MAKING A DIFFERENCE is a network by SOPHIENSÆLE, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Uferstudios, tanzfähig, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, TanzZeit, Diversity.Arts.Culture and Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin, formed to expand contemporary dance by an aesthetic of difference.

Contemporary artist Barak adé Soleil will facilitate a collective research that centers disabled bodies within an emerging choreographic process. This week-long LAB will explore possibilities of moving and composing framed by Barak’s own creative research. Their experimental creation process is informed by legacies of the African diaspora, postmodernism, queerness, global disability culture and the lived experience of being a person of color and multiply disabled. Barak is currently based in Chicago, and has created works in the field of dance, theatre and performance art for over two decades.

Research questions for this LAB are:

In what ways might we engage disability culture within a contemporary practice? What nuances are discovered individually and communally when artistic expression is framed through an intersectional and progressive social lens? How might the “pedestrian” ways disabled bodies navigate public & private spaces offer insights into crafting compositions?

Content of the LAB:

– Engaging intersectional perspectives that reflect identity, culture and race.

– Be in a process with other expressions of movement and language that might be unfamiliar, including: sign language, gestures and individualized forms of communication.

– Explore the concept of “access aesthetics”: what does it mean to create choreography that engages with the function and form of accessibility, yet articulated through one’s individual artistic expression?  This will be investigated through embodied explorations with audio description, signing, wayfinding, relaxed protocols, and interdependent ways to create dance.

– Composing “in the moment”; drawing from one’s lived experience of disability, and in relation to others.

The LAB is targeted at dance practitioners with physical and/or sensory disabilities and covers the costs of access support needed to successfully participate. Requirements will be discussed with successful applicants once participation has been confirmed.

The LAB will take place from Monday 24 until Saturday 29 June 2019 in Sophiensaele (Sophienstrasse 18, 10178 Berlin). Working hours will be 11am until 5pm daily. On Sunday 23 June a Get Together will be hosted at Sophiensaele at 5pm.

A fee of 600,00€ will be paid to each participant. Additionally travel costs, accommodation and per diems will be covered. Working language will be English. If required, we offer translation from English to German.

Please submit the following with your application:

1. A letter of motivation explaining why you would like to take part in the LAB

2. Your CV

3. If possible: video documentation of your work

Form: In addition to written applications, we also accept applications by video or audio recording. Applications are to be submitted in English. We ask for all applications to be submitted digitally to: barak@barakadesoleil.com

The selection will be made directly after the deadline by Barak adé Soleil.

Barak adé Soleil: barak@barakadesoleil.com

OR

SOPHIENSÆLE
Making a Difference
Sophienstraße 18
10178 Berlin
030-27 89 00 58
making-a-difference@sophiensaele.com

Network MAKING A DIFFERENCE: SOPHIENSÆLE, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Uferstudios, tanzfähig, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, TanzZeit, Diversity Arts Culture and Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin. Funded by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien and by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa/ Kofinanzierungsfonds.