Choreographic Convention Berlin WHAT/SPACE:CHANGES/CULTURE

Life Long Burning (LLB) presents WHAT/SPACE:CHANGES/CULTURE as the eighth and final session of the Choreographic Convention. WHAT/SPACE:CHANGES/CULTURE includes an online preliminary laboratory on 10-14 October 2022 and an in-person laboratory at Uferstudios on 7-10 November 2022 for invited guests. This will be followed by a public event with keynote speakers, workshops and discussions on 11 November 2022 and a presentation of the working culture guidelines on 19 November 2022. The Choreographic Convention 2022 is organized by Uferstudios Berlin.

The Choreographic Convention VIII, WHAT/SPACE:CHANGES/CULTURE, is an assembly of choreographers, dancers, performance artists, writers, researchers, curators, artistic directors, and producers to meet and reflect on topics surrounding the question “What type of space can promote change in the dance working culture?”.

The question calls attention to a necessary discourse within the field of dance concerning artists and cultural workers who are asymmetrically impacted by global structural and social issues, including but not limited to issues of racism, ableism, women’s rights, transgender rights, warfare, the impact of capitalism and the ongoing covid pandemic. The Labs and the assembly will be structured in three topics:
“Lab 1 – WHAT” will reflect on the cultural production in the field of dance. Considering dance as a platform and space of response for archiving and reflecting on current times/cultures, we ask questions on what and who’s work get’s access to visibility, how funding instruments and institutions foster specific agendas, as well as asking what transformations already happened and what is needed in terms of resources, people and structures in order to adapt to the shifting global landscape?
“Lab 2 – SPACES” speaks to inequality in the field of dance and the limited access most artists have to institutions: with growing awareness of structural discrimination, we ask what should spaces have to make space for artists and audience from marginalized identities/ backgrounds, how can we create more sustainable equity in the way we share space and resources and what could be strategies to “claim” access to production means? “Lab 3 – WORKING CULTURE” is a close cooperation with ZTB e.V. and reflects on the working culture of dance in Berlin. A group of artists, curators and other actors in the field assembled in the last years around ZTB e.V. examining what value systems prevails in our working field, reflecting its ethics and standards, and finally suggesting some guidelines on how to foster a resilient working culture as a shared responsibility of all parties involved. Within the lab we condense and finalize these guidelines to further reflect them with a broader circle of professionals.

Lab 1 & 2: Anajara Amarante, Makisig Akin, Rosemary Cisneros, Pêdra Costa, Anna Dankova, Kim Darbouze, Mariama Diagne, Sheikha Gross, Cole James, Mmakgosi Kgabi, O. Hyunsin Kim, Ziada Korp, Virginnia Kraemer, Michelle Lu, Tonina Matamalas, Yezenia León Mezu, Anisha Müller, Sailesh Naidu, Maque Pereyra, Rafush, Schwarzrund, Lena Szirmay-Kalos, Kathy-Ann Tan, simo tier, Nara Virgens, Aleksander Zain (sent by MDT Stockholm)

Lab 3 - work culture: Angela Alves, Olympia Bukkakis, Rike Flämig, Beatrix Joyce, Matthias Mohr, Ania Nowak, Benjamin Pohlig, Rilaben, Anna Romeo, Mateusz Szymanówka, Simo Vassinen, Simone Willeit, Kasia Wolinska.

The Choreographic Convention was prepared and conceived as a collaboration of Uferstudios, dramaturg and curator Lena Szirmay-Kalos and artist-curator Makisig Akin. Preparatory research was developed in exchange with workshop foundation Budapest (HU) by Katalin Gordos.
It was conceived as a dense program turning around the topic or marginalized identies within the dance sector of Berlin and Europe and involved a wide number of Berliner and international Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQQIP2SAA folks in order to empower and highlight their voices and cultivate complex intersectional discourse. As for the third branch of the Choreographic Convention we collaborated closely with ZTB e.V. and their working group Work Culture. This topic brought forward an open handbook and toolbox for Berlin artists and their work environment as well as being a potential blue pause for self-organized empowering discourses of artists, curator, production managers and institutions in other European countries.

Contents of the program were developed within three preliminary laboratories, as well as key speakers were invited by suggestion of Life Long Burning Partners and Laboratory participants. A special invitation was followed by artists send by the partners Sofia-Bulgaria (brain store project) and Belgrad-Serbia (NDA).

The Choreographic Convention VIII, WHAT/SPACE:CHANGES/CULTURE, was organized as an assembly of choreographers, dancers, performance artists, writers, researchers, curators, artistic directors, and producers to meet and reflect on topics surrounding the question “What type of space can promote change in the dance working culture?”. The question called attention to a necessary discourse within the field of dance concerning artists and cultural workers who are asymmetrically impacted by global structural and social issues, including but not limited to issues of racism, abelism, women’s rights, transgender rights, warfare, the impact of capitalism and the ongoing covid pandemic. The Labs and the assembly were structured in three topics:

“Lab 1 – WHAT” reflected on the cultural production in the field of dance. Considering dance as a platform and space of response for archiving and reflecting on current times/cultures, we asked questions on what and who’s work get’s access to visibility, how funding instruments and institutions foster specific agendas, as well as asking what transformations already happened and what is needed in terms of resources, people and structures in order to adapt to the shifting global landscape?

“Lab 2 – SPACES” speaks to inequality in the field of dance and the limited access most artists have to institutions: with growing awareness of structural discrimination, we ask what should spaces have to make space for artists and audience from marginalized identities/ backgrounds, how can we create more sustainable equity in the way we share space and resources and what could be strategies to “claim” access to production means?

“Lab 3 – WORK CULTURE” was based on the work of AG Work Culture - ZTB e.V. and reflected on the working culture of dance in Berlin. A group of artists, curators and other actors in the field assembled in the last years around ZTB e.V. examining what value systems prevails in our working field, reflecting its ethics and standards, and finally suggesting some guidelines on how to foster a resilient working culture as a shared responsibility of all parties involved. Within the lab we condensed and finalized these guidelines to further reflect them with a broader circle of professionals.

The results were presented and shared with a wide audience within the Choreographic Convention on 11.11.2022 at Uferstudios and on 19.11.2022 at our partner institution Radialsystem. The Convention also featured key notes by German and international artists and theoreticians, Cole James, Kathy-Ann Tan, Rosemary Cisneros, O. Hyunsin Kim, Maque Pereyra.

Fri 11.11.22 10:30 - 22:00Uhr @ Uferstudios Heizhaus, Uferstr. 23, 13357 Berlin
Sat 19.11.22 18:00 - 20:00 Uhr @ Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin

Schedule for 11.11.2022:
11:00   12:00    “Slow Violence challenged through storytelling, Roma women and dance” -  Keynote by Rosa Cisneros (online screening)
12:00   13:30    Sharing the outcomes LABs 1 & 2
13:30   14:30    Lunch
14:30   15:15    “Decolonial Curatorial Practice as Collective Care” Interactive talk by Kathy-Ann Tan
15:15   15:30    Break
15:30   16:15    “Yoggaton Workshop” by Maque Pereyra (30 people)
16:15   17:00    Break & Shower
17:00   18:00    “How to take space in places” Interactive Keynote by O. Hyunsin Kim
18:15   19:45   Share & Cake with Nara Virgens, Mateusz Szymanówka, Matthias Mohr,
19:45   20:00   Break
20:00   20:45   Keynote by Cole James (online screening)
20:45   22:00   chill out – DJ Rafush

Schedule for 19.11.2022 Work Culture @ Radialsystem
17:30 18:00 Get in and get your Zine - zine folding of Lab 1 & 2
18:00 18:15 Intro AG Work Culture
18:15 19:00 Presentation of Guidelines for a Good Work Culture in Dance
19:00 19:15 Putting thoughts to paper
19:15 19:30 break
19:30 20:00 Feedback and discussion

View the booklet in the upper right column and experience reports in the gallery below.

Gallery pics © Szirmay Kalos