In this workshop, I want to share my interest in dance as a social phenomenon and practice: I have always been fascinated by social dances and how they respond to the absolutely fundamental human need for movement, pleasure and ecstasy. But perhaps even more important, by how social dances often also tend to be linked to social and political situations and factors, which turn them into dances of resistance, ways of overcoming adversity, or even into strategies for survival. What I am proposing for this workshop is to explore “dance manias”, a topic I am currently exploring in my work, particularly in The Dancing Public production.

Mette Ingvartsen holds a PhD in choreography from the Stockholm University of the Arts, and before that, she graduated from the P.A.R.T.S. school of contemporary arts. Her work has been performed all over Europe, as well as the USA, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. She has been artist-in-residence at the Kaaitheater in Brussels, Volksbühne in Berlin, and affiliated to APAP.
Ingvartsen is a Danish choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Brussels. In her work, she is interested in expanding choreographic practices by combining dance and movement with other domains, including visual art, technology, language and theory. An important element of her work was developed between 2009 and 2012 with The Artificial Nature Series, in which she used choreography to focus on reconfiguring the relationship between human and non-human players. The series The Red Pieces (2014–2017) inscribes itself into a history of human performance with a focus on nudity, sexuality and how the body has historically been a place for political struggles. In 2019 she premièred Moving in Concert, an abstract group choreography that focuses on interpersonal factors, technological tools and natural materials. In 2021 she premièred The Life Work, a work involving elderly people in the Ruhr region of Germany, and deals with migration problems. This work and the solo production The Dancing Public stem from a fascination with dance manias throughout history.

Practical information
Time: 13:00–15:00
Date: 12 March 2022
Registration: billettsalg@dansenshus.com
For: Professional dance artists and students
Cloakrooms not available. Workshop participants must be ready and warmed up when the workshop starts.
The workshop is free.