Workshop

Sex & Space — Choreographing the Scene

A Workshop on Dance, Desire, & Performing the Erotic Body

Still from Quintet – a choreopornographic experiment (2013)

A dance consists of Bodies in Time & Space. Traditional dance training & artistic research often set limits as to how much sexuality is allowed into a “serious artistic process”. BDSM & tantric practices often focus on the body, its emotions & sensations, & pay less attention to structures of time & especially space.

However, a group ritual or play party has all the makings of a performance, one where the roles of performer & audience member are constantly shifting.

David brings together his professional background as a dancer/choreographer/teacher with his experience of practicing conscious sexuality to bridge the gap between artistic & personal process, in this workshop based on the tools we used to create the film Quintet – a choreopornographic experiment, which premiered at Berlin’s Porn Film Festival in 2013.

Being a Performer with a capital “P” (Grotowski) is not (only) about entertaining people or representing stories or images, it is about developing a global embodied awareness of situations. The greatest performers are capable of simultaneously being completely lost in trance & analyzing the situation from the outside.

We will work with simple solo & group improvisation exercises that expand our consciousness to perceive temporal & spatial relations in a variety of ways. We will then deal with desire & erotic energy to generate material & work with these heightened states consciously as parts of a composition. We will work not only on actions, but also on the spaces between, observing & listening. We will negotiate scenes not only from personal taste, but also according to artistic & aesthetic criteria.

The idea is not to constrict freedom & spontaneity, but to allow new possibilities to emerge through structure, that can eventually lead to another level of subtlety & beauty in our play. An expanded consciousness of how we perceive time & space can create an enhanced understanding of each other & the world we live & play in.