New Dance Lab (2017)

Platform for movement research and experimental performance

Participating artists: Gavin Krastin, Alan Parker, Kopano Maroga, Zee Hartman, Keanu Bergman, Julia de Rosenwerth, Nicola Visser, Hannah Loewenthal, Tania Vosgatter, Leilah Kirsten, Kristina Johnstone and Thalia Laric

24-29 April, Cape Town: Theatre Arts Admin Collective

Video by Thalia Laric

How can the liveness of the body be posed as a methodological question? How can the body be a place of problem-posing and problem-solving as a living laboratory for the creation of performance?

How to delink from an art world where the parameters are known, in favour of art that is non-commercial, unsellable, unfinished, un-definable, unknown and unknowable. What would it mean for choreographers and artists engaging with dance if they did not have to conform to the expectations of audiences, theatres, festivals, or other established structures for presenting dance? What if the contract between the audience and the performance could be re-written? What if a dance could be staged in the moment before its becoming a dance, a dance that exists before it becomes a ‘finished’, ‘ready’, ‘sellable’ or ‘repeatable’ art object?  What kind of structure could offer support for this kind of art?

The body

As researching practitioners, we acknowledge that the place of research for dance is located in the body. This research is motivated by a search, not for a body that has been disciplined into one aesthetic form, but rather for ‘an underlying body – a naked body of raw reflex, without layers of conditioning’ (Buckwalter, 2012: 37): A body that resists aesthetic conditioning in order to be a body of research. This is a body that holds material knowledge about the agency of the mover, somatic and sensory awareness and performer presence. How can this inform new dance pedagogies, where teaching happens by developing experiential anatomical and sensory awareness?  How can such pedagogies inform performance practices?

Call for new work

NEW DANCE LAB is a pilot performance series hosted in association with the Theatre Arts Admin Collective. The platform seeks to attract progressive and experimental new dance works and invites choreographers and artists working with dance to propose short new dance works that engage with risk, immediacy, experimentation and new research. The selected works will be performed at Theatre Arts Admin Collective (TAAC) on 28 and 29 April 2017. Shared rehearsal space at TAAC will be made available to artists from 24 to 26 April 5pm-9pm. A technical rehearsal is scheduled on 27 April. General guidelines for works:

  • Works no longer than 5 minutes
  • Works have not been shown before
  • Works that are a reflection of the artist’s most current research
  • Works that engage with risk, immediacy, experimentation and new research

The project is unfunded. However, the aim is to develop a platform for exposure of experimental work and a community of practice and research for artists engaging with dance. This is an opportunity to present work that is uncompromising and non-commercial without the expectation of presenting isolated and sellable art objects.