How to Protest - A Dance Workshop

Dates and time:
January 23rd: 10:00-16:30
January 24th: 10:00-15:00

Location:
Oslo National Academy of the Arts – Stage 4
Fossveien 24, 0551 Oslo

Registration:
Send an e-mail to benjpohl@khio.no

About

"How to Protest - A Dance Workshop" invites the artists Mia Habib, Maja Roel and Max Levy to share their artistic work and practices around dance, activism and protest. Over the course of two days, we will ask what dance knows about the body that might help us rehearse and perform protest and make art in these tasking times.

Mia Habib will share her choreographic work that explores the power of bodies and protest as score and ritual. She will draw on her various works that she has created around this theme since 2010, including pieces such as A song to…, the protest ritual, ALL - a physical poem of protest, and the collection SAMKOME. The participants will gain insight into how these works can be and function as performances, protests, and community projects all at once.

Maja Roel will investigate how choreographic tools that use rhythm and movement can open new forms of protest, resistance, and collective action. Drawing on her experience as a whistle conductor of an activist drum ensemble, the workshop explores how methods for leading and coordinating rhythm can be extended to include movement. Through whistle signals, gestures, rhythmic structures, and choreographic instructions, we will experiment with how bodies can be organised in time and space, through formations, repetition, synchronisation, and rhythm in order to play with and create new ways of acting together and transform participation in protest into a physical, sensory, and collective experience.

Max Rebecca Levy wants to get things done! Ever a dyke on a mission, they want to talk about practicalities, logistics and getting out of your own way. They want to organise something, together, in this workshop time, using the skills we have as artists, producers and freelancers holding it together. With almost too many crises to choose from, what will we do? How will we agree enough to do a meaningful task? What do dance artists already have in their toolbox and how can we put it to good use? I don’t know, but come along and find out!

The workshop is aimed at professional artists and students and anyone who is interested in movement and politics. The workshop is free of charge. It is a collaboration between KHiO and Dansenshus and part of the artistic research projects "Choreographing Antifascism" and "Democracy in Movement – Bodies of Protest".

Biography:

Mia Habib is an Oslo-based dancer and choreographer. Through her company Mia Habib Productions her work has been presented in over 30 countries around the world. In the Norwegian public sphere, she has been actively engaged in issues related to artistic freedom and racism within the independent performing arts community. Habib holds an M.A. in Conflict Resolution and Mediation from Tel Aviv University and a B.A. in Choreography and Dance Education from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Read more about Mia Habib here.

Maja Roel is a dance artist, choreographer, and director with a background in contemporary dance, theater and dramaturgy. She leads Drømmefakultetet—a research-based performing arts company that creates site-specific productions in close collaboration with local communities, involving a mix of professional and non-professional performers. Her work extends beyond traditional stage settings, having taken place in locations such as buses, on islands, and in abandoned shopping centers. Based in Oslo, Maja Roel has spent 20 years working within the independent performing arts sector. She has been awarded multi-year working grants from the Norwegian Government Grants for Artists on three occasions and has received project funding from Arts Council Norway for her work since 2006. Maja is also an activist and, for the past four years, she has been active in the drum band Sambattac, which participates in demonstrations and actions where sound and rhythm are used as a mobilizing force and as a form of resistance. www.majaroel.com 

Max Rebecca Levy (they/them) is an artist, organiser and person based in Oslo. They work with dance, performance and poetry, with a queer focus on care, community and rage. They enjoy sharp edges and bold statements, whilst also holding tenderness and expressions of community and solidarity. Their work has been performed at The Place, Dartington Hall and Bermondsey Project Space and their writing published by t'ART Magazine and Arcana Poetry Press. Together with Sunniva Moen Rørvik they work on the research project Labanotation is a Bad System.