about
On the invitation of Dance City, the School of Disobedience will open its doors in Newcastle between September 12-16 to create a radical and experimental “soft space” for women empowerment and resistance. Participants don't have to follow the whole program, they can register independently to each thematic workshops, and explore through embodied practices and theoretical insights the different aspects of the politics of care and desire. Morning classes will focus on "Research & Experimentation", afternoon classes on "Composition & Creation". Through the practice of performance, improvisation, creative writing, ecstatic dance, self-defense, and play fighting, we will address different topics such as identity, fear, passion, and madness. On the last day, if participants want, they can present a performance to the local audience.
schedule
SEPTEMBER 12
Topic: "IDENTITY"
About: What is the relationship between body, identity, and society? How does your sex, gender, or sexual identity shape the way you love and suffer, think about care and desire? How do our social relationships govern our gender identity and sexual practices?In this class we will look at how care, desire, and gender are constituted by and constitute beliefs and social institutions. We will explore how bodies and sexualities give rise to critical understandings of identity. Develop creative approaches and performances to analyze cultural, textual, and empirical phenomena by drawing on critical theories of gender and sexuality.
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
SEPTEMBER 13
Topic: "FEAR"
About: We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What are people most afraid of? What are our common fears? Why fear arises and how it can be combatted? What are the causes and cures of fear and anxiety? What is panic? Why the globalized world has become paralyzed by fear? How have we arrived in an age of fear? How fear became an integral aspect of our political discourses, security apparatuses, social and cultural narratives? How fear contributes to the constructions of our personal identity and our relationship with the others? What role does fear and threat play in love relationship dynamics?
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
SEPTEMBER 14
Topic: "PASSION"
About: During this class, you will be introduced to the topic of passion and co-dependency in love relationship dynamics, discover your boundaries, set your limits, learn how to say "no", how to ask for "help". We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What are the distorted beliefs about care, support and love that justify and legitimate the presence of violence in a relationship and where do they come from? How can we recognize and avoid them? What are the types of boundaries and how do they function? What are the signs of damaged boundaries? What are the traumas and blocks to establish healthy boundaries? How to set healthy boundaries to protect and take good care of you? How can we recognize boundary violation and protect ourselves from it? How to say “no” firmly and politely? How to ask for “help”?
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
SEPTEMBER 15
Topic: "MADNESS"
About: During this class, you will be introduced to the topic of madness and unreason. We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What is the relationship between madness and unreason? Should we analyze them rather through the lens of the "moral" or the "mental"? What is the reason and the consequence for considering madness as a "mental illness"? Who designated and empowered authorities (eg. medical, psychiatric, judicial...) to judge, treat and control madness? How cultural, intellectual and economic structures determine our understanding of madness? What madness has to do with gender, society, and construction? Would every society constructs its own experience of madness? How? What is the relationship between madness, art, and the figure of the artist? If madness is linked to creativity, what about it's power of annihilation and destruction? Why modern societies fail to listen to the voice of the mad? Why don't we offer us a chance of understanding unreason?
Following readings (poetry, literature, philosophy, such as Foucault, Nietzsche, Nerval, Artaud...) and discussions (self-examination, personal stories, life experiences...) related to the topic, you will make thematic movement research and structured improvisation exercises, create performances and choreographies, discover new methods and tools to generate both new material and seeds for the work you are in the midst of creating. So as to stimulate different parts of the brain and the body, you will move back and forth between moving, writing, and drawing.
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
SEPTEMBER 16
Topic: "IDENTITY"
About: What is the relationship between body, identity, and society? How does your sex, gender, or sexual identity shape the way you love and suffer, think about care and desire? How do our social relationships govern our gender identity and sexual practices?In this class we will look at how care, desire, and gender are constituted by and constitute beliefs and social institutions. We will explore how bodies and sexualities give rise to critical understandings of identity. Develop creative approaches and performances to analyze cultural, textual, and empirical phenomena by drawing on critical theories of gender and sexuality.
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
- 10.00-13.00: Research & Experimentation
- 14.00-16.00: Composition & Creation
SEPTEMBER 13
Topic: "FEAR"
About: We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What are people most afraid of? What are our common fears? Why fear arises and how it can be combatted? What are the causes and cures of fear and anxiety? What is panic? Why the globalized world has become paralyzed by fear? How have we arrived in an age of fear? How fear became an integral aspect of our political discourses, security apparatuses, social and cultural narratives? How fear contributes to the constructions of our personal identity and our relationship with the others? What role does fear and threat play in love relationship dynamics?
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
- 10.00-13.00: Research & Experimentation
- 14.00-16.00: Composition & Creation
SEPTEMBER 14
Topic: "PASSION"
About: During this class, you will be introduced to the topic of passion and co-dependency in love relationship dynamics, discover your boundaries, set your limits, learn how to say "no", how to ask for "help". We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What are the distorted beliefs about care, support and love that justify and legitimate the presence of violence in a relationship and where do they come from? How can we recognize and avoid them? What are the types of boundaries and how do they function? What are the signs of damaged boundaries? What are the traumas and blocks to establish healthy boundaries? How to set healthy boundaries to protect and take good care of you? How can we recognize boundary violation and protect ourselves from it? How to say “no” firmly and politely? How to ask for “help”?
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
- 10.00-13.00: Research & Experimentation
- 14.00-16.00: Composition & Creation (creative writing & lecture performance)
SEPTEMBER 15
Topic: "MADNESS"
About: During this class, you will be introduced to the topic of madness and unreason. We will explore a variety of questions, such as: What is the relationship between madness and unreason? Should we analyze them rather through the lens of the "moral" or the "mental"? What is the reason and the consequence for considering madness as a "mental illness"? Who designated and empowered authorities (eg. medical, psychiatric, judicial...) to judge, treat and control madness? How cultural, intellectual and economic structures determine our understanding of madness? What madness has to do with gender, society, and construction? Would every society constructs its own experience of madness? How? What is the relationship between madness, art, and the figure of the artist? If madness is linked to creativity, what about it's power of annihilation and destruction? Why modern societies fail to listen to the voice of the mad? Why don't we offer us a chance of understanding unreason?
Following readings (poetry, literature, philosophy, such as Foucault, Nietzsche, Nerval, Artaud...) and discussions (self-examination, personal stories, life experiences...) related to the topic, you will make thematic movement research and structured improvisation exercises, create performances and choreographies, discover new methods and tools to generate both new material and seeds for the work you are in the midst of creating. So as to stimulate different parts of the brain and the body, you will move back and forth between moving, writing, and drawing.
Activities: Performance / movement research / improvisation / dance / play fighting / self-defense / creative writing / discussion / sketching / sharing...
- 10.00-13.00: Research & Experimentation
- 14.00-16.00: Composition & Creation
SEPTEMBER 16
- 10.00-13.00: Rehearsal + Final performance / Public Presentation
- 14.00-16.00: Rehearsal + Final performance / Public Presentation
practical information
Fee: 10€ / hour
Unlearning facilitator: Anna Ádám
Flexible commitment: You don't have to follow the whole program. You can decide to attend only one or several classes.
Organized by:
- Research & Experimentation (3h): 30€
- Composition & Creation (2h): 20€
Unlearning facilitator: Anna Ádám
Flexible commitment: You don't have to follow the whole program. You can decide to attend only one or several classes.
Organized by:
- Dance City (England)
- School of Disobedience (France)
- Gray Box Performance Art Company (France)
- Anna Ádám (Hungary)
methodology
At the intersection of dance, performance, and self-defense, participants experiment and practice physical movement improvisation, thematic choreographic research, tactic play fighting, and ecstatic dance. Unlike any rule-based sport or technique-based dance style, this positive and energetic methodology focuses on emotions, emphasizes the use of natural and everyday movement, develops body strength, the capacity of confrontation, and resistance. It builds a clear and frontal gaze, muscles up the mind, the spirit, and the body, provides a high degree of personal awareness and self-confidence.
Following instructions and thematic exercises, participants are encouraged to raise their voice, challenge social norms, gender stereotypes, and dominant ideologies, develop their capacities to revolt against others' judgements, expectations and oppression.
They learn to set up and maintain their boundaries, the difference between acceptable and unacceptable, rehearse to say "no" and shout for "help" when it’s necessary, recycle denials and fears into self-empowerment and courage.
As an art form, this methodology focuses on both shape, theory and aesthetics, gives birth to both personal creations and group performances, builds experiences, friendships, and empathetic communities.
Following instructions and thematic exercises, participants are encouraged to raise their voice, challenge social norms, gender stereotypes, and dominant ideologies, develop their capacities to revolt against others' judgements, expectations and oppression.
They learn to set up and maintain their boundaries, the difference between acceptable and unacceptable, rehearse to say "no" and shout for "help" when it’s necessary, recycle denials and fears into self-empowerment and courage.
As an art form, this methodology focuses on both shape, theory and aesthetics, gives birth to both personal creations and group performances, builds experiences, friendships, and empathetic communities.
