| Autumnal Greetings, Dance Fans! I hope this finds You all well! Things were a whirlwind this summer – teaching at my favorite humongous, monstrous dance extravaganza, ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival (including a beautiful workshop together with my dear friend and colleague of over twenty years, the always radical Nicole Berndt-Caccivio). I also offered a workshop at the young and dynamic JamJam Festival in Velbert, and gave a paper on “Skin, and Other Boundaries” at the U.K. Theatre and Performance Research Association’s Annual Conference in Newcastle. I’ve also started shooting scenes for the first artistic project of my PhD, Pomegranate Songs, a series of encounters with the world through encountering other humans, including meetings with the deeply resonant composer and all-round artist Dr. Ruth Wiesenfeld, and the ever-ethereal Benoît Lachambre (pictured above). And now, THE FUTURE! This coming weekend, September 28 & 29, i am giving a workshop on the Desire of the Space Between in Bologna, Italy, followed by a screening on Monday, September 30, of the complete Sex & Space Trilogy (2013-2016) at Cinema Europa (also Bologna), including a Q&A with myself. FB event for the workshop here Screening here Tickets for the screening here. Please share with ALL your Bolognese friends! A week later, back in Berlin, join me at The Village on Monday, October 7, for a mini-workshop on Moving the World Inside and Around – Somatic Exploration and Erotic Bodywork. At the end of the month, October 25-27, i will be returning to The Village to facilitate something or other (tbd) at the always-worth-visiting STRETCH Festival. These two events are open to men* and those on the spectrum of masculinities. November, i will be donning my pianist hat to contribute some music to two events at Marameo Berlin: the Thursday evening contact jam on November 14, and two days later, the Group Motion workshop on Saturday November 16. Always happy to reconnect with my first love and life-saver-in-puberty, the piano. In December, join me in Cologne, for a full weekend version of Moving the World Inside and Around – Somatic Exploration and Erotic Bodywork, on December 7 & 8 at my friend Hassan’s space Libe8. The workshop is open to everyone, but we ask that You register as a group of 2 or more, as the workshop will include the potential for intimate touch. Feel free to contact me with questions. The “Very Early Bird” pricing ends October 15, so make your move now! Otherwise: PhD research, maintaining my physical well-being, intergenerational care work, etc. etc. etc… Political Department: Having started sharing my thoughts in the last two messages to You all, it feels i need to continue, lest an absence feel like a statement. On the other hand, i, like everyone, am feeling the exhaustion (not as much exhaustion as those in Palestine/Israel are feeling, no doubt), so i’m not sure what to write. Personally, i avoid social media like the plague, but i’ve heard it’s become somewhat “Come see my show at Sophiensaele! Teaching Pilates tomorrow at 10:00! Free Palestine!” And on dating apps, i’m reading a lot of “Looking for authentic connection, casual doesn’t mean careless, no ONS, Free Palestine” (it’s also notably rare how often anyone on OKCupid mentions the horrific violence in Sudan, or the ongoing climate crisis, or, or, or… one crisis seems to be trending much more than others, and i wonder about that as well). Has supporting Palestine/condemning Israel become yet another lifestyle choice for those of us in Europe and North America to express ourselves online, to feel better about ourselves, to market ourselves as the radical left-wing artists we want to be? How to express support and condemn the unconscionable violence (now also available in Lebanon!) without, once again, making it about US? In a well-known chassidic tale, a rabbi is known to disappear on Friday mornings, and there is a rumor going around town that he is so holy he spends Friday mornings in heaven. So one day, a Litvak passing through town (a Lithuanian Jew, but usually playing the role of the skeptic in these stories) decides to investigate. He hides under the rabbi’s bed (there’s a certain amount of hiding under the bed in the chassidic stories, make of that what You will), and the next morning, the rabbi awakes before dawn, puts on the disguise of a poor lumberjack, and goes out into the forest. The Litvak continues his toxic stalking, and follows the rabbi while he gathers wood, chops it, and finally, brings it to a run-down cabin on the other side of the forest. He goes inside, and when the Litvak peers through the window (no comment), he sees an old, sick woman lying in bed, and the rabbi lighting a fire with the wood he has just gathered. When he is later asked by the townspeople if it is true that the rabbi ascends to heaven every Friday morning, he answers, “Perhaps even a little higher.” The point is that nobody is supposed to know about the rabbi’s care work, because it is not about him. But how to protest the ongoing massacre in Palestine, supported by our tax money, in both Germany and the U.S. (i get to pay taxes in both countries! So i am doubly complicit), without making it about our own virtue? Is it just that there are more important things going on than how we are perceived or not, so we should take that risk of being read as virtue-signaling? After all, protest lives by generating public interest. Can we separate the public interest we generate for a free and just Palestine from the public interest we generate for our next workshop? I’m grateful for any suggestions, because i’m out of ideas. And finally, lest my wandering thoughts imply a wavering, or a “it’s complicated”, let me just say again, and always: “never again” means never again for anyone. Wishing You Peace and Love, at home and in the world, Hope to see You soon! xxx, David B. |
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Dear Dance Fans! I hope this finds You joyful. Here in Berlin, we have now become one big sidewalk restaurant. It’s nice to see everyone out & about (& showing off, as it is Berlin), & also very surreal. & all of a...
