My dance film Spurensuche has been post-edited and mapped in the Environmental Dance Project by the choreographer Christoph Winkler and his team. I am very glad about this opportunity to contextualize my work and share with you this short version here.
Spurensuche – Nordhessen/Germany from Company Christoph Winkler on Vimeo.
About the Environmental Dance Project by Christoph Winkler
„On this website we gather video works, interviews and documentations of traditional nature-based dances by international dance artists. All videos and interviews have been produced by the participating artists independently in their respective regions. They reflect the diversity of dance and dancers and refer to local problems of climate change.
The additional maps give these works a larger context. The project is long-term and will be expanded regularly.
The aim of this global project is to make climate change tangible and visible, using dance, scientific data and personal testimonies from numerous countries around the world in equal measure.
We hope that in the future other dance artists, companies and institutions will participate in this project and that it will become a common statement of the international dance community.
The maps were developed together with the „mLab“ of the Geographical Institute of the University of Bern to further contextualize the video works of the participating artists.
Vision
The project deals with the question of whether the specific body knowledge of dance cultures can be used to achieve a less destructive way of dealing with nature and ecosystems. Our aim is to bring together contemporary dancers from different countries to explore new possibilities for the further development of ecological approaches in dance, based on an examination of traditional dances and rituals. Both Western and non-Western dance cultures have a large repertoire of dances (harvest dances, animal dances, rain rituals) that express human relationships with nature in a variety of forms. In addition, many contemporary dance artists work at the intersection of environmental activism, sustainability and somatic practice and see dance as a catalyst for social change towards greater environmental awareness. Dance can provide performers and viewers with a reflective and conscious connection to the ecosystem, and this is not only true of the long tradition of dancing in the landscape. It is true that in order to stop the further destruction of the environment, it will be necessary to find a change from an anthropocentric world view to a way of dealing with nature that sees all forms of life as equal. In our opinion, dance as one of the most original forms of expression has the potential to accompany this search.
Christoph Winkler
Artistic Director“
source: https://environmental-dance.com/information
About Spurensuche / Traces of the perceptible
The dancer seeks out natural places where she lives that inspire her to pause. She is searching for traces. She is looking for ways within herself to uncover, layer by layer, the potentials of human perception that have been overlaid by millennia of cultural imprinting. In this, she sees herself as a species in evolution and in continuous exchange with the environment that surrounds her, embedding her experience. She dedicates herself to the ability to consciously direct attention to particular processes.
The resulting documentation is an attempt to reflect the sensuous contact with the living, based on the dancer’s own experience.
Katja-Bahini’s previous work has focused on the Contact Improvisation, which is practiced in fluid, non-prescribed physical contact with others as an interplay of giving and receiving weight. Through out contact and travel restrictions since 2020, she was inspired to expand her practice to the structures and landscape in which she lives.
Social dynamics have increased the tendency to bind human attention in virtual spaces of experience. Through her practice, the dancer aims to counter this tendency with immediate sensory contact with the living matter.
The film was realised in Nord Hessen in Germany where the dancer lives and also offers dance seminars in and with nature.
dance Katja-Bahini Mangold
camera Julian Dollichon, Miriam Fassbender
assistance Armin Dörr
external artistic consultance Marie Meister
technical support & consulting Barack Ben Dov
editing Gabrielle Fiore
audio post-production Paolo Pizzuto
music „Arise From The Twilight“ BLACK GLASS ENSEMBLE
The project was funded by Hessische Kulturstiftung.
