Criss-Crossing Encounters
Since the last few months, physical encounters in analogue space have been governed by many uncertainties and regulations, or not possible at all. This moved a lot, required adaptations of artistic practice and alternative ways of learning and sharing. "Criss-Crossing Encounters" aims to explore this range of encounter possibilities as well as to share and expand the knowledge and experience of dancers through the creation of extraordinary digital/hybrid and analogue spaces.
The first sub-project "Fluid Spaces Research" with Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad (BodyCartography Project) was an online workshop research that expanded into a series of local / live feed / digital events and an international community. On 07.05.2021 a digital public presentation of the research took place, the Fluid Spaces Research Sharing.
The second sub-project is a non-public online conversation chain for dance artists, initiated and launched by Jonathan Burrows & myself. The aim is to facilitate cross-generational and cross-cultural encounters and conversations between people who would probably not have met outside of the online meeting places that are being created. Where everyone listens to each other and where space is given to share common, recurring and pressing questions: Where do we currently stand as dance artists? Where can and do we want to go after this pandemic? How can we not simply let ourselves be crushed by the cultural machinery, and how can we counter the fear that it will become 'normal' again? How can we take something away from this exceptional time?
Thabo Thindi will question the issues of discrimination, especially racial oppression, through and with his artistic expression in the Ko Shebeen - Countering the Obvious (the third sub-project) taking place. The form of this event comes from a South African concept where art, politics and social dynamics meet and intertwine.
