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.

3 to 6 October

Ateneu Comercial do Porto

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.