Join an Artistic Research Lab with Barak adé Soleil

Apr. 10, 2019

Making a Difference – a network supported by Sophiensæle, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Uferstudios, tanzfähig, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, TanzZeit, Diversity.Arts.Culture and Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin – was founded in order to expand contemporary dance through an aesthetic of difference. This month, they’re inviting Berlin-based dance practitioners with physical and/or sensory disabilities to apply for their artistic Research Laboratory (LAB) to explore possibilities of moving and composing.

Over the course of one week questions around disability culture and artistic expression will be explored collectively: In what ways might we engage disability culture within a contemporary practice? What nuances are discovered individually and communally when artistic expression is framed through an intersectional and progressive social lens? How might the “pedestrian” ways disabled bodies navigate public and private spaces offer insights into crafting compositions?

The sessions will be led by contemporary Chicago-based artist Barak adé Soleil, who works across dance, theory and performance. His creative research is informed by legacies of the African diaspora, postmodernism, queerness, global disability culture and the experience of being a person of color and multiply disabled.

Taking place at the Sophiensæle in June, the LAB will offer the possibility to reflect on the intersections of identity, culture and race, to learn about perhaps yet unfamiliar expressions of movements and languages including sign language, to draw on one’s personal experience of disability in relation those of others, and explore what it means to create a choreography that engages with the form of accessibility.

Each participant will receive a fee of 600 Euro. The primary language will be English with available translations into German. The LAB covers the costs of any needed access support that is necessary to participate. Once successful applicants are confirmed, such requirements will be discussed.