Unclassifiable corpographies

Just as cartography is concerned with representing the information that appears on a map, corpography is concerned with representing everything that appears on a body. Writing is from the body, with the body and in the body, where everything intangible is also present. Bodies that operate as mediums and media crossed by signs, symbols and syndromes, which are open to everything unclassifiable to be choreographed.

Targets:

• Working from the gestures and corporeality of the individual body and evolving towards a collective body.
• To train intuition and presence as key elements for the co-creation that arises from the memory of corporealities.
• To explore symbolic energies and individual and collective imaginaries.
• To re-signify the binomial normality/abnormality through movement, dance and performative practices.
• To generate a cosmology that allows us to rethink the identity of bodies.

Sessions:

31/10/2023 PORTENTOUS RARITIES

We will take a theoretical-practical immersion on Choreomania (danzamania) and its various manifestations in different cultural and historical contexts. With a deep respect for those who have suffered from these conditions, we will approach this topic through the exploration of our own physical and motor limitations, turning them into new narratives and aesthetics of the language of the body.

7/11//2023 POETICS OF MOVEMENT

We will approach danzamania from an anthropological perspective, conceiving and reinterpreting it as a state of bodily resistance and subversion that catalyses collective healing processes. The choreographic act goes beyond the movement of bodies and weaves a choral thought that promotes new ways of apprehending the languages of the body, challenging standardised behaviours. 

14/11/2023 PRESENCES AND ABSENCES

We will investigate new sensibilities and states of presence. In this context, the body will be conceived as a guide, channel and means of expression. We will explore the mechanisms that activate body movement by deactivating the focus of movement itself.

21/11/2023 CHOREOGRAPHING THE INVISIBLE

Intangible elements such as images, memory and imaginaries nourish the choreography of the invisible; these become essential materials for shaping movement. Ideas, emotions and sensations that cannot be directly perceived with the naked eye are brought to life. 

28/11/2023 INFORMAL LANGUAGES

The fluidity and continuity of movement are intrinsically organic, just like silence and stillness. Each individual adapts this organicity to his or her own body, and this gives rise to the uniqueness and language of each individual and at the same time to new collective narratives.

Within the programme of Wednesdays of sound and body, on 25/10, Andrés Corchero will present Rara avis and after the colloquium between the dancer-choreographer and the audience, the laboratory "Corpografías inclasificables" will be presented.

The laboratory "Corpografías inclasificables" will end with the creation of a collective performance with the participants accompanied by Zoe Balasch, which will be presented on 20/12 as part of Wednesdays of sound and body.

This laboratory and the resulting performance are part of a series of collaborative practices of the Dance Epidemic project developed by Zoe Balasch, an interdisciplinary research that explores dance epidemics, choreomania and states of transit in different countries, bodies and cultures throughout history. The project is in Residencia CRA'P, Prácticas de Creación e Investigación Artística, for the whole year 2023.

By Zoe Balasch

Zoe Balasch Arumí investiga els llenguatges del cos, la dansa i la improvisació en contextos escènics i col·laboratius treballant amb artistes de diferents disciplines com les arts visuals, la poesia, el cinema, la dansa, la música i so experimental. En la seva pràctica artística el cos és l’eix vertebrador per a crear noves narratives, perspectives i estètiques al voltant de qüestions socials, polítiques i mediambientals a través d’una actitud lúdica i subversiva.

Els seus treballs inclouen actuacions en solo i en grup amb projectes versàtils que s’inclinen per la investigació i la creació «site-specific» en interiors/exteriors i entorns rurals/urbans, que donen com a resultat peces escèniques, coreografies en el paisatge, accions participatives i caminades somàtiques-performatives, amb un llenguatge singular allunyat de les etiquetes.

Els últims quinze anys ha participat en diversos contextos d'exhibició, treballant en festivals, galeries d’art i centres de creació de Catalunya, l’Estat Espanyol, Xipre, Eslovàquia, Dinamarca, França, Portugal, Alemanya i Tailàndia.

S’ha format en diferents escoles i centres independents de dansa d’Europa i Àsia, amb una clara influència del Body Weather Laboratory. És llicenciada en psicologia, amb estudis de dansa-teràpia i professora certificada de hatha ioga.

Ha rebut beques de suport a la creació atorgades pel Consell Nacional de les Arts (CoNCa) com a artista resident al CACIS, al Centre d’Art Contemporani i Sostenibilitat d’Artés i a Nau Côclea. I pel Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council de Canadà, va rebre la Beca Eco-Art Incubator a Xipre.

Ha compartit els seus coneixements a través de cursos i seminaris sobre El Cos i el Paisatge a l'Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura del Vallès (UPC); Geografies Emocionals a la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; i Space and Time in performative practices a la Universitat de Belles Arts de Chiang Mai, Tailàndia.

Com a membre activa de l'associació laBastida del Rec d'Igualada promou entrenaments, jams, tallers i trobades d'investigació.