Dancers who want to join a workshop and performance
For the artistic (master) research ‘PRELIMINIARY ATTEMPTS (trying to break out of a strait jacket)’ we are looking for 4 or more dancers/performers who:
Want to join a three-day workshop where the starting points are; texts, sound fragments and a small piece of choreography. From joint conversations & the research we will work further to a (work in progress) performance.
As I am still a student, I don’t have the budget to pay the normal fee, but dancers who attend this workshop will automatically be selected to perform on the 26th of May, in an internationally known arts center in West-Flanders. We will discuss the travel expenses, catering, etc.. (it goes without saying that I will make sure that this workshop & performance won’t cost you anything. Quite the contrary, it will give you/us a beautiful experience to grow/start from. Who knows what might come next).
What?
1/ Zoom meeting after registration
Preferably on Thursday, April 20th at 8 PM.
2/ Workshop
April 24th, 25th and 26th
Between 9.30 am – 2 pm (we can discuss this together with all performers, in the zoom meeting, but please keep this timing in mind!)
Location: Kortrijk
3/ Performance (work in progress)
May 25th Rehearsal (during the day, to be confirmed)
May 26th Rehearsal + Performance (evening, to be confirmed)
Location: Kortrijk
For whom?
- You have a technical background (ballet/jazz) or equal by experience (or are willing to learn & rehearse extra, if necessary, I’d be happy to train with you)
- You are fluent in learning and performing a choreography (or are willing to learn & rehearse extra, if necessary, I’d be happy to train with you)
- You feel comfortable in high heels (walking/dancing)
- You feel comfortable in both oversized and fitted attire/clothing (on stage ALL dancers (all shapes, sizes, colors, religion, gender) who identify as women are welcome to apply. (Preferably you do have a critical voice about the (institutional) art/dance scene).
How to apply?
Send an email to info@naomischatteman.com with ‘Preliminary Attempts open call’ as subject please, including:
- Short motivation (on why this research speaks to you and why you would want to join forces)
- cv
- a link to video/photo (it can be a wetransfer link, vimeo link, whatever you prefer and what
you would want to share with us) - Instagram handle
Please do let us know which city you are travelling from
Deadline to apply: April 16th before 2 pm.
Who am I and what is my research about?
In other words, why oh why, would you want to join (forces)? About this research: I am a master student at KASK (performance) and after focusing on solo performances I want to collaborate with other performers/dancers. Together we can “scream” louder!
For ten years I delivered performances, as a commercial dancer was. I created and produced dance performances for high-end corporate and publicity events, embedded in a male/macho dominated glamorous world full of artificial imagery, with no room for the process, but with the focus entirely on the final product.
To break out of that straitjacket and to be able to look for a new language of movement, I first want and need to dissect my (“own”) language. A movement language that I and my dancers have embodied for a very long time and that is still residing in my/our bod(y)ies.
I am interested in the following questions: what specific poses/gestures are used in this movement material? How was this movement material performed? (on a stage, with what kind of costumes, how many dancers, etc). Why is “unisono” so common? What if this movement language is performed by (to society and the dance scene) a non-normative body? What if that non-normative body tries to adopt this movement language? Will this change the way we look at it and does that change our gaze? What exactly does this say about our gaze? (The way we look at dance, the way we look at (dancing) bodies, why we so quickly associate dance and dancing bodies with sensuality?). How might I invite these other bodies to re-appropriate this language of movement from my research, and what if we could perform this together as a group to make a political statement, to “dance” a political act so to speak? And finally, how can we change the way we are unconsciously programmed to look at dance and question, examine, analyze, dissect, reduce to arrive at a new abstracted form. A free form. How can we collectively break out of our strait jackets?
About
Naomi is a Belgian artist exploring boundaries within a multidisciplinary performance practice. She uses movement/dance, choreography, video, photo, collage, text and/or audio. Some of her work can be seen as meditations on socio-cultural issues such as gender, the male gaze and the role of the female body and dancer, in and through the capitalist male/macho dominated world we are living in.
With a striking intuition and a very accurate feeling for timing and composition she simultaneously knows exactly how to create a very subtle but persistent tension along her performances. In doing so, she adds notions such as power play & voyeurism. The way she ‘uses’ her audience is a very present and important element in the work, and towards the reflection of the work. Her recent performances and research are an extension of an earlier long-term piece (2011-2019) where she played the role of a commercial dancer/showgirl/choreographer, producing and creating dance performances for high-end corporate events and publicity, in a glamour world of artificial images.
Parallel, Naomi examines how to break out of a/that strait jacket while making room for a new movement language. Starting from ‘contemplations on the role of the female dancer, questioning why fetishizing our bodies became a daily routine’. Ongoing research exploring the notion of ‘nondeliverance’ in and through her work/practice and by extension in and through (western) society.
