Co-production “Brain Operation” by Carolin Hartmann
Date: 02.01. – 29.02.2020
“Brain Operation” was an eight-week research project in which Carolin Hartmann expanded her brain functions and thus opened them up for physical brainstorming. This practice became a journey of physical and mental discovery and led to the expansion of Hartmann’s movement vocabulary. The operation process was documented in weekly videos on Hartmann’s Youtube channel as well as in regular blog posts. The choreography created during this process was presented in a sharing at Uferstudios on 29.02.2020.
Research Residency – Rita Mazza
Date: 01.08. – 31.08.2020
During a four-week research residency, Rita Mazza approached contemporary dance from a Deaf perspective. In collaboration with hearing dancers and choreographers as well as Deaf visual vernacular performers, Rita Mazza researched “visual sign performance” as an interface between visual language and dance. The research formed the basis for Rita’s first solo work DANDELION II, which was created during the co-production that followed the residency.
Research Residency – Jan Kress
Date: 01.08. – 31.08.2020
During a four-week work residency entitled Teufelskreis (Vicious Circle), Jan Kress explored the connection between German Sign Language and contemporary dance from a Deaf perspective. His research was informed by his own past and asking: What does it mean to be born Deaf and to grow up Deaf in a hearing and uncomprehending society? How can one develop self-confidence and find out who one is?
In collaboration with hearing dancers and sound artists, the basis for Jan’s first solo work swallow swallow was created, which was developed in the co-production that followed the residency.
Digital Talk: Michael Turinsky (Zoom)
Date: 19.10.2020
In conversation with the co-directors of Making a Difference, Noa Winter and Anne Rieger, Michael Turinsky spoke about his production heteronomous male.
What does it mean, especially from a kinaesthetic point of view, to be a man and at the same time to be externally determined by what is absent? Playfully oscillating between the autonomy of the disabled body on the one hand and the force of law of choreography and company on the other, fluctuating between eros and helplessness, between the position of the child and that of the grown man, oscillating between seriousness and irony, between sensuality and intellectuality, heteronomous male explores the fundamental identity-determining axes of the field in which Michael Turinsky moves as a disabled man and dancer.
Mindful Moving – digital movement sessions with Carolin Hartmann (Zoom)
Date: 04.11.-25.11.2020
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital movement sessions. Carolin Hartmann started out with “Mindful Moving”. In four movement sessions on Zoom, Carolin invited the participants to rediscover and experience our own bodies.
1) Morning routine (stretch, ground, energise)
2) Evening routine (consciously relax and let go)
3) Accept disability also physically (feel misalignments, muscle spasms, perceive with respect and appreciation, own individual scale)
4) Heart (feeling, opening, connecting, integrating into everyday life, balancing)
Each session had its own thematic focus and consisted of the presentation of own exercise series (Yoga, Mindful Moving, Qi Gong, Body-Mind-Centering).
I and…digital movement sessions with Sophia Neises (Zoom)
Date: 01.12. – 22.12.2020
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital movement sessions. Staying at home can mean losing contact with the body. To distract ourselves from loneliness or boredom, we resort to means such as watching films, talking on the phone or the like. If this state lasts too long, we lose sight of our body and its needs and our mental health also suffers. That is why Sophia Neises focused on the perception of our bodies in her digital movement sessions and offered four different units on the topic of “I and…”. The different units were “I and Tension”, “I and my position”, “I and Impulse” and “I and Space”.
Dance and chronic pain/fatigue – a digital conversation with Angela Alves & Raquel Meseguer Zafe (Zoom)
Date: 09.12.2020
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital discourse formats to promote exchange on Disability and Deaf Culture in dance.
Angela Alves and Raquel Meseguer Zafe are two dance artists who live with chronic illness and who create dance pieces. They invited other dancers with chronic illnesses to join them in an open conversation about their “time in the wilderness”, the turning points they have experienced and how their illnesses affect their work and how they resist the mainstream narratives and binaries that define disability/illness.
Deaf Dance – a digital conversation with Kassandra Wedel & Dodzi Dougban (Zoom)
Date: 15.12.2020
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital discourse formats to promote exchange on Disability and Deaf Culture in dance.
Together with a number of Berlin based Deaf artists, Kassandra Wedel and Dodzi Dougban talked about how Deaf artists can establish themselves in dance. They discussed questions such as: What does dance mean to us as Deaf artists? How do we dance? What interests us in dance? What is the relationship between sign language and dance? How do we work together with hearing artists and/or organisations? For which audience do we make dance/art? For a hearing audience? For a Deaf audience? For both?
Making a Difference meets…Claire Cunningham & Sindri Runudde (Zoom)
Date: 16.12.2020
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital discourse formats to encourage exchange about Disability and Deaf Culture and dance.
Making a Difference meets… is a digital conversation series about dance and disability. The first episode featured Claire Cunningham (UK) and Sindri Runudde (SE). They talked about how they position themselves in the field of dance, about developing own methods and techniques, about dance training and the need for adaptations, and about how their practices are informed by their own experiences. The conversation was hosted by Noa Winter, Co-Leader of Making a Difference.