A Public consultation: Integration of disadvantaged groups into the field of contemporary dance
Wednesday, 25 April from 10.00 to 12.00, 2012, Secondary School of Art Education Nova Gorica:
Contemporary dance in the first half of the century was heavily characterized by obsessive modernistic inventions of new dance techniques that strived to take apart all the ideal moulds, to eliminate everything that was not congruent with the notions of an agile body at that time. But the first generation to be associated with the American post-modernism rejected this kind of dance ‘cancellations’ , proclaimed their tenets to be kitsch and manifested their rebellion with a loud: “No!!” Although many dance techniques and practices originate from dance pioneers who were afflicted by injury and needed to invent new ways to utilize their bodies in order to continue dancing, this time also indicated the beginning of a new understanding of bodies.
These new perceptions sometimes included even self-limitations so that various physical restrictions may provide for different potential of motoric cultures. Dance distances itself from the regime of (technical) choreographies and becomes a prospect for a singular body experience. These conceptions in turn cause that no body can be likened to another one without differences. The abundance of bodies can be interpreted as a dance of difference, not sameness. Public consultation titled ‘Integration’ of disadvantaged groups into the field of contemporary dance and the workshop for the teachers will reflect and open up practical views on the culture of handicap as an item on the agenda that each human identity needs to determinate for itself.
This consultation aims to encourage dialog between cultural organizations, members of the local community, the ministry in charge, public institutions and the invited experts. We invited experts in the field of contemporary dance: Nataša Toviranc, Barbara Novaković, Katja Bucik, Vera Rebl and Urša Urbančič.