Choreographing Subjectivity : Imagining Ourselves Into Being
at TQW studios 29th June to 2nd July 2022
We are living through challenging times. That much is clear.
In her book, The Posthuman, Rosi Braidotti argues that to meet the multiple challenges facing us in this historical moment, thinking differently is not enough; we need to experience ourselves and the world differently. In short, we need new subjectivities.
Our subjective experience is first and foremost, fleshy, embodied, grounded in perception of and movement through our environment. Contemporary dance I believe offers fertile fields in which to research and play with shaping subjectivities.
In this lecture and class series I will present some of the theory behind my research into subjectivity and share some of the studio practices that I have developed to challenge our everyday experience of ourselves.
We’ll explore how we are continually imagining ourselves into being, and how the culture in which we are embedded shapes our imagining … and hopefully get some glimpses of how we might imagine ourselves and our experience differently.
Wednesday 29.6
Biotensegrity – process-based anatomy
Originating within the medical profession, Biotensegrity offers a simpler, more organic, holistic model of our anatomy that at the same time gives rise to more complex and subtle interactions with ourselves and the world.
1hr lecture (10.00-11.00) followed by 2hr practice 11.15-13.15)
Thursday 30.6
Extended Mind – inhabiting the perceptual body
What if we’ve got that mind-body relationship thing the wrong way around? What if it’s not the mind that lives in the body but the body that lives within the mind? Alternative models of mind from contemporary consciousness studies.
1hr lecture (10.00-11.00) followed by 2hr practice 11.15-13.15)
Friday 1.7
Popping the bubble – the politics of somatics
The term somatics arose in the context of the counterculture of the late ’60s and early ’70s when individualism was regarded as a progressive stance. Might we need to adapt somatic practices to our very different age so they maintain their progressive potential?
1hr lecture (10.00-11.00) followed by 2hr practice 11.15-13.15)
Saturday 2.7
Radical Calmness – a possible practice for our times
You’ll be guided to experience your expansive perceptual body in a process something like experiential anatomy, but different, and then encouraged to move to find rest and stillness, in a process something like authentic movement, but different.
3hr practice (11.00-13.00)
more info and booking on the TQW web site here
