Teaching language German/English, translation into French possible (with a little help from my friends).
Archiv des Autors: susanne
2 Improvisation Workshops Nov 2022
Basel 4-6 Nov 22, level: advanced/professional
Bern 18-20 Nov 22, level: with CI experience
Was ist Tanz? (April 2022)
Centre Francais Berlin S.K.A.T.#1 Was ist Tanz Flyer 27.04.22
Mit Susanne Martin und Jan Burkhardt
Durch eine Mischung von Vortrag, Workshop und Performance widmen wir uns einigen zentralen Tanzthemen wie zum Beispiel:
Wonach gucken wir, wenn wir Tanz sehen?
Woran denken wir, wenn wir selbst tanzen?
Wie verhält sich Tanz zu Ton und zu Musik?
Was könnte man wissen und was will ich wissen über Tanz?
Wie passen Tanz und Alter(n) zusammen?
Anders gesagt: Mit Hilfe von Wahrnehmungsaufgaben, Bewegungsaufgaben (kein Zwang) und gemeinsamem Nachdenken lade ich ein, sich dem Phänomen Tanz anzunähern. Außerdem konnte ich meinen wunderbaren Kollegen Jan Burkhardt (Tänzer/Choreograph/Tanzvermittler) gewinnen in einem Gastbeitrag etwas zu unserem Tanzverstehen beizutragen. Also es wird spannend. Vorwissen oder spezielle körperliche Fähigkeiten sind nicht erforderlich. Alle Altersgruppen sind willkommen, Expert*innen und Genies jeglicher Art dürfen auch mitmachen.
Alle Fotos: Félicie Bleesz
Fotos: Félicie Bleesz
Salon Raumverstehen 2021 mit Gabriele Reuter
Performing Improvisation with L’Âme de Fonds 2021
Au beau milieu / Au bas mot, 29/30 Dec 2021, Neuchatel, Switzerland
with Peter Aerni, Giacomo Calabrese, Simon Henein, Chantal Langlotz, Simone Marty, Susanne Martin
Dancing with Real Bodies: Dance Improvisation for Engineering, Science, and Architecture Students
„Dancing with Real Bodies“ is an Open Access Article published in 2021 in the edited book „Algorithmic and Aesthetic Literacy“.
How can dance improvisation contribute to learning processes within a technical university? This article proposes an answer to this question from the perspective of an artistic researcher and dancer who specializes in improvisation.
The full article is available here:
https://shop.budrich.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/10.322484742428.02.pdf
The introduction article of „Algorithmic and Aesthetic Literacy“ by Lydia Schulze Heuling and Christian Filk is available here:
https://shop.budrich.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9783847424284_inhaltsverzeichnis_leseprobe.pdf
Book descriptions:
English: Algorithmic and Aesthetic Literacy is a selection of texts aiming to extend current understandings of algorithmic and aesthetic literacy. The volume presents a wide array of transdisciplinary perspectives on computational and aesthetic practices and thinking. Drawing on computer and educational science, artistic research, designing and crafting, this collection delves deeply into societal and educational challenges in the wake of the digital transformation. The volume brings together diverse approaches and viewpoints to stimulate dialogue and awareness of the manifold ways in which algorithmic processes have become part of our lives. By extending our ability to respond to a data-driven world in creative and non-habitual ways, we will be better equipped to re-imagine and shape our collective future as meaningful and fulfilling.
Deutsch: Mehr denn je prägen computergestützte und algorithmische Modalitäten gesellschaftliche Transformationsprozesse. Die algorithmische Bildung ist herausgefordert, transdisziplinäre Synthesen für Modellvorstellungen und Praxisansätze fruchtbar zu machen. Doch wie können Ästhetik und Kreativität ihren Eingang in algorithmische Bildungspraktiken finden? Der Sammelband vereint innovative Beiträge, mit denen sowohl Lehrende als auch Lernende zu schöpferischem Denken und nachhaltigem Handeln in der digitalen, wissensbasierten Netzwerkgesellschaft angeregt werden.
Three Cornered Circle 2020
Understanding Dance for Beginners and Intermediates, May 2020
This video tutorial (4 episodes) is a response to the statement “I don’t understand dance” – a sentence we encounter ever so often when moving away from the inner circles of dance lovers and dance experts. So, we attend to questions like: What do I look for when watching dance? What’s the relationship between dance, sound and music? What is there to know, and what would I like to know about dance? Understanding Dance for Beginners and Intermediates is an invitation to wonder, ponder, study, meet, and simply be in the room with dance. Let’s see how far we get. Advanced fans, advanced skeptics, professionals, and children are also welcome.
Susanne Martin – concept, performance
Gabriele Reuter – co-creation, performance
Hui-Chun Lin – co-creation, cello
Andrea Keiz – camera, video
Created for Soundance Festival Berlin 2020 (www.soundance-festival.de)
# Episode 1
Kinesthetic Empathy
Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching
Foster, Susan (2011) Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. London: Routledge.
Pavis, Patrice (2016) The Routledge dictionary of performance and contemporary theatre. London: Routledge.
Reason, Matthew and Reynolds, Dee (2010) Kinesthesia, Empathy, and Related Pleasures: An Inquiry into Audience Experiences of Watching Dance. Dance Research Journal. Cambridge University Press, 42(2), pp. 49–75.
Reynolds, Dee and Reason, Matthew (2012) Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices. Bristol: Intellect.
30 min. lecture performance by Susan Foster (2011) Kinesthetic Empathies & The Politics of Compassion. http://danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-foster/kinesthetic-empathies.html
# Episode 2
Monte Verità Part 1
Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching
Early European Modern Dance
Müller, Hedwig and Stöckermann, Patricia (1993) “…jeder Mensch ist ein Tänzer.” Ausdruckstanz in Deutschland zwischen 1900 und 1945. Gießen: Anabas.
Oberzaucher-Schüller, Gunhild (1992) Ausdruckstanz: Eine mitteleuropäische Bewegung der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Wilhelmshaven: Florian Noetzel.
45 min. documentary by Allegra Fuller Snyder (1991) When the fire dances between the two poles – Mary Wigman 1886-1973. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFCVWVaeevA
18 min. Jill Beck (1988) intensive course in elementary Labanotation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhCI7WIBJg
60 min. Mark Jarecke (2012) introduction to Laban’s Space Harmony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-B_E3loAto
Dance and Recognition
Foellmer, Susanne (2006) Valeska Gert: Fragmente einer Avantgardistin in Tanz und Schauspiel der 1920er Jahre. Bielefeld: transcript.
Gert, Valeska (1968, reprint 2019) Ich bin eine Hexe: Kaleidoskop meines Lebens. Berlin: Alexander.
30 min. talk show excerpt (1975) with Valeska Gert as guest (in German language). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xgpvta0UMA
# Episode 3
Monte Verità Part 2
Recommendations for Further Reading and Watching
Dada / Cabaret Voltaire
5 min. excerpt of documentary by Greta Deses (1969). Reconstruction of a performance at the Cabaret Voltaire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkl92oV1kMc
55 min. documentary by Helmut Herbst (1968) Germany – Dada: An Alphabet of German Dadaism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jMqxSPWWQ
Hermeneutics
12 min. video tutorial by Victor Gijsbers (2017) The Hermeneutic Circle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEzc__BBxs
12 min. collage of Hans-Georg Gadamer speaking about hermeneutics (German with English subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm-hZY5W4Ss
Dance and Music
2 min. trailer by Walter Bickmann (2018) Gabriele Reuter and Mattef Kuhlmey in The Amplitude. https://www.tanzforumberlin.de/produktion/the-amplitude/
8 min. documentary (2017) on a sensory atelier based on The Amplitude by Gabriele Reuter and Mattef Kuhlmey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=339&v=__4boy3T3uQ&feature=emb_logo
10 min. performance excerpts (2017) of duets by Jenny Haack and Lin Hui-Chun. https://vimeo.com/294438082
6 min. performance excerpt (2016) Dr. D. meets Dr. V. by Susanne Martin and Alex Nowitz. https://vimeo.com/239994378
Hauert, Thomas (2016) Inaudible. Project description and video excerpt. https://zoo-thomashauert.be/en/projects/139/inaudible
# Episode 4
Dance in Context
No recommendations for this episode.
The workaholics should take a break.
The others still have work to do for Episode 1-3.
ENJOY
Stromen 2019
Duet improvisation with Simon Wenger (Basel)
26 November 2019 Stromen & group improvisation with the Frenesi Trio, FIM Basel, Switzerland
29 November 2019 Stromen with participation of Kurt Holzkämper & group improvisation with Instant PIG // Stuttgart, SAAL FREI Stuttgart, Germany
Learning. Teaching. Dancing. 2018
Learning. Teaching. Dancing.
for “Remembering the Future – 40 years of Tanzfabrik Berlin”
A “Doc Martin Dance Lecture“ with Susanne Martin (in English language)
all Photos: AnnA Stein
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Learning. Teaching. Dancing. is an interactive dance lecture for beginners, professionals, and the generally curious. Within the frame of “Remembering the Future – 40 years of Tanzfabrik Berlin” this dance lecture recalls moments of practical research and of unsettling and enlightening dance experiences within Tanzfabrik’s workshops. Learning. Teaching. Dancing. is Susanne’s radically subjective review and restaging of practices, exercises, and ideas taken from Tanzfabrik’s workshops and panel discussions. Learning. Teaching. Dancing. shares Tanzfabrik experiences from the perspective of a fan = amateur = lover.
Learning. Teaching. Dancing. (tanzen lernen lehren) ist eine interaktive Dance Lecture für Anfänger_innen, Fortgeschrittene und Sowieso-Neugierige. Im Rahmen von „Remembering the Future – 40 Jahre Tanzfabrik“, erinnert sich diese Dance Lecture an Momente des Lernens, Lehrens, der praktischen Forschung und der handfesten oder leichtfüßigen Tanzerfahrungen innerhalb der Workshops der Tanzfabrik. Learning. Teaching. Dancing. ist Susannes radikal subjektiver Rückblick und die Wiederaufführung von Praktiken, Übungen und Ideen aus Workshops und Panelgesprächen der Tanzfabrik. Learning. Teaching. Dancing. vermittelt Tanzfabrikerfahrungen aus der Perspektive eines Fans = Amateur = Liebhaberin.
all Photos: AnnA Stein
RETROPERSPEKTIVE 2017
Duet with Felix Marchand
6 December 2017, SODA Festival, HZT Berlin
Retroperspective
It is ten years by now that Felix and Susanne became SODA-pilot-students at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT). Ten years during which they didn’t find the time to go into the studio together. Now it finally happened. Come and celebrate with them a foresighted review into an improvised present. Susanne and Felix negotiate their dancing pasts in a real time composition. They face the presence and battle the future. They meet old friends and new opponents, and get backup from Billy the Kid, Julio Iglesias, Rosi, Helge Schneider, Wum & Wendelin and, and, and……
Publications
Martin, S. (forthcoming) Other Bodies of Knowledge: Dance improvisation as embodied recognition practice for scientists. In: Werquin, P., Klein, R., Ravet, S. (eds.) Decolonising Recognition. Editions Atlantique (open access), www.decolonising.openrecognition.org)
Haller, M. and Martin, S. (2022) Ageing trouble tanzen! In: Hiesl, A. und Kaiser, R. (eds.) War schön. Kann weg: Altern in der darstellenden Kunst. Berlin: Theater der Zeit.
https://www.theaterderzeit.de/buch/war_scho%CC%88n._kann_weg_%E2%80%A6/
ISBN 978-3-95749-406-1
Martin, S. and Rustad, H. (2021) Crisis Collective. In: Howden Sjøvaag J., Peters, D., Mydland. A. H. (eds.) Crisis Collective: relic site – contributions to a lost conference. Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1190427/1190428 https://www.researchcatalogue.net/portals/issue?issue=1213711
Martin, S. (2021) Dancing with Real Bodies. In: Schulze Heuling, L., Filk, C. (eds.) Algorithmic and Aesthetic Literacy. Emerging Transdisciplinary Explorations for the Digital Age. Opladen: Barbara Budrich. (open access)
https://shop.budrich.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/10.322484742428.02.pdf
Martin, S. (2021) Performing Age(ing): A Lecture Performance. In: Hülsen-Esch, A. (ed.) Cultural Perspectives on Ageing. Berlin: De Gruyter. (open access)
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110683042-010/html
Martin, S. (2020) Dancing Age(ing): 3000 Bewegungen und 1000 Worte an deren Ende wir alle 40 Minuten älter sein werden. In: Stronegger, W., Attems, K. (eds.) Altersbilder und Sorgestrukturen. 3. Goldegger Dialogforum Mensch und Endlichkeit. Baden-Baden: Nomos. https://www.nomos-shop.de/nomos/titel/altersbilder-und-sorgestrukturen-id-81263/
Kloetzer, L., Henein, S., Tau, R., Martin, S., Valterio, J. (2020) Teaching Through Performing Arts in Higher Education: Examples in Engineering and Psychology. Scenario 14 (2). (open access) https://journals.ucc.ie/index.php/scenario/article/view/scenario-14-2-1/pdf-en
Kramer, P., Meehan, E., Martin, S., Voris, A. (2019) About Adequacy: Making Body-based Artistic Research Public. In: Bacon, J., Hilton, R., Kramer, P., and Midgelow V. (eds.) Researching (in/as) Motion: A Resource Collection, Artistic Doctorates in Europe, Theatre Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki: Nivel 10. (open access) https://nivel.teak.fi/adie/about-adequacy/
Martin S. (2019) Ageing and Dance. In: Gu D., Dupre M. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_257-1
Martin, S. (2019) book review on Mark Edward, Mesearch and the Performing Body. Dance Research, 37(1), pp. 120–121. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/drs.2019.0262
Martin, S. (2018) Learning. Teaching. Dancing. In Cramer, F.A., Lanteri, J., Orlok, L., Stein, A. (eds.) Remembering the Future: 40 Jahre Tanzfabrik Berlin. Berlin: Tanzfabrik Berlin. https://www.booksonthemove.fr/en/produit/remembering-the-future-40-jahre-tanzfabrik-berlin/
Raphael, R. and Martin, S. (2018) On Dance and Aging: An Interview with Berlin-Based Researcher-Dancer Susanne Martin. Review of Disability Studies, 14 (4).
https://rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/867
Martin, S. (2017) Searching for the Fountain of Age: Script of a Danced Lecture. Proceedings of the conference Carpa 5: Perilious Experience? Extending Experience through Artistic Research. Uniarts Helsinki, Finnland. August 31 to September 2, 2017. https://nivel.teak.fi/carpa5/susanne-martin-searching-for-the-fountain-of-age-script-of-a-danced-lecture/
Martin S. (2017) Dancing Age(ing): Rethinking Age(ing) in and through Improvisation Practice and Performance. Bielefeld: transcript. https://www.transcript-publishing.com/978-3-8376-3714-4/dancing-age-ing/
Videos Improvisation & Engineering – post-doctoral artistic research
Artistic Research on Improvisation & Engineering
A postdoctoral research project at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), hosted by Instant-Lab, Prof. Simon Henein
In this postdoctoral research I examine dance improvisation in its potential to rethink and advance processes of learning and researching in a technical university. Placed in the context of EPFL, a university specialised in engineering, the project takes a new approach to exploring and articulating the practice-knowledge of dance improvisers in relation to the needs of scientists, students and educators in higher education. As such this artistic research situates itself right at the heart of the critical discourses around the dichotomies of practice/theory, art/science, body/mind, action/reflection, as well as the divide between object and subject in research processes. The sensing body, reflection in action, and play are the practical themes of the project.
My artistic research project is part of the ASCOPET research (Les arts de la scène comme outil pédagogique dans l’enseignement tertiaire), a collaboration between Prof. Simon Henein, EPFL and Prof. Laure Kloetzer, University of Neuchatel (Unine). In June 2019 we held the first international ASCOPET symposium on higher education learning through performance practices on the EPFL campus. The event offered an opportunity for an international exchange on applying performing arts and improvisation methods to higher education.
Organisation and Curation: Laure Kloetzer and Susanne Martin
Speakers: Simon Henein / Laure Kloetzer / Ramiro Tau, Switzerland; Jonathan Parker, UK; Helle Winther, Denmark; Francesco Mondada, Switzerland; Gunter Lösel / Nicole Erichsen, Germany / Switzerland; Fran Iglesias Gracia, Spain; Susanne Martin, Germany / Switzerland.
See also: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/instantlab/improgineering/
Public Presentations:
– 27.10.2020 Improvisation für die Universität? Gewohnheiten in Bewegung Lecture Performance, Saalfrei Festival Stuttgart
– 21 January 2020 Improvising to Collaborate – Collaborating to Improvise research presentation with Martin Sonderkamp during the annual research week at the University of the Arts Stockholm
– June 2019 Bodies in the Making interactive danced lecture with generous participation of Norah Zuniga Shaw, Soundance Festival Berlin
-13 June 2019 Learning to Improvise – Improvising to Learn interactive danced lecture with generous participation of Alexandra Macdonald and EPFL master students, during the Symposium on Higher Education Learning through Performance Practices, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland

Photo: Simon Henein, ASCOPET symposium 13 June 2019 , Presentation „Learning to Improvise…“ improvisation of Improgineering students

Photo: Simon Henein, ASCOPET symposium 13 June 2019 ,Presentation „Learning to Improvise…“ improvisation with Alexandra Macdonald

Photo: Simon Henein, ASCOPET symposium 13 June 2019 „Learning to Improvise…“, improvisation with Alexandra Macdonald
-23 March 2019, IMPROGINEERING or Move Towards the Unknown, Fall Into a Gap, and Find a Body There, together with Simon Henein, international conference Society of Artistic Research SAR, Zürich.

Video: Joelle Valterio, SAR Conference 2019 Presentation Heinein/Martin, improvisation of participants
-25 January 2019 Improvisation and Engineering, Eawag, The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology, Zürich, Switzerland
-7 September 2018 IMPROGINEERING interactive lecture performance together with Simon Henein and Joelle Valterio, Conférence Européenne de l’Improvisation (CEPI) Haute Ville, Puget, France
See on the website of epfl.ch:
Dancing Age(ing) lecture performances
– 24 May 2023 Jung bleiben und Sterben üben – eine Lecture Performance zu Alter(n) und Tanz, Ringvorlesung, ZENTRUM FÜR INTERDISZIPLINÄRE ALTERNS- UND CARE-FORSCHUNG, Universität Graz
– 4 December 2023 Üben, Üben, Üben, NachWieVor – Fachtag Tanzperformance und Alter(n), Ehrenfeld Studios Köln, Germany
-30 January 2020 Dancing Age(ing): an Ongoing Practice and a Danced Lecture conference on intersectionality, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, dance department, Belgium
-26 September 2019 Dancing Age(ing) Interdisziplinäres Dialogforum Mensch und Endlichkeit, Goldegg, Austria
-9 May 2019 Dancing Age(ing): Strategien der Aneignung oder des Sich-Befremden-Lassens? Ein getanzter Vortrag, University Leipzig, Institut for theatre studies, Germany
-29 November 2018 Dancing Age(ing) – Performing Ambiguity, conference Cultural Perspectives on Ageing, Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany
– 27 June 2018 Performing Ambiguity a danced lecture, Chichester University, UK
-5 May 2018 Improvising Age(ing): a danced lecture, Kiev, Ukraine
– 14-16 February 2018 Die Vieldeutigkeit von Alter(n) performen: a danced lecture
6. Werkstattgespräch des interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises Ambivalenz: Altern und biographische Übergänge, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Performing Improvisation – VARIA Festival Sweden 2018
19/20 October 2018 at Konstepidemin Göteborg
Participating artists:
Susanne Martin choreographer, dancer (DE)
Irena Z. Tomažin voice artist, dancer (SI)
Alessio Castellacci composer, voice artist (IT/DE)
Alex Nowitz composer, voice artist (DE)
Hui-Chun Lin musician, composer-artist (TW/DE)
Lisa Larsdotter Petersson performance and visual -artist (S)Video-light installation & video documentation – Christina Hallström filmmaker, visual artist (NL/S) Moderator conversation – Jannine Rivel choreographer, dancer (S)
In collaboration with VARIA
Performing Improvisation with L’Âme de Fonds 2017
teaching lately
– SS 2022 Erst- und Zweitbegegnungen mit Tanzimprovisation Evangelische Hochschule Berlin
– SS 2022 Tanzimprovisation & Methoden künstlerischer Forschung Evangelische Hochschule Berlin-
– 3.5.2022 Body and Voice in Teaching, Workshop EPFL Lausanne
– 27.4.2022 Was ist Tanz? Workshop / Lecture Performance zusammen mit Jan Burkhardt, Centre Francais Berlin, https://centre-francais.de/events/skat-1-was-ist-tanz-mit-susanne-martin-und-jan-burkhardt/
– Somatic Research and Documentation Workshop 26/27 March 2022
Information and registration via Somatische Akademie Berlin: https://www.somatische-akademie.de/en/your-account/booking-en
– Movement Improvisation for University Teachers (together with S. Henein) Feb & Sept 2022, in Lausanne. More infos: www.epfl.ch/labs/instantlab/ascopet
– WS 2021/22 Tanzimprovisation & Methoden künstlerischer Forschung Evangelische Hochschule Berlin
– SS 2021 Erst- und Zweitbegegnungen mit Tanzimprovisation Evangelische Hochschule Berlin
– 20/21 March 2021 Online Workshop Somatic Research and Documentation
Information and registration via Somatische Akademie Berlin
-August 2020 CI Workshop, international contact improvisation festival, Freiburg (cancelled)
– July 2020 CI Workshop, The Netherlands Contact Improvisation Festival (cancelled)
– 14/15 March 2020 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin
– 27 February 2019 Dancing with Real Bodies, improvisation class for MA students of EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland as part of the EPFL research project Improvisation & Engineering
– 16-17 February 2019 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin
–15 – 21 October 2018 dancer training and performances for VARIA Festival Göteborg, Sweden
– 23/24 July 2018 Workshop Bad Performance For Shy Artists, transart institute, summer intensive Berlin
– 29 May – 6 June 2018 CI Workshop Watch Us Dance, Ukraine CI Festival, see website ci-ukraine.com/wpWatch Us Dance,
– 24/25 March 2018 Workshop Grundlagen somatische & künstlerische Forschung / Dokumentation, S. Martin & A. Keiz, somatische Akademie Berlin
–18/19 November 2017 Workshop Body & Milieu Body IQ Festival, Somatische Akademie Berlin
– 16 – 22 June 2017 CI Workshop Dancing with Others – Dancing for Others, Bucharest CI Festival
About Susi & Gabi’s Salon
Susi & Gabi’s Salon
Susanne Martin & Gabriele Reuter (Berlin) revive a European tradition that dates back to the 17th century; a salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host (Susi & Gabi as Salonnières do their best to inspire!), held partly for amusement and partly to refine taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. In dialogue with invited guests and the audience, these evenings revolve around the phenomenon of Improvisation as performance, choreography and research.
The Salon as Dance Mediation Format, a documentation of Salon #13 by Maren Witte
first published in Mapping Dance Berlin 2018
http://www.tanzraumberlin.de/files/map_broschure_web_fin_1.pdf
Description of the setting and the idea of the format
The latest edition of Susi & Gabi’s Salon marks the beginning of the Tanzfabrik showcase series “Open Spaces” from November 1-6, 2017. Two of the performance groups invited to the showcase can already present their work here and put it up for discussion. The salon, as designed by Susanne Martin and Gabriele Reuter, is based on a long tradition and – in addition to its humorous and artistic dynamic and quality – is socio-politically, feministically and educationally motivated.
The format follows a clear and transparent process comprising ten stations:
1. Welcome; 2. Warm-Up; 3. Transition; 4. Performance; 5. Talk over drinks; 6. Body work of the day; 7. Performance; 8. Improvisation ‚positioning of my art‘; 9. 100 questions and 3 answers; 10. Audience award.
(How) does the format work? The evening starts at 6 pm and ends at 8 pm in an informal conversation. Among the approximately 50 guests, there are five without a dance background and just as many who rarely or never dance. (This information resulted from questions that the audience was initially asked to provide and to write down on distributed sheets of paper. The audience immediately began a lively conversation and also asked each other questions, among other things about their individual backgrounds.)
Welcome: Directly at the entrance we soon see from the stage, costumes, lighting and music that we are in a salon: the warm light, the waltz music, the sequin jackets and the pleated skirts of the two salonnières as well as their distinctive pearl necklaces create an atmosphere in which the group will partake for the next two hours. By contrast, the bare feet of the hostesses contrast with the historicizing salon attributes and clearly distinguish our situation as being embedded in contemporary art and society. In the welcoming part, the language question is quickly clarified: the language of the evening will be English, due to the international guests that are present. Guests will be informed of the evening’s progress (a flipchart with the schedule will be visible throughout the evening) and given a task: to record questions during the evening that may arise from the presented verbal or choreographic content (between a clear distinction is made between “real” and “rhetorical” questions). These questions will be collected in Phase 9 of the evening, but only a few will actually be answered. Afterwards Reuter and Martin select a representative from the audience, who at the end of the evening may present the Audience Award (two lemons) for two particularly successful “aspects” of the evening.
Warm-Up: Reuter and Martin increasingly integrate language into their warm-up, which initially begins as a purely physical contact duo, until they each present a striking anecdote from their studies: Reuter recalls a lesson from her lecturer, who had explained the significance of the audience for the essence and effect of art: “The artwork becomes animated because you look at it.” Martin talks about the notion of the “aspect” in Wittgenstein: An “aspect” always occurs when there is a change in thinking or in perception – an “aha moment”. In this phase of the salon evening, therefore, a kin-aesthetic-intellectual warm-up occurs, which both conveys information and invites active thinking and participation.
Resonance: The following stations are dedicated to theworking methods of the two invited artist groups: MartinSonderkamp/Darko Dragičević and Shannon Cooney with her team. From this phase of the evening I would like to mention the idea of the “responses”: After both groups showed each other an excerpt from their current productions, Reuter and Martin spontaneously stepped onto the stage and performed a “resonance”, which they attribute to their subjective memory as a moment from the presented material. In so doing, they present what they have personally perceived and experienced for all of us, what they remember and what they can do with their bodies. The theoretical concepts introduced at the beginning of the co-creative power of the art-recipients as well as the aesthetic experience of an aspect can be practically experienced here. On the other hand, both artists’ groups present their works in a way that actively involves the audience directly: Martin Sonderkamp asks half of the audience to leave the studio for a while, so that he can provide the other half information about the production. In this way, he wants to discover how being informed can augment or affect the visual experience. After the performance, both audiences can exchange their own visual experiences with a glass of sparkling wine and pretzel sticks. A lively “working break” is the result. Shannon Cooney, on the other hand, asks all interested parties to take the stage and initiates a five-minute somatic session in which we practice three-dimensional vision with our eyes closed. This sensitization not only has a pleasant, personal effect, but also prepares you physically and atmospherically for the subsequent part of the performance.
Positioning: The subsequent eighth session of the evening invites all participating artists to reflect on themselves and their art through the terms “improvisation”, “material”, “movement”, “dance”, “choreography”, “vision”, “relation”, etc. The terms are written on cardboard boxes and quickly invite all to partake in a group improvisation, in which different meanings and definitions arise through different arrangements – and are dissolved again.
Is the format transferable? The person in the seat next to me says goodbye at the end of the salon with the words “Now everything’s even more complicated for me than before! But it was exciting!”. In this sense, I can fully recommend the format for other productions, especially as a prelude to smaller festivals.
Maren Witte, Dr. Phil, is professor for theatre theories, dance and movement research at Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen, Ottersberg, Germany.
Artistic Research Lecture Performances – other themes
– 3 April 2022 Miteinander improvisieren: Ein Tanz, ein Vortrag und zwei Übungen zum Sich-Anstecken, Lecture Performance, Symposium Gruppenpsychoanalyse, Wien
– 25 October 2018 Ties & Bonds, together with Alex Nowitz, conference Alliances & Communalities, University of the Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
– 7 April 2018 Learning. Teaching. Dancing. An interactive danced lecture, Tanzfabrik Berlin
– 29 November 2017 live acts, moving bodies, and the sharing of time and ideas: a danced lecture, artistic research conference, Swedish arts council, Stockholm
Susi & Gabi’s Salon #13 „100 questions to contemporary dance“
some moving images
For example:
have a look at vimeo.com/album/3608339/
and:
DE
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Biography short
Susanne Martin (PhD)
is a Berlin based artist, researcher, and teacher in the field of contemporary dance and performance. She works internationally as soloist and in collaborative settings. Her artistic practice and research focuses on improvisation, contact improvisation, narrations of the aging body, humor and irony in dance, artistic research methods, and improvisation-based approaches to learning, knowledge production and knowledge dissemination. Her book Dancing Age(ing): Rethinking Age(ing) in and through Improvisation Practice and Performance has been published by transcript in 2017. Since 2018 she holds a postdoctoral research position at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where she examines dance improvisation in its potential to rethink and advance processes of learning and researching in a technical university.