Somatic Freaks – The Proprioceptor Revolution

Info

The performative installation proposed by Vlad Benescu and Alexandra Mihaela Dancs is based on the study of proprioception and the methods to improve it through balance training, from a choreographic perspective.

For three hours, the two performers explore the body’s response to imbalance through interaction with a large tandem balancing apparatus. Their physicality adapts to its specific mechanics in a choreography of subtle movements capable of transforming the environment in which they occur. An endless dialog is thus created between the ephemerality of stability and the unpredictability of moments of unbalance.

This durational performance can be seen as a laboratory in which success and failure structure the experience, as a meditation on (re)finding balance in an unstable world and as a study of the dynamics of the relationship between the two performers in which trust, negotiation, support, mutual awareness and constant adaptation to each other, resilience and the power to start all over again are essential to maintain harmony in a continuously changing environment.

Biographies

Alexandra Mihaela Dancs and Vlad Benescu, independent artists with diverse experience in contemporary dance and performing arts, began collaborating in 2022.
Their work explores the choreography of relationships, balance, somatic movement, and the influence of digital culture on artistic expression through interdisciplinary formats. Their creations have been presented in spaces, contexts, and festivals of contemporary dance and performing arts such as Galateca, NAG at /SAC @ Malmaison, Casa Kerim, TNB, Control Club, the National Theater Festival, Bucharest Fringe Festival, Dans.Context.Showcase, and Neo Art Connect Festival.

They created Luați de VAL…s (2022), a site-specific performance inspired by their passion for surfing and the architecture and history of Casa Kerim in Bucharest, and Tura de noapte (2024), a dance-theater performance that combines text, techno bass, and movement.

Starting from their interest in somatic techniques and the analysis of movement at a microscopic level, they created Somatic Freaks 1.0 (2023), a performance that reveals an internal reality that is difficult to perceive from the outside, followed by Somatic Freaks – The Proprioceptor Revolution (2024), in which the two investigate the body’s response to imbalance through interaction with a tandem balancing device.

Their latest work, triluREELu (2025), offers an ironic and humorous look at a world dominated by virtual dopamine and digital scrolling, reflecting on how social media and reel culture shape life and artistic creation.

With each new project, Alexandra and Vlad design dance and movement workshops that open up their research process, inviting participants to experience their practice.

Alexandra has danced in creations by artists such as Florin Flueraș, Rui Catalao, Vava Ștefănescu, Doris Uhlich, and Florin Fieroiu. She has carried out solo projects and co-created dance performances with Mădălina Dan, Urvi Vora, Cosmin Manolescu, and Andreea David, among others. She also creates choreographies for theater productions, in which she dances and acts. Since 2019, she has been singing and dancing with pj.lo & the accidentals, a musical performance project by Jean-Lorin Sterian. Alexandra received the Award of Excellence for her contribution to the development of Romanian contemporary dance, awarded by the National Dance Centre Bucharest (2014), as well as the Special Jury Prize for bodily expressiveness at the Bucharest Fringe Festival (2024).

Both Alexandra and Vlad were danceWEB fellows at the ImpulsTanz festival in Vienna—Alexandra in 2010 and 2012, and Vlad in 2019.

Beyond his own artistic projects in dance and theater, Vlad has performed in creations by Mårten Spångberg, Valentina de Piante, Alexandru Berceanu, and Inger-Reidun Olsen, among others. He is also an experienced unicycle acrobat, juggler, and actor, and designs lighting for theater and dance performances. Vlad obtained his PhD in Theater and Performing Arts with a thesis entitled New Technologies in Contemporary Performing Arts.

Their collaboration remains a continuous exploration of everything that arouses their curiosity, moves them, and intrigues them, always with a playful touch and a taste for risk.