MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis


Graduate Movement Research Guest Series 2019-20


Curated by Michael Kliën, Director, MFA in Dance


On a Darkness that Can Not be Dispelled: Moving into the Anthropocene

Since 2009, Gradinger and Schubot's topic has been the debordering of the body. In their work, they have attempted to reorganize the relationship between the "I" and the "you", in the search for other forms of co-existence. The next chapter in the work is negotiating the collective, the "I" and the "we". They aim to create a performative sphere that can effortlessly shift between mutable constellations, where "I am You" can become "We are You" or "I am We" etc. 
We start with a training that aims to undo the habits of the body and perception and expands its current comfort zone. By exploring and widening inner and outer spaces we will find a mutable body full of vibrations, sensations, and fantasies, and discover the realities and performative potential that such a body does create. Through partnering work based on extreme physicality (breath, exhaustion, duration, full-dropping) we will work on an unconditional togetherness and dedication to the other or others. We will then work from this place of deep listening to meet plant beings and discover how the "loop of reciprocity" can move us, fill us, and help to let go of our human-centric logic.
This work searches for a freedom from a habituated, implicated self, through the creation of a new body which enables the conditions for being in a state of constant "becoming."

 

Human Gardening with Shelley Etkin at ROAR berlin

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We came together through expanding our understanding of ‘garden’. The Garden is our place to learn and practice co-creation. Our gardens range from choreographic to textual, social to ecological, divinatory to personal. We intend to share the ongoing evolution of our garden through a discussion with each other and you.
https://www.roar-berlin.com/
https://shelleyetkin.com/

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Nature-Body with Doreen Markert, Shelley Etkin and Theater o.N.

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Jared Gradinger, Shelley Etkin und Doreen Markert möchten mit Kindern ab 4 Jahren unter der weitgefassten Überschrift „Natur und Körper“ arbeiten. Sie interessiert, welches Verhältnis kleine Kinder zu unserer natürlichen Umwelt haben und vermuten, dass sie über ein erstaunliches, intuitives, im Körper verankertes Wissen verfügen, das sie mit der Natur verbindet. Als Erwachsene geht uns dieser Bezug häufig verloren. Wie drückt sich unsere menschliche Natur aus? Wie kommunizieren wir miteinander und wie mit anderen, nicht-menschlichen Lebensformen? Was liegt an den Rändern unserer Wahrnehmung, oder gar im Verborgenen? Mit einer Gruppe von Kita-Kindern werden diese Fragen untersucht – und zwar mit Blick auf ein installatives Setting, in dem das gefundene Material sichtbar werden kann.

 

HZT 2020 with Angela Schubot

This course is a repertoire course, where the students will learn excerpts of pieces by Gradinger/Schubot. These duets will then be composed into a group performance, which will be shown twice.
The students will be able to choose their desired material from the pieces, „what they are instead of“, „is maybe“, „i hope you die soon“ and „YEW:outside“. 
All 4 pieces focus on very physical duet material and will plunge the students into the artists’ signature works on debordering the body through an unconditional togetherness. 

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Duke Guest Lecturer with Angela Schubot

There are countless ways of existing with each other, if we assume our body does not end with our skin. How can the other inspire me to enter spaces that are not occupied by a ’You' and an 'I'? And what happens when we consciously attempt to include the invisible forces and inherent intelligences of Nature to be with us, to move us, moving us away from our habitual logic?
 Since 2009 Gradinger and Schubot's topic has been the debordering of the body. In their work, they have attempted to reorganize the relationship between the 'I' and the 'You', in the search for other forms of co-existence. The next chapter in the work is negotiating the collective, the 'I' and the 'We'. We aim to create a performative sphere that can effortlessly shift between mutable constellations, where 'I am You' can become 'We are You' or 'I am We’ etc. This research brought them into a deep co-creative practice with Nature and plant beings where they discovered practices in how to communicate with plant nature and how from that place of connectivity and true listening start a co-creative process with non-human forces through dance and meditation and incarnation of nature forces. How can we become the garden that we are?
We start with a training that aims to undo the habits of the body and perception and expands its current comfort zone. By exploring and widening inner and outer spaces we will find a mutable body full of vibrations, sensations and fantasies and discover the realities and performative potential that such a body does create. Through partnering work based on extreme physicality (breath, exhaustion, duration, full-dropping) we will work on an unconditional togetherness and dedication to the other or others. We will then work from this place of deep listening to meet plant beings and discover how the ‘loop of reciprocity’ can move us, fill us, and help to let go of our human-centric logic. 
This work searches for a freedom from a habituated, implicated self, through the creation of a new body which enables the conditions for being in a state of constant 'becoming’.

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GARDENS OF BERLIN: TRANSDISCIPLINARY ECOLOGY
Berlin Perspectives Seminar
Guest Lecturer
 
Gardens of Berlin: Transdisciplinary Ecology offers encounters with several unique urban garden projects in Berlin. What do these gardens do, in the contexts where they grow, and within the city at large? Who gathers in those gardens and how? This course offers an opportunity to situate questions of planetary change through the study of Berlin as a complex ecosystem, gaining in-depth perspectives through its urban gardens and their human and non-human communities. The course will explore the range of disciplines that inform the field of ecology ranging from environmental, to mental and social, as well as spiritual. From plants to political dynamics, activism to artistry, the urban gardens studied will reflect the diverse topography of Berlin’s ecology. Site visits will include conversations with local organisers and readings will contextualise their histories and approaches along with theory from the transdisciplinary field of ecology. This course offers skills, insights, and questions to develop ecological thinking, embracing the wide range of cultural and academic backgrounds that students will contribute. There is no requirement for students to have previous familiarity with the subject, only a willingness to engage in readings, discussions, and site visits, as well as verbal and written reflections.
https://shelleyetkin.com/
https://bolognalab.hu-berlin.de/de/projekte-des-bologna.labs/berlin-perspectives

 

HZT 2019 with Angela Schubot

How can we coexist? To say I“ means turning the other into a foreign entity. Can intimacy embrace otherness to form a kind of common being? If our being extends beyond the limits of our skin can it reveal trace evidence of multiple ways of existing, symbiosis through belonging? 10 years ago Jared Gradinger and Angela Schubot made their first duet ‘what they are instead of’. To celebrate its birthday, they want to expand this duet work by teaching it to a group of HZT-Students. ‘what they are instead’  initiated their research on debordering the body through an unconditional togetherness. They will experiment how this work can be reimagined  on an  multiplicitous scale, in an orchestral way; a multitude and polyphony of a radical dedication to the other through breath and body. 

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JARED GRADINGER & ANGELA SCHUBOT
    •    THE NATURE OF US AND THE SOILLESS GARDEN
    •    practices in how to communicate with plant nature and how from that place of connectivity and true listening start a co-creative process with non-human forces through dance and meditation and incarnation of nature forces.

 

Human Gardening workshop Smash Berlin 2017

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‘Where there is form there is nature, where humans and nature interact there is a garden.
(Machaelle Small Wright)

    •    For the past few years, I have been shifting my attention to the ‘natural world’ and the unseen energies that are there to support it/us. This has taken me on a journey, where amongst other things, I have been drawn to create gardens. Gardens as space, as performance, as choreography, as social art. These creations were developed using the ideas of co-creative science. If traditional science is defined as man’s study of reality and how it works, then co-creative science can be defined as the study of reality, how it works from the perspective of nature by human/nature working together in a partnership. I am now wondering how we can apply this system of perceiving (and working with) these realities to create our ‘art’ and support our processes and practices. 
How can we stop speaking of the world and let the world speak to us?
Is it possible to be educated by nature about reality? What do we need to cultivate or leave behind in order to perceive this information? How can we develop our (inner) organs of perception? is it possible to communicate or learn from something that is not human, even something we don’t perceive as living? 
    •    A human calls for a garden to exist.

Definition:
Garden: planned space set aside for the display, cultivation and enjoyment of plants. 
Gardener: one who attempts to conquer nature by restoring a balance that accommodates their definition of a garden and how it functions. 
or
Garden: anything initiated by humans, given its purpose and direction by humans and maintained with the help of humans. 
    •    Gardener: one who works in a conscious partnership with nature to create an environmentally balanced biosphere on all levels - seen and unseen- that promotes a new support system for all that participates. 
    •    A Garden: exists wherever humans define, initiate and interact with form to create a specialized environment. 

    •    http://www.smash-berlin.com/
  
 

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ON BECOMING... JARED GRADINGER & ANGELA SCHUBOT
 

There are countless ways of existing with each other, if we assume our body does not end with our skin. How can the other inspire me to enter spaces that are not occupied by a ’You' and an 'I'?
 
Since 2009, Gradinger and Schubot's topic has been the debordering of the body. In their work, they have attempted to reorganize the relationship between the 'I' and the 'You', in the search for other forms of co-existence. The next chapter in the work is negotiating the collective, the 'I' and the 'We'. We aim to create a performative sphere that can effortlessly shift between mutable constellations, where 'I am You' can become 'We are You' or 'I am We’ etc.
 
We start with a training that aims to undo the habits of the body and perception and expands its current comfort zone. By exploring and widening inner and outer spaces we will find a mutable body full of vibrations, sensations and fantasies and discover the realities and performative potential that such a body does create. Through partnering work based on extreme physicality (breath, exhaustion, duration, full-dropping) we will work on an unconditional togetherness and dedication to the other or others.
This work searches for a freedom from a habituated, implicated self, through the creation of a new body which enables the conditions for being in a state of constant 'becoming'.