Making a Difference meets…Tanja Erhart & Sophia Neises (Zoom)
Date: 27.02.2021
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 on the topic of dance and disability. In this second episode, the guests were Tanja Erhart and Sophia Neises. The two dance artists talked about their paths to dance and the confrontation with categories and ableism as well as about finding one’s freedom outside normative standards and the utopia of a self-confident and self-determined Disability Culture. The conversation was hosted by Noa Winter, Co-Leader Making a Difference.
Bleibt liegen! – digital movement sessions with Angela Alves (Zoom)
Date: 03.03. – 24.03.2021
During the pandemic lockdown, we offered digital movement sessions.
Bleibt Liegen! (Stay in bed!) by Angela Alves was thought from out of bed and included different forms of movement and visualisation exercises combined with a lot of self-care and reflections on horizontal dancing. Angela Alves invited participants to read, touch, perceive and perhaps choreograph and improvise a little together in a safe space.
Mentoring Workshop (Led by: Lutz Mauk)
Date: 09.05 – 10.05.2021
The focus of the Mentoring Workshop was movement improvisation(s), which can also be used to create a common choreographic idea. Based on the idea of community dance, the workshop was also suitable for people without dance experience and focused on the process of experiencing body, space and time together.
Digital Workshop with Chisato Minamimura (UK/JPN)
Date: 29.05. – 30.05.2021
As part of our digital programme, we offered a workshop with Deaf artist Chisato Minamimura exclusively for Deaf artists from Berlin. This was Chisatos invite:
She signs:
„Hello, I’m Chisato.
This is my sign name, Chisato.
I am based in London in the UK where I live and work. I’m a Deaf artistic director, choreographer, performer and a BSL art guide. I love to create performance art, and to use dance and movement. I am interested in sensory using Deaf elements to look at music and sound from a Deaf perspective. I also use digital technology to research and explore these ideas in my work.
In Berlin, as part of the Making a Difference programme, I will be offering an intensive workshop which will only be for d/Deaf participants.
This will take place on the 29th and 30th May. It’ll be a digital workshop on Zoom.
On the first day we’ll look to exchange artistic practices and discuss ideas.
The second day will be a movement workshop. It’ll be simple but focused.
If this is of interest, or if you’d like more information on how to join, please contact: making-a-difference@sophiensaele.com
I hope you can join, and I’ll see you soon.“
Performance Project with Colette Sadler
Date: 05.06. – 03.07.2021
Based on Colette Sadler’s audio workshop Re (Searching) BODY A, the performance project explored the relationship between body, movement and science fiction. The process involved approaching different movement ideas and tasks through improvisation and deep listening to produce dance material describing different energetic and imaginary states. Using ideas inspired by the fictional BODY A, participants were invited to immerse themselves in the possibilities and agency of a future human body powered by movement.
Co-production: DANDELION II by Rita Mazza
Date: 08.07. – 30.07.2021
After her research residency in the summer of 2020, Rita Mazza premiered her first solo work DANDELION II on 08.07.2020. Due to pandemic restrictions the work premiered digitally via live stream.
Considering the stage as a playground, in DANDELION II Rita Mazza explores the combination of dance and sign language, creating a new form of visual poetry. She links rules of sign language such as hand shapes, facial expressions and everyday movements with movement studies by Laban, with ballet and Visual Vernacular – an art form of sign language that is very popular in the Deaf community. Some moments of the solo performance are also inspired by works of Deaf poets of the 80s, such as Clayton Valli’s Dandelion and Robert Panara’s poem On his Deafness. DANDELION II is Rita Mazza’s first full-length solo. It was selected for Tanztage 2022, which allowed Rita Mazza to present the work for a live audience on two evenings.
Co-production: swallow swallow by Jan Kress
Date: 12.07. – 25.07.2021
After his research residency in the summer of 2020, Jan Kress premiered his first solo work swallow swallow. Due to pandemic restrictions the work premiered as a dance film on 12.07.2021. In this work, the dancer, actor and performer deals with the process of swallowing. Who swallows and why? What do we swallow just like that and what has to be swallowed? Who makes the decisions about it? What do we want to swallow and what not? When does swallowing occur and when does choking occur? With a focus on intensive bodywork, Jan Kress developed his own artistic language that combines sign language and dance. swallow swallow is Jan Kress’ first full-length dance work.
Research Residency: Anajara Amarante
Datum: 15.08. – 29.08.2021
In the summer of 2021, Anajara Amarante completed a two-week working residency at Uferstudios. Anajara used the residency to continue the research on her project Decolonization & Disability. As part of this, she invited artist Yanel Barbeito to collaborate. Together they researched questions about their South American disabled bodies against the backdrop of ableist systems and brought them into a performative and choreographic context. They presented the results of their research to an audience at Uferstudios on 29.08.2021.
Research Residency: Steve Stymest
Datum: 15.08. – 29.08.2021
In the summer of 2021, Steve Stymest completed a two-week working residency at Uferstudios.
He conducted research with the Deaf drag performers Jan Kress and Eyk Kauly and developed his first draft of a choreography. The starting point was the drag theme as an expression of the ongoing struggle of the queer community against discrimination and the fight for more tolerance and visibility. The result was a 20-minute drag show with choreographic motifs, which Steve Stymest, Jan Kress and Eyk Kauly presented to an audience at the Uferstudios on 29.08.2021.
School Workshops in collaboration with TanzZeit e.V.
Datum: 23.08. – 27.08.2021
In cooperation with TanzZeit e.V. and the Marianne-Cohn-Schule, two workshops were held, each with 20 young participants between the age of 13 and 16. They were led in tandem by disabled dance artists Sophia Neises and Daniel Riedel and the two non-disabled TanzZeit teachers Ilka Rothenhäusler and Francesca Patrone. From January 2021 onwards, the team met regularly to discuss inclusive and anti-ableist teaching and to plan the workshops. In this way, experiences were shared and a common attitude was established that shaped everyone’s teaching beyond the school workshops. The week ended with a presentation by Carolin Hartmann, artist of the Making a Difference residency and co-production 2019/2020.
International digital conference: Owning Spaces – Conversations and Actions from Bed
Datum: 01.09. – 05.09.2021
Between the 1st and 5th of September 2021 disabled artist-curators, Kate Marsh and Noa Winter invited to conversations, practice, safer spaces and public sharings. At the core of this invitation was the aim to come together in ways that make space for all. Over five days the curators invited international artists not only to share their practices, but to bring in those conversations that they always wanted to have.