Fictions, my body – Collective sensations & Somatic freaks 1.0

Biographies

Alice Chauchat is a dance practitioner based in Berlin since 2001. Most of her activities center around dance and range from dancing to choreographing, from teaching to supporting fellow dancers in inventing frameworks for existing and performing together, from writing to reflecting in practice on the politics and ethics of togetherness inside and outside the dance studio.

Andreea David is a choreographer, dancer and former architect. Her interest in practices of so-called divination, manifested through performance, began in 2017 with the work Latent Show (an anagram of talent), developed with Cristian Nanculescu-Nanci. There, the performance, the performer or any form of receptive presence became a medium for what was about to happen; for something, undeniably beyond their sphere of control, but potentially taking shape through their “scenic/performative talent”. Her works and collaborations have been presented at ccn Montpellier, Blackbox Theater Oslo, HAU2 Berlin, festival del Silencio Milano, l’abri Geneva, Temp d’image and Reactor Cluj, Teatru Fix Iasi, Seoul, Bucharest etc. Currently Andreea is active in the action group Here was a forest / Here could be a forest, whose mission is to defend and save the 12 ha of land illegally reclaimed from the IOR park and subjected to repeated poisonings and fires.

Vlad Benescu is an independent artist from Bucharest. He studied acting at UNATC between 2011 and 2016. Since 2012 he has also started working as a dancer and performer. He collaborated with WASP – Working Art Space and Production where he worked with choreographers such as Marten Spangberg, Valentina de Piante, Sergiu Matis, Inger-Reidun Olsen, Florin Fieroiu, Andreea Căpitănescu. In 2016 he participated with the performance M.E.L.T., directed by Valentina de Piante, at the Impulstanz Vienna Festival in the 8-tension section. In 2019 he was a DanceWeb fellow at Impulstanz under the guidance of Anne Juren, Mette Edvardsen and Annie Dorsen. He also worked as a circus artist from 2016 to 2020 at the Metropolitan Circus in Bucharest, collaborating as an actor, unicyclist and juggler in two productions. As an actor he has collaborated with Bulandra Theatre, Ion Creanga Theatre and the independent theatres Unteatru, Hearth Association, Elisabeta Theatre, Godot Theatre, Artist Cafe, Stela Popescu Theatre, Apropo Theatre. In 2018 he started a PhD research at UNATC in collaboration with Cinetic in the field of art and technology. In 2023 he completes his PhD with a thesis entitled “New technologies in contemporary performing arts”, work coordinated by Prof. Bogdana Crețu. Her most recent productions include Three Sisters, an experimental theatre performance co-produced and performed with Ionut Anghel, Transsystemic Signals 2.0, Taken by VAL..s and Somatic Freaks 1.0 & 2.0 in collaboration with Alexandra Mihaela Dancs.

Alexandra Mihaela Dancs, independent dancer and choreographer, collaborates with Vava Stefanescu, Cosmin Manolescu, Florin Flueraș, Cătălina Gubandru, Doris Uhlich, Mădălina Dan, Andreea David, Zan Yamashita, Rui Catalao, Carmen Coțofană, Robert Bălan, Jean Lorin Sterian, Florin Fieroiu, Urvi Vora, Vlaicu Golcea, Nicoleta Lefter etc. In 2010 and 2012 she was a DanceWeb scholarship holder at Impulstanz Vienna. In 2014 she received the Excellence Award for her contribution to the construction of Romanian contemporary dance from the National Dance Centre Bucharest. In 2016 she conceives “Everything for Endorphins”, a program produced by CNDB, addressed to all dance lovers. Since 2019 she is part of “pj.lo & the accidentals”. Since 2021 he is an associate artist of AREAL – space for choreographic development. In 2023 she signs the choreography of the theatre shows “Frici” by Ana Sorina Corneanu and “Lizica” by Alex Tocilescu, in which she also acts, not only dances. The solo “In search of dance” and the duets “Taken by VAL…s” and “Somatic Freaks 1.0 & 2.0” in collaboration with Vlad Benescu are his most recent creations. For several years she has been dedicating herself to surfing with the same passion she has for dance.

About Fictions, my body

Fictions, my body addresses language in the performative space and intends to put different kinds of practices in dialogue. A range of artists are invited to explore the dynamics between body, presence and speech. The framework aims to make it possible for dance artists to meet the public, local and international artists, who also orient their choreographic practices through other arts (theory, philosophy, poetry, sound, visual arts). The invited artists propose other ways of working with language or different framings of it, beyond illustration, with the tension between representation and corporeality.  If in last year’s Fictions, my body we were interested in the embodied presence that generates word, and the word that generates a new corporeality or embodiment of it, provoking a reflection on the boundary between reality and fiction, this year we extend the questions further towards what situations that language can create and constellate. What are the ways in which language, and its representation, its interpretation, its meaning produce different situations? How can it open up other readings of the reality we encounter? Can language, through its potential to reshape realities, go beyond language? What does the absence of language produce? What new meanings, definitions and perspectives do linguistic formulations bring to dance? This year’s format will include, in addition to performance presentations, language-challenged performative situations: labs, lectures, participatory frameworks and performance practices.

Artists
Adriana Gheorghe (laboratory & performance protocol)
Alice Chauchat (remote – shared practice)
Andreea David (workshop & performance)
Cătălina Gubandru (participatory performance)
Cosmina Moroșan & Anticorp Solar (performance with participatory framework)
Diego Agullo (laboratory, lecture & performance)
Eliza Trefas (performance)
Florin Flueras (performance)
Alexandra Mihaela Dancs & Vlad Benescu (performance)