After a series of 13 live performances with an audience in 2019 I was drawn to continue my research into dancing with eyes closed, practising authentic movement and continuing the dialogue with the interdisciplinary fields mentioned above. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic we could not continue this research. Nevertheless, new collaborations with fields of literature/ philosophy and neuroscience arose in 2020 and in 2021 TAiR was invited by Routa Dance Company to Finland, where we performed at the Art Museum of Kajaani. 

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Together with Saskia Kroonenberg (literary studies, philosophy) and Natalia Salloum (Liberal Arts, Sciences), we created a poetic dialogue as voiceover for movement on video, in search of new ways of communication. The outcome was selected to be shown at the “After Progress Digital Exhibition of the Goldsmiths University of London”. It is the beginning of this year I find myself back in the next stage of my process where I need to pick up my research again, now with the title: Cat(h)arsis, **from Greek; katharsis, meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification", is the purification and purgation of emotions —particularly pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristoteles in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body.

Next to this western based explanation of Catharsis, my interest also goes to the rituals used in South - American cultures for purification and ancestral connections. Danza de la Luna (México/ Bolivia), Santeria (Cuba), Ayahuasca Ceremonies (Bolivia), Candomblé (Brasil).

 

Cat(h)arsis will be performed as a performance ritual/ ritual installation, which consists of a preparation of the space, the instruments, the object, visuals, the audience/ witnesses and my body. The session, the act itself and the closing of the session, dialogue with my witnesses.

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In the middle of an open/closed 3 cubic metre cube with abstract visuals on the sides and from above, I close my eyes for 1.5 hours and dive into my dance, accompanied by 1 to 3 live musician(s) & digital soundscapes. A continuous “walk-in ritual installation” where transformation can evolve, identity is questioned & the audience witnesses my journey. Cat(h)arsis creates a world in which movement, live/ digital sounds & projections can complement or contradict each other. The audience is allowed to move freely, standing, sitting or lying close/ nearby the cube. Sounds & energy of the audience walking in/ or moving are part of my experience. During my dance I have no eye contact with my witnesses - they are completely thrown back on themselves. My focus is on following the impulse from within. A process in which I listen to my body, waiting for what is to come. Embedded in a dynamic whole of images & sound, each of entering into a dialogue with the movement. This transcendent dynamic performance ritual, confronts the witnesses with a different perception/ meaning of time as part of the transformation.

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A journey that follows the dramaturgy of the body, along the rhythms from Bolivia and my dance training along Acogny Technique (Senegal), Urban Dance, Contemporary/ Modern Technics & ultimately Authentic Dance. A ritual in which a world is arising in front of the witnesses. I stand in a western world where parameters are determined by time more than ever. Discard- Slow down- Encounter:

I drop the image to fully be. I am inspired by art that expresses the embodiment of energy. Art that transcends style and culture and expresses humanity. With Cat(h)arsis, I question our contemporary way of life. Speed and competition seem to dominate and guide our thoughts. "If we could get rid of the image we see through our eyes, could we really meet? Can authentic dance allow us to experience without judgement? Can we have a fluid identity? To what extent is identity important in meeting each other?

My body moves like a colonised vehicle, fast, accurate and controlled. On my way to the unknown but tangible body with different parameters, I strip myself and surrender to the moment. I feel the movement of every cell of my

body & the other bodies in space. The witnesses get another role which is necessary for the process to evolve.