes multimédias pour les performances et installations. Nous ciblerons notre recherche sur les liens entre le mouvement et l’image, ainsi que sur le potentiel artistique et esthétique des logiciels interactifs en temps réel, des dispositifs portables et du web. Voir dossier complet ci-dessous. Destiné aux danseurs, chorégraphes, cinéastes et équipes artistiques interdisciplinaires, l’accent sera mis sur l’expérimentation de prototypes multimédia explorant les correspondances entre l’image, la production de mouvement et la médiation. Langue principale du workshop : anglais. Le work shop comprend une classe technique réservée aux danseurs tous les matins de 10h à 11h30. Elle est dirigée du 8 au 12 juin par Banu Ogan et du 15 au 19 juin par Gilles Jobin. Formulaire d’inscription (voir ci-dessous) à retourner d’ici au 11 mai 2009 à genevasessions09@gillesjobin.com Confirmation des sélections le 15 mai 2009. Geneva Sessions 2009 est organisé par la Cie Gilles Jobin avec le soutien de l’Arsenic-Lausanne, Pro Helvetia-Cape Town, La Loterie Romande, l’Association Vaudoise de Danse Contemporaine, le Fonds de Formation Professionnelle et Continue de l’Etat de Genève et les Rencontres Professionnelles de danses - Genève.
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Dance tech books and articles

I am reviewing a new text by Johannes Birringer. Has anyone out there read it? It is titled: Performance, Technology, and Science. I would love to hear from choreographers and/or engineers, tech/artists what you think of it. Steve Dixon also did a substantial work two years ago on New media Performance, and Susan Broadhurst and others have put together several volumes and I was wondering what the community's reactions or thoughts were on any of these publications? I would be very interested in hearing about books and articles that have been important to your work that deal with both performance and new media or technologies, immersive, interactive, online, in installations, in galleries and/or proscenium-based. thanks,Katherine MezurAssistant ProfessorUniversity of Washington, SeattleChairSociety of Dance History Scholars 2009 Conference:Topographies:Bodies, Sites, Technologies June 19-22 (Stanford University and San Francisco)
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Participation Makes the Site!

Hello dance-techers, Welcome the new members! Dance-tech.net is conceived as a distributed and decentralized open platform for generation information and knowledge. It is a communicational intervention in our cultural system that allows us to be proactive, critical and responsible for the generation of knowledge about our practices and happenings without depending in the main stream (often) centralized media platforms of the establishment, and commonly dominated by market forces and traditional perspectives of the system of distribution of art. I am very happy with the increased participation in last three months but still receive some emails with newsletters and press releases from some members asking me to post them. Humm! Sometimes I do...but you can do it yourself... In this short message I thank you for your willingness to participate and I encourage you to be part of the conversations, to showcase, to challenge, to respectfully disagree, to update your profile, to invite friends to join and to request friendships creating your internal emergent network. To share! I invite you to continue using the platform for video sharing, events promotion, and participate in discussions and groups. Express your self customizing your page design and layout! Find creative ways to using them! Suggest readings! Make a collaborative poem or a dance! or just say hello! Meetup face to face with dance-tech.net members of your city! Take advantage to the different kind of organizations that are members...We all can help! NUMBERS: I think that the usage numbers will motivate us: in the last two months we have maintained an average of 1500 page visits a day and we have reached the 3000 page visits a day several times. We have reached critical mass and we are manifesting the synergies of participation that this open platform allows! It is the participation of people what makes a SITE, in cities and the internet. We do make this site together! So, we are growing and we keep rocking! Please review these links: Pioneers and New Explorations on dance-techTV + What is dance-tech.net + How to use dance-tech.net? + Tangible benefits for dance-tech.net members + Share videos of your work and process + Upload your screendance videos + Watch dance-techTV + Watch DANCE TECH/Program + Watch more than 80 dance-tech.net interviews

+ Support dance-tech.net

Any questions contact: marlon(at)dance-tech(dot)net or just comment here! Marlon barrios Solano Geneva I also want to thank the Gilles Jobin Company (Switzerland), TMA Hellerau (Germany) and STEIM (the Netherlands) to make possible this research adventure
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Critical Movement Practice on Empyre

Everyone should check out -empyre- on "Critical Movement Practice" this month. Guests include Stamatia Portanova, Johannes Birringer, Laura Cull, Sarah Drury, Erin Manning, Nora Zuniga Shaw, Stelarc and myself. Click here to join in the discussion!Below is my introductory post:Hello everyone! What an exciting opportunity to engage with thistopic, Critical Movement Practice in such an open forum and for such agenerous period of time. I do hope that many people from manyperspectives get involved in what I am sure will prove to be aninteresting discussion. To start things off I will share some thoughtson my artistic work and academic scholarship, if you will allow me totemporarily bifurcate these two inseparable aspects of my career. As achoreographer who has a particular interest in digital media, Iexplore real-time dancer/audience interactions with digitalperformance technologies including live video motion tracking andmotion tracking sensors. My work with this technology has led me toquestion how digitally facilitated movements impact our physicalawareness and stand relative to dance history. As a femalechoreographer, I find relationships between dance history and digitaltechnologies particularly important as I consider social relationsthat might instantiate a classically masculinized audience gaze.Projection screens, for example, can hang to segment a stage,consequently obstructing the audience’s view. This can empower adancer to appear and disappear, or join the audience in watchingprojected images. The performer can transcribe the space betweenaudience members, screen and projection thereby destabilizing anotherwise objectifying gaze. Doesn’t this seems like such a simpleanswer to an audience/dancer relationship that choreographers haveworked to deconstruct for decades?! Even with the introduction of adestabilizing projection, though, the relationship remains morecomplicated.In order to consider examples of how our everyday movements andtechnologies can both inspire and complicate dance choreography, Ioften turn to my experiences as an audience member, choreographer,performer and theorist as one moving/thinking body to complicate ahistorical situation of dance history alongside technology. Byconsidering my experience as an audience member and in thechoreographic and performance process, I hope to clarify whether ornot digital projection and presence can open the gaze and defuse thesubsequent objectification of a dancer. In doing so, I explore howdigital technologies can inspire and re-open my conceptions of whatchoreographing corporeal technology can be, or is. This research alsooften consists of philosophical perspectives ranging fromphenomenological to deconstructionist to historiographical standpointsamong others. As we write about critical movement practice I hope thatwe can think not only about questions surrounding the danceperformance space, that we think also about how we write theory thatspeaks to, or is movement and practice movement that speaks to, or istheory.
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Choreographer MONICA ANTEZANA is looking for her new dance production 'The G String Theory':FEMALE & MALE DANCERS/PERFORMERSinterested and experienced in both physical and theatrical work.WORKING PERIOD:Rehearsals: 1st of August to 30th of OctoberPerformances: 31st of October to 8th of November - as part of the German Dance Congress 2009WORKSHOP - AUDITION:When: Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of May, 10:00 - 19:00.(Contact me for other dates if you cannot on these).Where: Kampnagel Theater HamburgAPPLICATIONS:Only by invitation after sending your CV & Video Link until 10.05.09 to monicaantezana@gmail.comwww.monicaantezana.comwww.tanzkongress.dewww.kampnagel.de
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Call For ProposalsDIY 6: 2009Professional development projects BY artists FOR artistsDeadline for proposals: 11 May 2009DIY 6 is an opportunity for artists working in Live Art to conceive and run unusual training and professional development projects for other artists.DIY 6 builds on the strengths of previous DIY schemes which have been rewarding experiences for project leaders, participants and organisers alike.DIY 6 is a Live Art Development Agency initiative developed in collaboration with Artsadmin (national), New Work Network (national) The Basement (South East), Colchester Arts Centre (East England), Nuffield Theatre & LANWest (North West), and PLATFORM (South West and national).We want to hear from you if have an idea for an exciting, innovative and idiosyncratic Live Art professional development project that offers something new and is geared to the eclectic and often unusual needs of artists whose practices are grounded in challenging and unconventional approaches, forms and concepts. If you think you can initiate and run a DIY 6 professional development project then read the full application guidelines on www.thisisLiveArt.co.uk• We are planning to support nine DIY 6 projects across England with awards of £1,000 each.• Of these nine projects there will be one each specifically based in, and/or stimulating and benefiting artists from, the North West, South East, and East England. In a special one off initiative for DIY 6 we are also seeking proposals to lead two DIY projects in collaboration with PLATFORM which will address and revolve around the issue of climate change and climate justice, one of which must take place in Bristol. All other DIY 6 projects can take place anywhere in England.• All DIY 6 projects must take place between 1 August and 30 September 2009.Full application guidelines are on www.thisisLiveArt.co.ukEmail versions of the guidelines can also be requested from diy@thisisLiveArt.co.ukI believe 'DIY for artists' is a really productive form of training, as it is so specifically tailored to what I need. I've been on many training courses before but none that felt so relevant to me. To carry on the tailoring analogy - it's the difference between a bespoke suit and an off the peg outfit!! (Clare Thornton, DIY 1 participant)I’ve learnt more in these three days than in the past six months. (Casper Below, DIY 2 participant)The workshops have refreshed my outlook and contexts for making and performing artwork. (Jenny Edbrooke, DIY 3 participant)As a way of creatively engaging with others this was very different from anything I have experienced before. (Sarah Bell, DIY 4 participant)We were invigorated, perplexed, well fed, exhausted, annoyed, talkative, fit and sporty. We made some new friends and strengthened our relationships with the others we knew from before. We worked hard and had some fun. We wondered and wandered together. We considered resistance and hope and are left with more than enough food for thought. (DIY 5 participants on First Retreat then Advance!!)Reports on all previous DIY schemes found on www.thisisLiveArt.co.ukDIY 6 partners:www.thisisLiveArt.co.ukThe Live Art Development Agency offers resources, professional development schemes and curatorial and publishing initiatives to support Live Art practiceswww.artsadmin.co.ukArtsadmin is a national resource offering advice and professionaldevelopment for artists within in the areas of live and performance art, based in Toynbee Studios, London.www.colchesterartscentre.comColchester Arts Centre: Never knowingly understoodwww.nuffieldtheatre.comThe Nuffield Theatre Lancaster is a key UK venue for nurturing, presenting and commissioning artists working in experimental theatre, contemporary dance and live art.www.thebasement.uk.comThe Basement is a dedicated innovative and experimental live art venue with a regular programme for presenting national and international performance.www.platformlondon.orgPLATFORM combines art, research, campaigning and activism towards social and ecological justice.www.newworknetwork.org.ukNew Work Network supports the development of new performance, live and interdisciplinary arts practices by nurturing arts practitioners through the creation of innovative professional development activities that focus on networking, exchange and collaboration across the UK and internationally.Maria AgiomyrgiannakiLive Art Development AgencyRochelle SchoolLondon E2 7ESUnited Kingdomt: +44 (0)20 7033 0275f: +44 (0)20 7033 0276info@thisisLiveArt.co.ukmaria@thisisLiveArt.co.uklois@thisisLiveArt.co.ukandrew@thisisLiveArt.co.ukwww.thisisLiveArt.co.ukwww.thisisUnbound.co.ukThe Live Art Development Agency is an impressive, idiosyncratic example of what a small organisation can achieve as collaborator, conduit and cultivator.(Real Time, Sydney, Australia)
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Hiroaki Umeda was certainly one of the most interesting performers I saw this year at Dance Week Festival. Being completely aware of all possibilities and consequences of our modern society, Umeda strikes you directly in your mind if you are enough opened to recognize or perceive the voices, soundz and flashing of today’s digitized generation.You know that I was writing about him almost two months ago and I promised then to publish soon all the interviews I did with some dancers. So, the first interview from that series is here…Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Hiroaki Umeda…

Photo: Fred Villemin (c)

Since you’ve studied photography and then started to work intensively with your body, what I’m interested in is how you managed to connect those two disciplines? They certainly interact on many levels…U: I actually drop out photography (laughs). To me it is the same thing to express something because when I was studying photography I’ve tried to find what I can’t express with photography. Actually, I think that after ten years of studying dance I find it very difficult to work only with photography and I wanted to express changes in some circumstances. Since photography doesn’t have a time and dance have a time… This is for me the main difference between dance and photography. I can’t express the same thing I want in both of them.What do you think is right NOW more essential for your work… kinetic or visual aspect? … and why?U: My pieces don’t have a meaning in a way to say something. So, for me the important thing is to feel the experience of my piece. I mean, I want to stimulate the sense for the audience to feel my dance with eyes, heart, ears, so… I think… Also, I want to stimulate a reaction in their bodies.

Could you please describe me a little bit your working process from the very beginning?U: I make a drawing… Well, actually I am starting making music first, because music has a time. So this is very easy, to define the time. Then drawings; and dance comes the last.So, dance is then the latest accent in you artwork…U: Yeah, that’s right.

Photo: Dominique Laulanne (c)

You have a strong background in ballet, hip hop and butoh which are all different in social, physical and even, psychological meanings… Can you tell me what particularly fascinates you in street culture on one hand and the subtle powerful inner silence of butoh on the other hand? How do you connect them, as different techniques or as a source of inspiration?U: Basically, I’m very selfish, ok? I ’steal’ everything and put it in my pieces (laughs). Actually, I use butoh because I’m only influenced by Japanese culture, something like that…

Today’s use of technology and modern urban cyber punk society seems to be something that is occupying you? Staying a human being in modern ‘skyscrapers’ oriented landscapes looks like a hard quest… it reveals many questions…U: Yes, yes… Because I am a human being and I am nature.

Photo: Getty Images (c)

How do you use then technology in your artwork, as an equal performer, an extended part of you or only as a tool?U: I use computer only as a tool. But it is possible that it can become a part of me. The most important thing for using technology in my work is to use it to expand my possibilities as dancer. But I don’t want to be used by technology. No, no.

You have started recently with blogging on your site, having a kind of your personal diary with working processes. Obviously you are supporting this kind of expression…U: Yeah, it’s a great tool. I want to communicate with people. Because I don’t speak about my pieces in public, so sometimes is important to put something to a web site about your work and share it with the public.

Photo: Shin Yamaga (c)

Which artists had the most influential impact on you? Do your influences include manga and anime?U: Yeah, I like manga and anime. I was very influenced by the Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama when I was starting studying photography. And also painting… music… For example, in painting I like the work by Gerhardt Richter.Mr. Umeda, tnx 4 ur time!This interview was originally posted on Personal Cyber Botanica
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movilfilmfest 3 edition

Dear Dance-techsssit just started the movilfilmfesta festival on internet about short movies made with and for mobiles phonesthere is a bit of everything, short stories, video art, dance video....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJgLvzN2lMthis is a short cartoon i madeif you enjoy please vote and forward it!have a great sundaypaolawww.movilfilmfest.com
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movilfilmfest 3 edition

Dear Dance-techsssit just started the movilfilmfesta festival on internet about short movies made with and for mobiles phonesthere is a bit of everything, short stories, video art, dance video....this is a short cartoon i madeif you enjoy please vote and forward it!have a great sundaypaolawww.movilfilmfest.com
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Hiroaki Umeda is a multitasking artist… he enjoys dancing, choreographing, making videos, messin’ up with light & stage design, mixin’ soundz, writing a blog, working on site specific projectz, enjoying the nature… and he is definitely not a ghost in the shell but a real man!

Hiroaki Umeda was a photography student at the Nihon University in Tokyo, then suddenly at the age of 20 he realized that he’s more into moveable thingz… he took ballet and hip hop classes… and begun to work on his own solo pieces… in year 2000 he founded a company entitled S20 with whom he has produced till now 5 dance pieces: Ni (2001), while going to a condition (2002), Looming (2003) and Finore (2003), Accumulated Layout (2007), Duo - new version (2008).

He’s been known as a performer using heavily technology in his artworkz, therefore Hiroaki Umeda was a guest at many cutting-edge festivals related either with dance or contemporary art such as: Japan Dance Festival (Korea), KunstenFESTIVALdesArts (Belgium), Yokohama Dance Collection (Japan), Uovo e Contemporanea (Italy), FIND Festival (Canada) etc.Last year he was an artist-in-residence at the Chaufferie which is Philippe Decouflé’s rehearsal space, and the result was his newest performance ‘Accumulated Layout’.

Hiroaki Umeda attacks all your physical and mental senses with light and soundz. He uses subtle electronica and ambient sound (some soundz are even at the edges of music concrete) simply to pull you into his world… but he never let you go…The stage design is totally zen: pure minimalism… with dancer in the middle, but it’s not set up as a ‘saint’ persona in the middle of a stage altar… he is your guide… but not a dictator…

Having such a clear vision of space means that he has to be completely self-confident in order to maintain body&mind related focus…His movements and choreography are based on strong, fast, energetic, snatched movements which you can label as ‘hiroaki umeda language’, influenced by street art performative forms and highly tensive stillness he borrowed from butoh and ballet… and he is sooo good in it… a perfect mix… he is like a DJ asking himself ‘where is the pain?’, the answer is: everywhere!… but Umeda finds his way to challenge it…It’s interesting how he is managing and combining those different forms of expressiveness…Read the rest of the post on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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…and what brought my curiosity to this young and ‘multi-tasking’ dancer?! It was the sound thing, see. This is how I first spotted Matija Ferlin. More precisely, his subtle taste for electronica, then the Montreal’s post-rock gang around Constellation Records and Public Recordings… and I was totally convinced that something pretty cool and creative lies in his mind…Matija Ferlin is an interdisciplinary artist from Pula (Croatia), finding his way at the intersections of dance, theatre, photography and video art… he is a graduate of The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam… as a relatively young dancer he was accepted at the Sasha Waltz & Guest Company in 2005…

Photo: Paola Winkler (c)That fact gave him an extraordinary possibility to be a part of Waltz’s creative space in which the process of making and creating stands for totally mutual interactions between Creator 1 (choreographer) and Creator 2 (dancer / performer)…One may even ask himself, after working with a choreographer of such a calibre, what should I do now, after landing on the Moon?!Matija obviously doesn’t have such dilemmas because he is switching very often from choreography to photography (he was working with fashion photographer Heinz Peter Knes on the series ‘Lucky is the lion that the human will eat’)… from dancing to attentively listening the urban asphalt purr weaved by the beauty of post-rock (Ame Henderson’s /Dance/Songs/ with Public Recordings)… deconstructing the audience and himself (solo performance art piece SaD SaM)… exploring his obsessions with words and inner paths of every human being (video performance ‘Minor2 : Salut’ by writer, photographer and incredible illustrator Christophe Chemin)… showing us the importance of family roots within projects with his brother Maurizio ‘Unija’… or his own video art the very very Mediterranean stylish ‘Vuk-Vorbild Und Kampf’ (Part 1 and 2)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)So, I’ve invited Matija Ferlin at my blog for a small chat about his art… influences… obsessions…Hello Matija, what’s up?! What are you doing at the moment?! Projectz… solo workz…M: Hey Deborah, I am in a hotel room #515 in a hotel Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The laundry mat is kind of not so close to the hotel and the drop in laundry is rather expensive here (at the hotel ) so I am washing some undies and shirts to have for my trip back to Europe tomorrow. (I think this is the longest sentence I wrote in a while)Public Recordings/Ame Henderson’s work brought me here. We have our little east coast tour. We had shows in St. John’s last week, this week Halifax. Actually tonight is the last show of Dance/Songs at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax and tomorrow I will be spending some hours in the air having the ocean under. (Halifax-Toronto-Frankfurt-Ljubljana). In Ljubljana I will be the latecomer to Maja’s Delak new creation process. Serata Artistica Giovanile. We open the show on the 7th of May in Cankarjev Dom, so if you happen to be around – come! At the same time I am busy with opening a concept store “ARTIKL” in my hometown together with my brother Mauricio and in the free time I try to do some writing/research for my new solo work. I believe I like to keep myself busy.(I answered that a month ago. I admit my laziness. I therefore apologize. Now I will keep on answering the rest. I am on my way to Sarajevo with my show, I am fighting a flu. I am dealing with heat in the capital - ZG)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)Recently you’ve visited New York, as a part of residential programme, to work at Chez Buswick. How would you describe that experience… 2 videos you posted on MySpace are pretty much intriguing and conceptual…M: I have been invited through Jonah Boaker and John Jaspersee to perform on the opening of Centre for Performance Research in Brooklyn and together with that they offered me a residency at Chez Bushwick. They are incredible hosts, indeed they are. Brooklyn was an inspiring place to be for the first phase of my process. I started to work on my new performance some weeks before that so let’s say that the videos on Youtube are the result of the first phase of work. I am continuing the line of Sad Sam, and a concept of trilogy starts to appear the more I work on it. So the new solo work that I will continue to work on in Vienna during September; October will hopefully come out in January. Still negotiating the producers.

Photo: YouTube still by Matija Ferlin (c)What is the meaning of music and soundz in your art work?! Cause, seems like your essential / personal impulse comes not so from the basic rhythm but from a soundscape structure or the meaning of lyrics which are transformed into images in your mind… Classic or contemporary… Which are closer to your artistic habitué? … Or do you even find it important?!M:I don’t strictly have a need name things. (To declare the taste.) I treat music as space. I have a tendency to change the space. But since I am not a musician myself (yet) I invite other great music artists to help me. I have an emotional relationship to music. Reduced from any concept, therefore you will find lots of urban and classical music references in my work. Music is defiantly a very present body in my work. It’s a collaborator and a performer. I have been testing its role in my last work ‘Drugo za Jedno’. I found new results that triggered me to keep on testing it even more. Music its an amazing force and a good friend.

Photo: Liam Malooney, Dance/songs, Public recordings (c)How did you ‘stuck’ with post-rock in the first place? I mean, this is a perfect music for theatre>> enough abstract and enough narrative…M: To be honest, I do not know. I think these things come with growing up. I guess I grew up. My brother’s music taste was a big influence to me. As a youngest one I liked to copy them. Today I am glad I did. I believe I had a good music education. I was home thought.Post-rock (again whatever fits inside those two words) it’s a great channel to communicate. People threat or have already a relationship to that kind of music in their daily life. Bringing that to theatre, giving that another context only enriches the existing. Both in audience and myself.You do dance classes internationally… Do you find it challenging as a pedagogic experience only, or also as an art inspiration?M: Ame said once about my class “Joyfully exploring the relationship between core strength and a released body, Matija’s approach to dance pedagogy renews participant’s sense that dance training is also about performance, presence and self expression.” It is indeed a pedagogic experience, especially the last one. I have been teaching at the University in Pula, I had 128 students in two groups giving them an introduction to contemporary dance. They study to be teachers and it was great to see how they break up their prejudices about dance and what dance is. Especially today, when Luka Nizetic (Croatian pop star) is a symbol for dance in youth culture. I hedonistically enjoy to see them dropping Luka out of their heads and inhibiting something more complex, more honest and more instinctive for them.You probably know that I’m going to ask you about Sasha Waltz. Tell us… tell us… some little story that says almost everything… about the working process…M: It was a great experience. I met some extraordinary people. The reasons why I wanted to join Sasha Waltz Company had changed while I was there. Read the rest of the interview at Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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Movement on Screen 2009

Movement on Screen 2009 was a total sensation! I already enjoyed the previous year but the 2009 festival was miles better. The Cornerhouse, which is pulsing hub for contemporary visual art and it is also located right in the heart of Manchester, was a great venue and moves had its own delegate centre.The overall theme of the festival was 'Tell your story' that guided and accompanied the audience through the various screenings, talks and forums. To offer a narration makes screendance accessible to a wider audience which is great. The selected films for the screenings were of very high quality -contents and productionwise- raising the bar for future work!More in depth will follow from me about the festival but until then I want to recommend to view the photos:http://www.movementonscreen.org.uk/page.asp?id=2822and film I managed to make between attending 22 events:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zy2nkjiFg0Sabine Klauswww.creationeditor.co.uk
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Hoy, Día Internacional de la Danza, se presentará online la nueva plataforma virtual mapad2 (http://www.mapad2.ufba.br/) , creada para impulsar la investigación, la formación, el desarrollo y la difusión de creaciones relacionadas con la danza, concretamente los espectáculos de danza interactivos creados a partir de dispositivos tecnológicos digitales.La plataforma, que abarca los países de habla hispana y portuguesa, será presentada con una vídeo-conferencia internacional entre Brasil - Catalunya- Mozambique; los invitados de Catalunya serán Kònic thtr, colectivo artístico especializado en la aplicación de la tecnología interactiva en los proyectos artísticos. La vídeo-conferencia tendrá lugar en el Mercat de les Flors de Barcelona a las 20 horas y cuenta con el apoyo de i2cat y Anella Cultural.Mapad2 (Mapa y Programa de Arte en Danza (y Performance) Digital) es un proyecto desarrollado por el Grupo de Investigación Poética Tecnológica en la Danza, vinculado a la Universidad Federal de Bahía (Brasil).www.mapad2.ufba.br
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I attended last night to the performance of "Far" a very nuanced solo conceived and performed by French Algerian choreographer Rachid Ouramdane presented within the BIPOD Festival: Beirut International Platform of Dance. I felt again that this work traverses the dangerous waters of politically charged broken narratives of our postmodern identities and it makes us see the contradictions embedded in the belief of personal and geopolitical utopias. In this festival encounter I can feel in the region artists the urgency for storytelling, the necessity of explaining, the awkwardness and eccentricity of modern or contemporary dance and entrapment of the transnational distribution systems of DANCE in relation with the local conditions.

There are no answers nor scape, I think.
It is humbling.
The only thing that I have been left with is capacity to understand the multilayered narratives and the tension between the local conditions and the untamed interconnected world.
So, I decided to repost this interview with Rachid done when he premiered FAR in NYC at Dance Theater Workshop. He takes us across his landscape of memories and permeable multiple identities and quests for meaning or just survival.

dancetechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
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Entre la danza posmoderna y el performance. El próximo 29 de abril se celebra el Día Mundial de la Danza. Con este motivo presentamos unas reflexiones sobre las nuevas rutas que ha tomado este arte, cada vez más libre de antiguos convencionalismos. Leer articulo en El Comercio del Peru Nuevas “ideas y formas que se movían” empezaron a ser recurrentes dentro del trabajo de algunos coreógrafos (as), bailarines (as). Esta nueva forma de trabajar con el movimiento llevaría el nombre de “nouvelle danse” o danza nueva en los años sesenta. Estos trabajos fueron (y son) catalogados como danza conceptual o danza minimal, pero aún estaban considerados dentro de los parámetros de la danza. Después de esto, entre los ochenta y noventa, la danza ingresa a una etapa de “vale todo”, luchas en escena, malabarismo, bailarines que recitan poesía, cuentacuentos, etc., pero todavía dentro de los límites estructurados de la técnica coreográfica y dancística. Es a mediados de los noventa, cuando algunos coreógrafos (as), bailarines (as) insatisfechos con el trabajo convencional dancístico (ballet clásico, danza moderna, contemporánea y posmoderna) dan un paso más adelante alejándose definitivamente de todo tipo de danza occidental conocida e ingresan de lleno al arte en acción o no acción en muchos casos. Los críticos tradicionales de la danza los acusaron —y los acusan— violentamente, como “traidores del movimiento”, pues no poseían un género definido. En los últimos quince años, artistas como la española La Ribot y el francés Jerome Bel hacen honor a este título. El crossover Estas nuevas “ideas y formas que se movían” de los precursores del performance acercaron a los “traidores del movimiento”, como La Ribot y Jerome Bel, a artistas de otros campos, lo que generó un intercambio interdisciplinario. Hoy Marina Abramovic, Ron Athey, Franko B, Bobby Baker, Lucy Baldwyn, Michele Barrett, Romeo Castellucci, Brian Catling, Oron Catts, Julie Clarke, Ricardo Domínguez, Tim Etchells, Jean Fisher, Torced Entertainment, Goat Island, Guillermo Gómes-Pena, Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson, Amelia Jones, Joe Kelleher, Yu Yeon Kim, Oleg Kulik, Alastair MacLennan, Hayley Newman, Peggy Phelan, La Pocha Nostra, William Pope.L, Andrew Quick, Alan Read, Henry M.Sayre y Stelarc, son solo algunos de los cientos de “varados” que, en su relación con las artes plásticas, el teatro, la danza, la tecnología, han llegado (unos antes, otros después), a orillas de una tierra desconocida llena de posibilidades y han creado una nueva forma de hacer arte, que tiene las siguientes características: a) crear un arte de shock, b) destruir la pretensión, c) Separar la tradición de la representación, d) Poner en primer plano la experimentación, e) captar diferentes posibilidades de dar significados, y f) activar la inclusión de la audiencia. Así, el arte convencional se quiebra como un enorme huevo de dinosaurio y da vida al “life art” o arte en acción (o no acción). De Isadora a La Ribot Desde aproximadamente tres décadas, filósofos y críticos del arte plástico y escénico han tratado de definirlo y ubicarlo en un tiempo y lugar histórico. Para la curadora e historiadora de arte Rose Lee Goldberg, el performance art tiene una vigencia de cien años, con personajes como el poeta futurista F.T. Marinetti, quien estaba obsesionado con las máquinas de la era moderna (autos de carrera, aviones, locomotoras, etc.). Si para Marinetti el nuevo arte debería ser tan explosivo como el sonido de estas máquinas, para Isadora Duncan, gestora de la danza libre, debería romper con una tradición secular que hacía de la mujer un ser sometido. Ella se negó a aprender danza clásica porque no aceptaba someterse a reglas estrictas. Liberar al ser humano mediante la danza implica también liberar la danza de todas sus trabas. En primer lugar, de la indumentaria que oculta el cuerpo y da una falsa apariencia de formas y líneas. Isadora se rebeló contra la costumbre de usar mallas y bailar vestida con túnicas ligeras y pies descalzos. Con ella la danza se convierte en objeto de culto. Dota a la expresión corporal de un cierto valor estético aceptado por toda la intelligentsia de su tiempo. Casi un siglo después La Ribot dirá que ya no existe la representación sino solo la presentación. Para ella no hay magia, solamente realidad. No hay sorpresas, solo percepciones que varían. No hay declaraciones, solamente ambigüedad. No hay más estabilidad, solo inestabilidad. No hay más teatralidad, solo plasticidad. El espacio, carente de jerarquías, le pertenece al espectador y a ella. Y ella no es lo más importante. Algunas veces lo son sus objetos, sus bolsas o casacas; otras veces los comentarios del público y el sonido de sus acciones. Todo y todos están tirados en el piso, en una superficie infinita, donde se mueven, silenciosamente, sin ninguna dirección precisa y sin ningún orden definido. La Ribot no trata de desarrollar un personaje. Es por esta razón que ella trabaja desnuda para descargar su cuerpo de todo drama. * Bailarina y codirectora de Danza Viva
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