• 1
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• contemporary dance performance + audience format 'cartography (in English)
• physical
• playful
• dark

• Sa., 13.01.2024, 19:00

Cartography following 'Solo for Boy'

'Solo for Boy' is a dynamic solo for the male-read body exploring our expectations and desires for this body. The audience is invited to connect the performance space afterwards with their individual thoughts on sticky notes to open an audience talk.

• 1Photo © Peter Oliver Wolff. A boy floats through space: apart from time, white skin and the folds of blue jeans, curled up upon itself, yet to be unfurled — an artificially constructed image that is so common that is appears ‘natural.’
• 2 Vera Shchelkina, somatische Tanzkünstlerin

Through her work, Sasha Amaya prompts us to move with and against the dancer, and, in doing so, our own habitual perspectives on this form. After the production, the audience members explore the performance space and measure it by writing their thoughts,memories and questions on Post-Its and sticking them around the performance space. A shared cartography of the individual production experiences is created which serves as the point of departure for a shared conversation. We can dive into questions like: Why look into white masculinity? Who creates what pieces: the male body and the female gaze as under-represented performance form. The relationship of the work to the trilogy reimagining dominant narratives in art history could be another topic. But first there will be space to share what the audience saw, felt, perceived.

About the venue

DOCK 11 / DOCK ART

Theater as a meeting place, not as a form of representation. It all started with backyard multipurpose rooms and a factory hall. Today, DOCK 11 is an important dance stage with an attached studio complex and a guest house. It stands for one thing above all: diversity of style. The factory level of Dock 11 in Kastanienallee in Prenzlauer Berg is a rehearsals room, teaching studio and dance stage in one. The stage programme has interdisciplinary supplements such as theatre, performance, literature, music, visual art, film and club art – however the main focal point of every performance is on purely dance elements. Together with its other premises in EDEN***** in Berlin-Pankow, Dock 11 has established itself as an important part of the Berlin dance scene. The unique combination of teaching, rehearsal and stage generates an exciting change of perspectives in both the artists and pupils, as well as among the audience.

www.dock11-berlin.de  

About the Performance

Solo for Boy

Solo for Boy is an inquiry into forms of white, western, male-bodied Eurocentric beauty. In her new work, Sasha Amaya is inspired by a lineage of images from art history and fashion from the early 1800s to the present moment. What kind of movements does this body make? What kind of forms does it take? What kind of access to space and permission for our time do we give this form? And where in all of this do we situate ourselves in terms of power, vulnerability, and desire?

Solo for Boy is part of a trilogy of three works, including Sarabande (2020) and Orfeo (upcoming) exploring, interrogating, and reimagining dominant narratives art history.

About the artists

Sasha Amaya

Sasha Amaya is a dancer, choreographer, and installation artist. Using music, movement, dance, art history, collage, text, and architectural surrounds, she is particularly interested in understanding how we frame, utilize, reject, and repurpose historical narratives and techniques in contemporary art work. In addition to her dance education in Canada, Germany, and France, Sasha holds an MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a Post-Masters diploma from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. Sasha Amaya’s work has been exhibited and supported by institutions and networks in France, Great-Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Scotland, the USA, and Canada. In Germany, Sasha has worked at the Sophiensaele, Uferstudios, DOCK 11, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, PACT Zollverein and LAKE Studios. Residencies include L’Abbaye du Royaumont (FR) under Hervé Robbe, La cité internationale des arts Paris (FR), Centre national de la danse Lyon (FR), Tanzhaus Zürich (CH), and the Banff Centre Canada (CAN). In 2022 Sasha was invited as a Never Walk Alone choreographer/tour guide at Tanzplattform Deutschland. Sasha writes on performance for publications including Tanzfabrik Berlin, Tanzarchiv, Tanzplattform, Stream, and Tanzschreiber Berlin. 

www.sasha-amaya.com