Being There – Platforms of the Future, panel discussion in the frame of Micro & Macro Dramaturgies in Dance intensive Tilburg
Micro and Macro Dramaturgies in Dance is a two-year-long European research and training project, that brings together six contemporary dance organisations: Anghiari Dance Hub and Marche Teatro (Italy), Bora Bora (Denmark), Dance House Lemesos (Cyprus), DansBrabant (the Netherlands) and Tanec Praha (Czechia) to explore through exchange and collaboration dramaturgy as a creative and socially conscious practice. The project is curated by a scientific team of dramaturgs: Guy Cools, Katalin Trencsényi, Maja Hriešik, and Anne-Marije van den Bersselaar.
During the second part of this dance dramaturgy intensive the participating group of choreographers and dramaturges are invited to DansBrabant in Tilburg (NL) to work around the theme of Being There. It underlines the beauty and importance of encounters and exchange but also implies to the presence of the dramaturge in contemporary creation and the new potentials it can bring to the whole field.
It is in this context that we invite the participants to go into conversation with new voices in dance dramaturgy from the Dutch/Flemish field to question and map the position of dance dramaturgy today. As the theme of this intensive is Being There, we are taking this concept as a mantra to dissect this moment in time. Following the thought of Marianne van Kerkhoven that dramaturgy in the 21st Century is a constant movement, we will discuss with the panel how the different positions and conditions of dance dramaturgy are changing the field of choreography and dance. From defining the position of a dance dramaturg to dramaturgy as a practice transcending the field of dance.
Panel:
Ida-Elisabeth Larsen is a choreographer, performer, dramaturge. She graduated from SEAD in 2007 and continued to supplement her education with a BA in Philosophy and Performance Design from Roskilde University. In 2016 she enrolled in the MA programme "Ecology and Contemporary Performance" at TeaK-University of the Arts Helsinki. Ida-Elisabeth Larsen is a co-founder of RISK (2009-2016)and two-women-machine-show (2011-2020). She has also worked as a dramaturge in various artistic collaborations and was engaged as such in the international performance festival series WORKS AT WORK (2014-2016). Ida-Elisabeth Larsen tours with stage productions regularly and participates internationally in various artist residencies and exchange programs. She is also an elected member of Dansehallerne's Research Committee in Copenhagen and part of the Para-Nordic Institution.
Rodia Vomvolou is a performing arts dramaturg and researcher based between Amsterdam and Athens. She is currently doing a PhD research project on the self-positioning of the dance dramaturg, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Maaike Bleeker in the Department of Media and Performance Studies of Utrecht University. Rodia holds an MA in Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy (Cum laude) from Utrecht University, as well as a BA in Drama and Performance Theory, History and Analysis from the School of Drama, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (Cum Laude). Supported by a scholarship from Stavros Niarchos Foundation, in 2016 she attended a five months exchange program in Theatre and Dance Studies at York University (Toronto, Canada). As a freelance dramaturg and mentor, Rodia collaborates with institutions and dance houses in Europe (Dansmakers Αmsterdam, Dansateliers Rotterdam, Circustruction Rotterdam, Dance House Lemesos, Dance Days Chania, ZfinMalta) as well as with independent artists in Greece (Danae Theodoridou, Eleni Mylona, Persa Stamatopoulou, Ioanna Angelopoulou, Nefeli Asteriou, Anastasia Valsamaki etc.), the Netherlands (Fernando Belfiore) and Cyprus (Petros Konarris, Konstantina Skalionta). Since 2019 she is the mentor and curator of the Artistic Development programme “Moving the New” of Dance House Lemesos in Cyprus.
Merel Heering is a freelance dance dramaturge, facilitator and alignment coach. Her approach to dance dramaturgy is that of a social practice in which she combines her sensitivity for (inter)personal dynamics with her ability for critical and conceptual thinking. Merel’s practice is rooted in supporting social change and bringing awareness to positioning, artistic responsibility and supporting people and organizations in aligning vision and actions. She facilitates conversations on the friction between personal and professional values and is committed to creating spaces for dialogue and exchange between people with different worldviews. Her practice focuses on topics of feeling deeply, alignment and embodiment as crucial ingredients for change-making. Merel works with a great variety of independent choreographers, dance companies, festivals, theatres and production houses across Europe, for over ten years already.
Elowise Vandenbroecke is a freelance dramaturge and programmer. Her research and working method revolve around non-linear and new materialist dramaturgies. She is part of Platform Dramaturgie and works with a.o. Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Davy Pieters, Francesca Lazzeri, Rita Hoofwijk, ROTOR Performance, and Zoë Demoustier.
Julia Reist is working as a freelance researcher, dramaturge and art producer on a large range of (inter)national projects. In close dialogue with artists, Julia specialised in contextualising and formalising the often still ungraspable elements in early stages of a work or project, to then develop it further and find its specific format, frame or materiality. In 2018 she started, in collaboration with Katrien Reist, the research and production platform arp.works. Through arp.works they are looking at other forms and methods of working with and through artistic practices to contribute to a more sustainable, inclusive and aware artistic field.
