Synopsis

Workshop
Body Weather: From Touch and Manipulation to Performance and Dance
 


Body Weather is a comprehensive training and performance practice that investigates the intersections of bodies and their environments. Bodies are not conceived as fixed and separate entities but are - just like the weather- constantly changing.The term & philosophical basis for Body Weather was founded in the early 1980's by dancer Min Tanaka and further developed by Laboratories worldwide.Frank van de Ven was a member of Tanaka¹s Maijuku Performance Company in Japan, from 1983-1991. With Katerina Bakatsaki he leads Body Weather Amsterdam, a platform for training and performance.

See also http://bodyweatheramsterdam.blogspot.com In this short workshop We will focus on some aspects of touch. Touch has always been a key element in the survey of the dancing body. Touch makes us aware of the world inside and outside of us. To touch is to be touched. We will explore touch and some possible ways it can lead to dance.

Biography

Frank van de Ven is a dancer and director who spend his formative years in Japan working with Min Tanaka and the Maijuku Performance Company. In 1993 he founded with Katerina Bakatsaki 'Body Weather Amsterdam' as a platform for training and performance. Since 1995 he conducts with Milos Sejn (Academy of Fine Arts Prague) the interdisciplinary Bohemia Rosa Project, connecting body and landscape with art , geology and architecture.

Interest in practice and theory led to working with other dancers and theorists in extracting concrete strategies for dance from the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari evolving around the question 'How to make yourself a Dancing Body Without Organs'. Together with Peter Snow (Monash University) he performs the Thought/Action Improvisations . An ongoing collaboration exists with musician Daniel Schorno, artistic director of Steim in the 'Noughts' project.

Frank van de Ven, danseur et chorégraphe, a passé ses années de formation au Japon, travaillant avec Min Tanaka et la compagnie Maijuku.En 1993, il fonde avec Katerina Bakatsaki 'Body Weather Amsterdam', centre d'entraînement et de performance. Depuis 1995, il conduit avec Milos Sejn (Académie des Beaux-Arts de Prague) le projet interdisciplinaire Bohemia Rosa, mettant en relation le corps avec les arts plastiques, l'architecture et la géologie.

Son intérêt pour la théorie autant que pour la pratique l'amène a travailler avec d'autres danseurs et des théoriciens pour extraire des stratégies concrêtes de danse des théories de Gilles Deleuze et Felix Guattari, autour de la question 'commemt se faire un corps dansant sans organes ?' Avec Peter Snow (Monash University, Melbourne), il présente la série d'improvisations Thought/Action (Pensee/Action). Il collabore avec le musicien Daniel Schorno, directeur artistique de STEIM (studio for electro-instrumental music, Amsterdam) pour le projet 'Noughts'.