Pressespiegel 2017

DOCK 11 PRESSESPIEGEL 2017
Ballein: throwing dance, Diego Agulló 28.+29.01.17 im DOCK 11
https://circadian.co/ballein-throwing-dance/
The Awakening of Dance: an Exercise for Throwing Dances
This exercise has been developed since 2013 in different contexts and together with participants from
laboratory at LOTE in Sao Paolo, workshop at Teatro Pradillo Madrid, workshop at Smash Berlin,Julia
Plawgo and Negroma at Pact Zollverein residency and the research presentation at DOCK 11 in collaboration
with Lisa Stewart, Kiana Rezvani, Cajsa Godeé, Fjóla Gautadóttir, Julia Barrette-Laperrière..
The statement behind this exercise is that dance must be forced to happen instead of being the
result of a benevolent desire to move. On this exercise you are not going to dance to the music that
you like, you are not going to dance your favorite choreographies. On this exercise the dance is not
a result of a desire to dance a choreography. You will not dance what you want or like to dance but
rather the dance is forced to happen. Without being exposed to danger this dance will never take
place.
In which conditions do we dance? What are the circumstances around and how this circumstances
makes us dance? How dance can channel the negativity and violence around us?
The power of dance is to channel out the negativity and to turn it into affirmation.
This exercise proposes a dance detonator and it is divided in two parts:
– The first part consist of exposing oneself to danger for the sake of awakening the dance. At least
one person in the group gets blindfolded. The ones that are not blindfolded throw projectiles at the
blindfolded bodies for at least ten minutes. The projectile must be thrown with enough strength (the
impact on the body has to be painful). An example of projectile can be tennis balls. The balls must
be thrown with strength aiming to impact at any body part, the only requirement is to keep a certain
distance between the person who throws and the person who is blindfolded to avoid throwing from a
close distance. People can throw as many balls as they wish during the time proposed.
– Second part: people stop throwing projectiles and the blindfolded ones explore for at least ten
minutes the resonances that have been embodied during the first part. The task is to come up with
a dance that is not any longer a reaction of a traumatic body being exposed to danger but rather it
became an affirmative force.
Notes:
Make sure that despite of all the moral or ethical concerns that might appear in the group, it is necessary
to throw the projectiles, they are nothing else than an invitation to dance. What comes next is a
problem that must be danced by everyone. 10 minutes is actually a long time and it is in your hands
to decide the intensity of this choreography. You are part of the dance too. You can always apply
a sense of rhythm and to be aware of the pauses and intensities of others peoples throws. On the
other hand, the people blindfolded can work with the input of the hit in their bodies and also with
the situation of being exposed to the possibility of getting hit which implies capacity of anticipation
and protection, such as moving fast and in an unpredictable manner. The blindfolded people can’t see
who throws at them: they don´t see the author of the attack: it does not become personal.
The people who throw are in power but the dancer is is power too because they can instrumentalize
the throw (the attack) turning it into an invitation to dance. [...]