“forms of feelings/feelings of forms” workshop with Adriano Wilfert

*The workshops will be conducted in English and are open to anyone interested in feelings. No prior dance experience is necessary.

Since it first appeared in the late 19th century, Western artists, audiences and critics believed that modern dance offered unique opportunities for a direct and presumably authentic mediation of feelings. Whether in art or in certain types of therapy, dance has been framed as the perfect way for people to express themselves and embrace their freedom.

However, since the mid-20th century different proposals have emerged that aim to release dance from its obligation to express the dancer’s feelings, as exemplified by the work of Merce Cunningham and Yvonne Rainer.

“It’s not about me” has been the motto of the contemporary dance artists whom Adriano Wilfert Jensen admires and looks up to as his role models. By striving to move past self-expression, artists like Mårten Spångberg, Alice Chauchat, Alina Popa, Xavier Le Roy and Krõõt Juurak expanded the field of choreography beyond dance. In an expanded sense, choreography could be understood as synonymous with an “organising principle” and encompass the analysis and production of, for instance, the theatrical apparatus, the production of knowledge, communal living, music or cinema.

But how do all these contributions affect the function of feelings in dance today? How do contemporary neuroscience, psychology and philosophy invite us to reconsider the politics of sensations, feelings and emotions? And how might these reconsiderations reshape the way we relate to feelings when we practise, witness and present dance?

In this workshop, we will try to activate these questions through practice. Each session will have the same general structure: we will begin with the practice of “Authentic Movement” dance therapy and continue with “hacked” variations on the same, in order to draw attention to the gaps and opacities between expression and subject and thereby initiate conversations from shared practice.

The “forms of feelings / feelings of forms” workshop is an offshoot of analysis, a long-term research project into the politics of feelings that Adriano Wilfert began in 2017. analysis is rooted in dance and unfolds in various formats, contexts and collaborations, asking questions about the relationships between subjects and feelings (whether the feelings of the subjects themselves or those of others). analysis starts from the supposition that feelings are opaque rather than transparent, mediated rather than immediate, and something you do rather than something you have. From there it feels its way forward, trying to outline how such propositions could inform relations between people in the context of dance and beyond.

So far, the following people have been involved in the development of analysis: Karima El Amrani, Chloe Chignell, Stefa Govaart, Sandra Lolax, Alexandra Tveit, Marie Ursin, Anne Juren, Simon Asencio, Dina El Kaisy, Ana Vujanovic, Dean Blunt, Andrea Zavala Folache, Florie Laroche, Andrea Rodrigo and Laura Ramirez.

Adriano Wilfert Jensen analyses and produces conditions for relations through choreography and dance. His practice manifests in making, performing, writing about, curating, representing and dealing choreography, dancing for other artists, and a variety of other occupations such as cocktail hangouts, publications, research projects and teaching. He has been running Galerie, an immaterial gallery for immaterial artworks, with Simon Asencio since 2014. He dances for the dinosaurs with Emma Daniel in Spending Time with Dinosaurs. Together with Linda Blomqvist, Anna Gaïotti and Emma Daniel, he organised the Indigo Dance Festival, Magazine and Tink Thanks at the Performing Arts Forum (PAF).

*Covid protocol:

• Please follow the instructions given by attendants and staff of La Casa Encendida when entering/exiting the room and taking your seat.
• Face masks must be worn at all times.
• Thank you for using the hand sanitiser at the entrance to the centre.

* La Casa Encendida, a safe space. Please read the health measures we have taken carefully before attending the event.