This circle is a communal artistic practice, using different methods from somatics, contemporary dance, performance, and other body related practices – in order to deal with the topic of hatred.
Hatred is a complex cultural and societal phenomenon that exists in our social bodies for a huge number of reasons.
Political manipulation, power play, creating of a common enemy, scapegoating, social and economic inequality, perceived injustice, perception of fear or threat, nationalism, xenophobia, historical conflicts, generational trauma, collective memory, group dynamics, identification with a group with specific values, social conformity, media and propaganda influence.
All these factors are colonizing our bodies, playing a huge role in the times, places, and bodies we live right now.
All these factors are seemingly external.
But they are feeding on our personal ability to construct a feeling so strong that it grows from physical bodies into a socially identified body, then into a group of people, and into whole societies.
In this circle, I would like to come back to the body as the soil, where the seeds of hatred are being grown and fertilized.
In this series of sessions, which continues for the duration of 10 month we are going to develop an own methodology of unplanting.
We will start with
recognising hatred as the result of a bodily process, and dealing with it from a physical perspective;
practicing a body as a soil and a garden(from different approaches, such as "body weather", somatic tools, butoh exersices);
reading and practicing theoretical texts and scientific hypothesises;
creating a flow of practices;
coming up with one or more communal practices by the end of our meetings – in a form of an open meeting, showing, or dance piece (who knows).
Who can join
Everyone who is interest in a process or in creating a body-based artistic practice.
Everyone with the migrant or relocated background (as well as without it).
Everyone with the relation to the topic of hatred.
Format of a meeting
We divide 3 hours into:
Providing a theoretical input on theories of hatred (from the areas of neurosciences, sociology, psychology, anthropology, artistic practice – by researchers/artists from this fields or by a selected text).
Practicing one of the practices from the documentation pool or introduced by a facilitator.
Taking time to create a personal practice for any participant.
Sharing practices one by one on a continuous group trip.
Result
Together, we will find the form of the result of this process. It might be a communal practice, a workshop, a program, a performative piece – you name it.
Facilitators
Vera Shchelkina
Somatic practitioner
Somatic practitioner and movement educator (graduating from the Somatic Academy in Berlin), dance practitioner and facilitator of various contemporary dance programs for all types of audiences, dance artist and choreographer.