Grief is a Part of the Dance
Workshop with Makisig Akin
In the frame of Sommer Tanz 2022
We will practice being mindful of grief as a somatic experience. How do we physicalize and allow our body to release and give shape to it until it feels like it has matter, both in quality and in dignity? How touch becomes an integral part of this "mattering". How can it be moved by the people around us? We go from Me to I to We and back again. We will investigate the moving quality of grief and joy, how they support and enrich each other. What is the role of verbal and written language? We, together, will rest in the ashes of the many deaths of things we are grieving from, to allow the moving quality of grief to bring us back to life.
Makisig Akin
I am a queer, transgender Filipino born choreographer, dance artist, facilitator, and activist. I was born and raised in the Philippines and am currently based in Berlin, Germany. My work focuses on the recognition of intersectional identities, reconnecting with my ancestry, and decentralizing Western ideologies in dance making. Holding Queer and BIPoC spaces is an integral part of my artist activism. I hold spaces, both choreographically and educationally, by examining how survival strategies can be translated into a communal physical practice, which I then use as a catalyst to a potential creative healing process. My orientation to Contact Improvisation is deeply interconnected with my training in Filipino Traditional Dance, Kung Fu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Improvisation, walking meditation, Authentic Movement, bouldering/climbing, and Contemporary Dance. I have been practicing Contact Improvisation for 14 years and have taught in many different communities including HZT, UCLA, Tanzfabrik Schule, The Field Center, BeingTouch, and Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation among others. Important Collaborators and teachers include mayfield brooks, Jason Tsou, Anya Cloud, Nara Virgens, Eric Geiger, Ajani Brannum, and taisha paggett, among others. I co-founded The Love Makers, a project-based dance company, with Anya Cloud. I am also a co-founder with Nara Virgens of the Emerging Change Tanzfestival, a dance festival featuring and curating Queer and BIPoC Artists and their collaborators. www.makisigakin.com