MODULE I
30 September to 6 October

30 September
MIRA | Artes Performativas
Spectre
Simon Asencio
10h-12h | 16h-18h
Secret agents are probably the best performers. In today’s context, an artist is becoming an agent of sort: we are carriers of our work by means of our practice. If agency has become a mere tool for the ultra-liberal soul, it is about taking it from behind and practice different technics of the self to unpack its integrity. By investigating discreet technics we will practice how to become invisible, how to choreograph a rumour and perhaps also how to shape shift thoughts, together with other deceptive dances.

30 September to 1 October
MIRA | Artes Performativas
Companionship and telepathic elegance
Hana Erdman
14h-16h
In this practice sharing we will look at companionship as a tool for dancing, performing and getting on together. We will look at the movement and performative qualities of companioning and see what kinds of bodies these qualities suggest. Through several exercises we will build interspecies sensing and awareness skills and apply these skills to performative situations, and dancing. We will consider difference as a necessity for remaking the world together and companionship as a set of tools to choreograph difference.

1 October
MIRA | Artes Performativas
Forms of feelings, feelings of forms
Adriano Wilfert Jensen
10h-12h | 16h-18h
Dances that approach forms of feelings and or feelings of forms. On many occasions modern dance attempted to offer opportunities for authentic or direct mediation of the feelings of the dancer. Modern dance became an excellent opportunity for free self-expression of the dancersubject. Later generations of dance makers, though by far not all, showed feelings and self-expression to the door. “It’s not about me” was the slogan of danceartists I looked up to, instead: Structure, dispositif, OOO… And for good reasons. Where does that leave us when it comes to the function of feelings in dance today?

© Crispian Chan
3 to 6 October
Ateneu Comercial do Porto
The Octopus Practice
Daniel Kolk
10h-12h30
The Octopus Practice came out of an artistic conversation between Daniel Kok and Elpida Orfanidou. It is an attempt to work with transitioning, becoming, decentralised thinking, keeping “different balls in the air” and moving towards sharing a permanent state of wonder. In recent months, Daniel’s artistic works are case studies to articulate the Octopus Practice. Here at the symposium, Daniel will share some current strategies he is working with, which presently loosely involves some studies in Indian classical dance.

3 to 6 October
Ateneu Comercial do Porto
Dirty Romm
Juan Dominguez
14h-16h30
DIRTY ROOM is a practice-piece – both things at the same time. It is based on the project entitled Clean Room. A project where at first I displaced the tools of continuity and periodicity from TV series to the theatre live format. Gradually the project has gone through different states through different seasons, from more cognitive to self-organization to creating a space for poetry. Always having the participants as protagonists. “The project was inspired by the connection of seriality. It means episodes and seasons. Another kind of continuity and periodicity than normal performances have. Closer to TV series /…/ We’ll work in methodology which we also used in different episodes of Clean Room project, and we’ll experience some of the episodes – going through the evolution of the whole project (so far Clean Room has a pilot season, season 1, 2 and 3)” Participants don’t need a particular background, they can have different profiles. No dance background needed. Would be nice if you’d have some earlier experience in trying different modes of attention, being open for different kind of situations.

© Aleksandar Ramadanovic
3 to 6 October
Ateneu Comercial do Porto
Saša Asentić
Saša Asentić
16h30-19h00
My artistic practice is defined by the awareness of the specific relations between people and the context in which those relations are created. It is about the political potential of the encounter, rather than products to be exchanged. Unfortunately, as artists we have very few opportunities to meet, think and work together without the request or expectations to present, i.e., produce something at the end as a result of the exchange. In this practice sharing, I would like to invite fellow artists of Porto to examine together and discuss their concrete working conditions, production means, artistic concerns, and modes of organization as a material base for creating the work. In this process we will also analyze, in terms of social choreography, the mechanisms which structure the local scene in Porto. Furthermore, I would like to propose that we reflect together on the issue of “class closet” in performing arts, and its visible and invisible ways that it conditions our work and life.