SOMMARTRÄNING - EMBODYING FORMS

In this class, we will explore how we can approach form in dance, through activating bodily awareness and connectivity, rather than through the mere reproduction of a shape.

Through inviting a body-felt sense of specific anatomical structures and through the direct application of this body-felt knowledge to specific dance forms. 

We will approach form from the perspective of a dialogue between inside-out and outside-in. Integrating anatomical knowledge through its direct application to dance, this class aims at exploring and giving technical tools that are anchored in our bodily awareness, at fully engaging in our movement without leaving any body part behind us.    

Frédéric Gies is a dancer and choreographer based in Sweden.

Oscillating between clockwork composition and the intensities and chaos generated by dancing bodies surrendering to the desires and forces that traverse them, Frédéric Gies’ dance pieces bring to the forefront the capacity of dance to speak without having to commit to any aboutness. Drawing from their former training in ballet, their encounter with specific trends of contemporary dance at the beginning of the 90s, their dance floor experiences in techno clubs and raves and their study of somatic practices, Frédéric Gies approaches form as possibilities rather than constraints. Their dances weld forms seemingly foreign to each other, recycle and pervert dance history and heritages. They playfully collapse the distinction and hierarchies between erudite and popular forms of dance. Their dances also address and actualize politics in a non-representational way, beyond the appearance of bodies. In their pieces, bodies as the instigators of movement don’t reinforce identities but excavate the complexity of their layers. Frédéric Gies’ work is also tightly connected to techno music and infused with references to clubbing and rave cultures. This is widely enabled by their long-term collaboration with the dj and producer Fiedel.

Frédéric Gies started his career as a dancer beginning of the 90s in France. They danced with choreographers such as Daniel Larrieu, Olivia Grandville, Jean-François Duroure, Odile Duboc, Bernard Glandier and Christophe Haleb. During this period, they started creating their first pieces, in collaboration with other dancers (Odile Seitz, Frédéric de Carlo). In 2004, they moved to Berlin and in 2006, they created the piece Dance (Praticable), which encountered an international success. As they moved to Sweden in 2014, they initiated their work with techno music and started to develop their practice Technosomatics. They present their works nationally and internationally in various contexts, including dance venues, music festivals and museums. Their latest works include the seven hours performance Dance Is Ancient, and Queens Of The Fauns, for which Fiedel created a live set. In 2018 they were commissioned to create the piece Tribute for Weld Company and beginning of 2019, the piece Uranus for the BA in dance and choreography at DDSKS. In Sweden, their work is supported since ten years by Weld, and more recently by Skogen and Inkonst. They are supported by the Swedish Arts Council and have been recipient of grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, the City of Stockholm and the City of Malmö.

Besides their on-going collaboration with Fiedel, they also collaborate with the lighting designer Thomas Zamolo, the fashion designer Grzegorz Matlag and the visual artist Anton Stoinaov. The dancers Elizabeth Ward, Andrea Svensson and Samuel Draper are also recurrent collaborators.

Frédéric Gies also danced in pieces of Cristina Caprioli, Jefta van Dinther, Alice Chauchat, Isabelle Schad and Antonija Livingstone and co-signed pieces with other choreographers (Alice Chauchat, Jefta van Dinther, DD Dorvillier, Anna Pehrsson, Isabelle Schad and Manuel Pelmus). Between 2012 and 2018, they were head of program of the MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH. They have been invited as guest teachers in various contexts (SNDO, HZT, TEAK, Ponderosa, DDSKS, Impulstanz, Art Stations Foundations…).

OBS! Träningen är öppen och utan kostnad för professionella frilansdansare och ingen föranmälan krävs dock kan deltagarantalet komma att begränsas på grund av Corona.

Träningen är ett samarbete mellan Dansalliansen och Danscentrum Syd