„Privilegion“

Sara, you are researching on questions related to privileges and positionality. How does the dance piece "Privilegion" intersect with your research?

Sara: In “Privilegion” the artists appeal to the audience by turning their anger (which the piece lays naked at the very beginning) into creative practice. I see this as a form of activist knowledge which is a key focus of my work, mainly through Latinx/Latina activist practices in diasporic context. Each of the characters dance in their own spaces on stage, which contain separation lines that delineate the space of the self and other. These spaces can of course perform as mechanisms of exclusion. But they can also generate new forms of understanding from the margins that turn into places of resistance, creating in turn new spaces of belonging for practices to flourish. The idea of creative forms of activism as a form of collective and meaning-making and belonging, like the dance movements performed by the characters in the piece, is central in my research. Positionality has to do with the experience that shapes the place from which we speak. As Djamila Ribeiro calls it, our 'lugar de fala'. This, contrary to what some discourses focused on identity politics argue, does not mean that people should restrict themselves to speak only about their own lived experiences. Rather, it places importance of acknowledging when a lived experience can inform situated types of knowledge and of situating oneself when occupying a privileged space in knowledge-making. Positionalities rooted in certain experience of place or place-based positionalities at the intersection of class, gender, age, ability, etc, shape specific forms of activist and artistic knowledge.  

Sabine, could you tell us more about the creative process of this knowledge-making behind the performance “Privilegion”? What kind of resources of inspiration did you use to create this performance?

Sabine: After an intensive research phase, and delving into the initial ideas to explore with us, Karolin Stächele and me, the ensemble enters the first rehearsal phase. Then, they are engaging in discussions, biographical exploration, instant writing, and group/solo improvisations. For example, "An Ode to Capitalism!" involves dancing the embodiment and greed. Daily video analysis reveals interesting aspects in choreography, movement quality, text, and a thematically engaging dramaturgy. The decision on the performance space also emerges during this phase. The dancers' vibrant and playful interactions led us to focus on real characters who repeatedly maneuver into situations, experiment, and then fail. Decisions on compact choreography, such as a protest or a dance quality depicting the struggle for everything, are made at this stage. Between the first and second rehearsal phases, choreography and dramaturgy reflect on the material, determining what requires more significant development and what becomes a scene, forming a rough structure. The second rehearsal process involves adjustments, new elements are created, and evolving the piece further.

These new forms of meaning created in art and activism bring up a power of potential transformation in times of crises. What connections can be drawn between the apocalyptic crises addressed in “Privilegion” and the role of art and activism you discuss in your work?

Sara: The dancers of “Privilegion” resist apocalyptic narratives, showcasing the dancers dissenting against their 'artistic time'. Art, like activism, imagines worlds of possibility and of life. In this sense they resist apocalyptic narratives that annihilate collective agency. In the case of the activist practices, I engage with in my work they are also challenging the existence of one single temporality. Through their art and practices of activist placemaking they call for a temporality in which other non-apocalyptic worlds can exist. These are practices, of course, that place agency on collectivity, rather than individual ideas, which is not always something that art institutions and circuits allow within its structures of competition and search for so-called originality. As we were discussing with Sabine today, there are also forms of protests that can follow patriarchal forms of individualism. 

How does "Privilegion" communicate knowledge about contemporary apocalyptic crises? And “should we continue to dance”?

Sara: I believe the piece rebels against dance practice that refuses to engage with questions around privilege. This at times generates thought-provoking moments and tensions in the audience. By putting those questions on the table, it is also generating new spaces of possibility for art that intervenes against its own language to flourish, offering new ways of seeing beyond apocalyptic crises. The piece shows us that art, like activism, and its structures is also a field in which dynamics of power and privilege can rule over imagination and creativity and places the struggle of both as a battle on stage through its characters. 

Sabine: We all independently questioned the meaningfulness of our work in recent years and continue to do so. The decision to work more politically and participatively, challenging ourselves and reflecting on our previous concepts of creating dance art, was a crucial first step. I can now connect Sarah's arguments and descriptions of activism with our work, and I am pleased with this realization. Empowerment for action and public communication are essential aspects, acknowledging the necessity to actively contribute to positive change in the face of crisis.

 

Sara Ibáñez O'Donnell works as a public-engaged researcher at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (University of Heidelberg) within a cultural studies framework with post/decolonial theory across interdisciplinary fields of border studies, diasporic visual cultures, migration & transculturality. Her research interests include affective networks & placemaking, belonging, (trans)local collective art/activism and feminist geographies.

Sabine Noll is a dramaturge at DAGADA dance company and worked formerly with groups like TDT-Tanztheater, La Fura del Baus (ES), Theater Freiburg, Aktionstheater PAN.OPTIKUM and was a co-founder of the koreografenkollektiv Freiburg.