Tanzfabrik
Berlin
School
School
School
School
Uferstudios 13
Badstr. 41A, Uferstr. 23
13357 Berlin
School
School
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

S06 / Watch Me Watch You

Workshop with Claire Cunningham, Jess Curtis / Gravity
In the frame of Sommer Tanz 2016

The act of performance is an interactive web of looking, listening, feeling and perceiving each other. In this workshop we will work from the most basic building blocks of experience, unpacking sensation, perception, impulse, emotion, thought, memory, reflex and reaction in order to create more space between them in which to locate and direct the dances and actions we perform for each other. How do those attending to our performances perform their presence and attention? How do we invite their engagement as they enact their perception(s)? Choreographers Jess Curtis and Claire Cunningham will lead this 4-day workshop researching themes and ideas related to their new work "The Way You Look (at me) Tonight" investigating sensing, movement, our perceptions of each other and of our environment. Taking inspiration from the work of their collaborator Dr. Alva Noë—whose philosophy suggests that perception is an activity happening in our whole bodies and not just our brains—we will investigate, through movement, language, writing, watching, listening and feeling, how difference – of physicality or lived experience- and diversity can both inform and shape our perception.

Not necessarily just for dancers, but also for people with a body-based performance practices. The material is accessible to folks with diverse physicalities and the Uferstudios venue is barrier free/wheelchair accessible.

In the frame of Open Spaces#2-2016  Claire Cunningham and Jess Curtis present excerpts of the performance "The Way You Look (at Me) Tonight".
A talk with Alva Noë 14th of July 2016.

Claire Cunningham

Claire Cunningham is a performer and creator of multi-disciplinary performance based in Glasgow, Scotland. One of the UK’s most acclaimed and internationally renowned disabled artists, Cunningham’s work is rooted in the study and use/misuse of her crutches and the exploration of the potential of her own specific physicality. This runs alongside a deep interest in the lived experience of disability and its implications not only as a choreographer but also in terms of societal notions of knowledge, value, connection and interdependence. www.clairecunningham.co.uk

Jess Curtis / Gravity

Gravity creates exceptionally engaging body-based art that physically addresses issues and ideas of relevance to anyone with a body. The company was founded in 2000 by choreographer-director Jess Curtis, whose work ranges from the underground extremes of San Francisco warehouse performances with such iconic companies as Contraband and CORE in the 1980s, to the exuberance of French circus tents with Compagnie Cahin-Caha, and the refinement of state theaters in Berlin, London, Glasgow, and other major cultural centers. Gravity’s innovative, accessible, and experimental work consistently engages with issues of embodied diversity including gender, sexuality, and disability.

Level: Movement experience
in English
Wheelchair accessible studio