”Gestures of exchange” by Cecilia Roos

Goal & purpose 

The pilot study “Gestures of exchange” explores how dancers develop and share methods during an artistic process.

The object of this study is to explore the collective gestures of exchange between dancers. The main focus of Cecilia’s previous research has been different perspectives on the individual dancer’s performative practice. Her interest has been especially directed towards the dancer’s way of creating methods for interpretation in artistic processes. One finding was that this method-making usually is performed in the moment and is based on each dancer’s subjective experience of the movement, which makes the methods unique for each process. Jan Burkhardt has in his teaching and as a choreographer created methods for working with each dancer’s subjective experience as a material in artistic processes. His experience of this is of great importance for this study. In certain discourses of the dance field the exchange of these individual methods between the dancers is a basis for the choreographic process.

Research questions 

What kind of procedures lie between the dancer’s subjective experience of a movement and her instant creation of methods for interpretation?
In what ways are these methods exchanged, transformed and transacted between dancers during an artistic process?

This is how the project will be carried out 

The methods in this study will be developed through Jan’s and Cecilia’s observation of and participation in each other’s artistic work. The findings from these observations will then be transformed into practical try-outs, which will be explored in a workshop with a group of professional dancers.

If the outcome proves to have potential for further development we will start working on a research plan during fall 2016.

Schedule 

Cecilia and Jan will observe each other’s artistic work and explore their findings in workshops at two separate occasions: one week in February 2016 in Stockholm and one week in Berlin in June 2016.

Final Presentation 

The project final report is on 7 September 7 at 15:15 - 17:00 at Linnégatan 87.