Motion Bank Workshop No. 4

Workshop No. 4

Tender Ties and Whiskers Wax

2-5 October 2012 at The Frankfurt LAB. The choreographer and filmmaker Antonia Baehr was invited to develop this fourth workshop in the Motion Bank series based on questions provoked by the development of a new publication on her work by Oral Site, an on-line publication platform initiated by Myriam Van Imschoot as "part of her artistic work on orality, transmission and interview archives". An Oral Site Publication Lab was organised to take place alongside the workshop.
Antonia Baehr (foreground) & Lise Hansen. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Baehr's workshop titled 'Tender Ties and Whisker Wax' investigated how scores can function as a constitutive factor for kinship relations and as tools to explore portraiture and self-portraiture: e.g. considering gender performance as a form of score that encompasses language, gestures, and a variety of socio-symbolic signs. The workshop addressed different models of conceiving and reading scores, directing and collaboration -- and examined the boundaries between score/ interpretation, rehearsal/ performance, director/ performer, and audience/ presentation.
Kristien Van den Brande (Oral Site Team). Photo: Jessica Schäfer

In one example drawn from this process, the workshop participants developed scores based on their affinity to a selected animal, which was then transferred to and performed by a different participant -- in the frame of a collaboration -- producing diverse, poetic and often humorous results.

Running alongside the workshop, the Oral Site Publication Lab team (Tom Engels, Tessa Theisen, Myriam van Imshoot and Kristien Van den Brande) began their research into Baehr's use of scores with the aim to create a new resource based on this topic for their website (eventually published as 'More than one tie' on Oral Site in Spring 2013).
Antonia Baehr (foreground) and workshop participant. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Karin Harrasser, Department of Media and Cultural Science, Cologne and Brauschweig was the Salon guest for workshop no. 4. She will gave a short lecture on the topic
"Metasocial Choreography: Magic Entanglement / Unsettling Embodiment" (download the lecture here). Find more of Harrasser's work with performing arts through the BADco's on-line publication WHATEVER #3 POST-HOC DRAMATURGY (scroll down).
Karin Harrasser. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Running alongside the Oral Site Lab and Baehr's workshop, students of the Masters in Contemporary Dance Education course with Motion Bank Education Partner Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, took part in an intensive 5-day Choreographic Resources Lab, researching education applications of Motion Bank related materials (see Knowledge Base). The Lab was a proposal from the 4th International Education Workgroup meeting -- some members were in attendance making this the 5th gathering point for the Education Workgroup.
Choreographic Resources Lab -- researching A Choreographer's Score (Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker & Bojana Cvejic). Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Video Impression: Choreographic Resources Lab with students of the Contemporary Dance Pedagogy at the HfMDK with Ingo Diehl
Video: Anna Berger

Video Impression: 'Tender Ties and Whiskers Wax' workshop with Antonia Baehr
Video: Anna Berger

Workshop Documentation Pages:

http://motionbank.org/en/content/workshops

http://motionbank.org/en/event/project-giessen-2011

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no1

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no-2

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no-3

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no-4

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no-5

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-laboratory

http://motionbank.org/en/event/choreographic-coding-lab-motion-bank-report

Education Workgroup Meetings Documentation:

http://motionbank.org/en/content/education-piecemaker

http://motionbank.org/en/event/introducing-motion-bank

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no1

http://motionbank.org/en/event/salzburg-education-workgroup-meeting

http://motionbank.org/en/event/dance-education-biennale-2012

http://motionbank.org/en/event/motion-bank-workshop-no-4

http://motionbank.org/en/event/coventry-education-workgroup-meeting

http://motionbank.org/en/event/tanzkongress-deborah-hay-beta-release-workshops

http://motionbank.org/en/event/live-online-2013

http://motionbank.org/en/event/live-online-2013-report