Dear familiar and existing dance archive,
We ask you to forget what you know and to look beyond. Beyond conservative techniques and biased narratives.
Beyond masculine dominance and Eurocentrism. What else exists besides famous and well-studied names?
During a two-day symposium, we gather to share practices and exchange views on how our diverse array of histories inform our dance-making.

Moving Margins is an alter-archive and educational platform for diverse dance practitioners and researchers to exchange and elaborate upon the possible encounters of a variety of dance histories. The project attempts to create a sustainable yet flexible network of knowledge around the shared interest in dance history and the desire to expand it beyond its dominant narrative.

In this symposium, the Moving Margins community will share their collaborative research through lectures, discussions, workshops and movement practices. The project will explore multifaceted perspectives on archiving practices and what these mean in the broad field of dance.

With a focus on people and practices outside of the North American and Western European canon, we aim to establish a more relevant, complete, controversial, and uncomfortable picture of dance history.

The symposium is part of the project Moving Margins Chapter II, organised by: Touching Margins alter-archive, in collaboration with the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Minister of State for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR, Assistance Program for Dance

Impressions from the Moving Margins Symposium

© photo no. 1,2,6,9 by Shady Emad, photo no. 4,10 by Michael Kaddu, photo no.3 by John Chan, photo no. 5,7,8 by Jana Al Obeidyine.

Program

Friday 11.11.22

11 am (change) Welcome by Sasha Portyannikova and Nitsan Margaliot

*Unfortunately, the contribution of Sabrina Huth is cancelled.

12 pm Spaces of Learning / Spaces of Urgency by Kinga Szemessy

Kinga Szemessy (Budapest, Hungary / Salzburg, Austria) focuses on how one's ability to listen to bodily felt sensations is affected by certain sites and spaces. She looks at how the last seventy years of regional participatory art could be re-told through these lens, and thus how contemporary art spaces (schools, residencies etc.) could be re-imagined.

1 pm BREAK

2 pm The Forgotten Ones by Tebandeke Joseph

Tebandeke Joseph (Kampala, Uganda) explores and questions the intersection of the world where the concept of being able or disable meet; how ancestors/descendants used to document generational history relating to different cultures, roots and how bodies, colour and language were appreciated before colonialism.

3 pm USSR Dance Politics & Self-Exoticism through Dance among Modern Ukrainian Women by Maria Kardash

Maria Kardash (Katowice, Poland/Ukraine) researches Dance Politics, Body and Gender in the USSR; Socio-Cultural Implications of Belly Dance Practices; Orientalism and Exotic Femininity.

3:45 pm BREAK

4 pm “Don’t worry, I don’t get the hype either” by Anna Chwialkowska and Lena Jansen

Anna Chwialkowska and Lena Jansen (Berlin and Leipzig, Germany) focus on digital dance archives through choreographic strategies that emerge on the social media platform TikTok.

5 pm Score and rescore memory and archives. Panel discussion with Miriam Althammer, Nitsan Margaliot and Sasha Portyannikova

Saturday 12.11.22

10 am Dancing across Egypt by Shady Emad Greis

Shady Emad (Salzburg, Austria) researches how Egyptian folk dance was transmitted and how deeply it has been altered by other non Egyptian influences. He observes to what effect this metamorphosis is shaping the dance scene in Egypt today.

11:15 am Trails and Tales: Writing History through Bodily Memory by Jana Al Obeidyine

Jana Al Obeidyine (Beirut, Lebanon) explores the body as a living archival site. By tracing and tracking dance practices that passed through or have been engraved in her bodily memory, she aims to narrate a history of a recent past where personal, social, cultural, political, national and international spheres are deeply intertwined. She also attempts to draw on her bodily data to create and share a dance practice that speaks to her present self.

1:30 pm BREAK

2:30 pm From Mass Movement to Art Processes: Telling the lived experiences of struggles in public arenas by Ghost and John

Ghost and John (London, UK / Hong Kong) focus on a collaborative approach of making socio-politically pertinent artworks, creating unique spectator encounters from scientific to spiritual, historical to mythical. They are co-founders of Hidden Keileon CIC.

3:30 pm Moment Captured – a Practice of Collecting and Collaging by Liisi Hint

Liisi Hint (Berlin, Germany / Tallinn, Estonia) tries to decipher surrounding absurdities by describing her personal physical and sensory experience through her artistic work. She has developed a practice called collecting and collaging which includes gathering an eclectic personal archive of different materials to be deconstructed and reshaped into performative collages. The sharing of this practice explores the intimate intensity that comes with dealing with materials from an archive of one body and mind.

4:15 pm BREAK

4:30 pm Panel discussion with Sasha Portyannikova, Nitsan Margaliot and the participants of the Moving Margins research network.

Moving Margins Symposium
November 11.12, 2022

Accessibility to the Kunstquartier Bethanien and the premises of International Theatre Institute Germany

Facilities

Address
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin
Contact for questions regarding accessibility: +49 15151891713 (call or Whatsapp), touchingmargins@gmail.com

STUDIO2
The STUDIO2 it is located on the second floor of the Kunstquartier. There is an elevator, which can only be used with staff that has a key. We will have an access person with a key waiting in the beginning of all workshops to use the elevator with you.
Wheelchairs can enter the studio over a small threshold. The door has a height of 200 cm and a width of 140 cm.
Unfortunately, the changing room and sanitary facilities in the studio are only 96 cm and 56 cm wide respectively. An accessible toilet is located on the ground floor of Kunstquartier Bethanien. That means you will have to use the elevator to the accessible toilet.. A shower is located on the first floor of the building and is not accessible.

Media Library for Dance and Theatre
The Media Library for Dance and Theatre is located on the ground floor of the Kunstquartier. When entering the building you have to head through the entrance hall and turn left. At the end of the hallway you will find a glass door where you can ring to enter the premises of International Theatre Institute. Wheelchairs of all sizes can enter the Media Library, which is part of the International Theatre Institute, through two doors, crossing two small thresholds. There is no guding system for blind or visually impaired.

How to get here
Options to reach us by public transport are:
Bus 140 › Mariannenplatz (distance to Kunstquartier Bethanien approximately 200 metres)
Bus 147 › Adalbert Str. (distance to Kunstquartier Bethanien approximately 500 metres)
S3, S5, S7, S75, S9 S Ostbahnhof (distance to Kunstquartier Bethanien approximately 1.400 metres)
U1 / U3/ U8 › U Kottbusser Tor (distance to Kunstquartier Bethanien approximately 750 metres)

The walking paths from stops Mariannenplatz and Adalbertstraße have both one crossing without traffic lights. The stops from Ostbahnhof and Kottbusser Tor have several crossings with and without traffic lights. On all options you have to enter the park and recreation area of Mariannenplatz to enter the building of Kunstquartier Bethanien. There is a cobblestone road to the entrance of the building. No steps hinder the entering into the Kunstquartier.

Access by car is possible. There is a fire department access road in front of Kunstquartier Bethanien. This can be used for deliveries and brief exits. Parking is only permitted for people with limited mobility (Please see for contacts above c in case you are uncertain here). The entrance is located at the level of Wrangelstraße/Mariannenplatz. It is marked by a bollard. There you can ring a bell to get in touch with the security guard in the building, who operates the bollard system via the intercom. The entrance is a "one-way street". The exit is at the level of Waldemarstraße/ Mariannenplatz. The bollard at the exit will automatically lower as soon as you approach it.

Emergency Protocol
Unfortunately, existing emergency protocol implies stairs usage. There is no other elaborated protocol yet. There will be two access persons during the symposium and we promise to facilitate escape if needed.

Touching Margins
Moving Margins
Moving Margins Chapter II

Anna Chwialkowska Sabrina Huth

John Chan

Jana Al Obeidyine

Shady Emad Greis

Kinga Szemessy

Joseph Tebandeke

Anna Chwialkowska

Sabrina Huth