Presence-absence: tools for movement research

Name: Presence-absence: tools for movement research
Start: 2025-04-04T16:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-04-06T16:00:00+02:00
Location: Tagensvej 85, 2200 København N, Danmark

Schedule

Fri, 04 Apr, 2025 at 04:00 pm to Sun, 06 Apr, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Tagensvej 85, 2200 København N, Danmark | Copenhagen , SK

Pedro Penuela is a dance artist, psychologist and researcher from Brazil, currently living in Greece. On April 4, 5 & 6 – 2025 he will be in Copenhagen sharing his workshop “Presence-Absence: tools for movement research”. This work is based on his PhD in Performing Arts (developed at the University of Sao Paulo), in which he investigated the works of Steve Paxton, Pina Bausch and Kazuo Ohno and interviewed Paxton himself, as well as artists who worked directly with Bausch and Ohno.
The workshop is focused on different modes of presence within the works of these three choreographers. Each session, of five hour duration, will be inspired and based in the works by one of them.
It will be a set of theoretical-practical classes, in which we will work on movement research/improvisation as well some technical training, focusing on: 1. the building and organization of perception and attention; 2. Meanings and forms of body-memory for movement creation; 3. Poetic images as paths to embody otherness.
Description of some of the contents focused on each session:
1. Inspired by Steve Paxton
Experimentation of some practices developed by Paxton: Material for the spine; Small dance; some Contact Improvisation exercises
Readings and discussions about perception, attention, visibility/invisibility, diversity and connection between senses
Experimentation and reflection based on two performances by Paxton: “Flat” (1964) and “Satisfying lover” (1968)
Experimentations on how we build and organize the way we look to movement and the visual perception connected to other senses
Personal movement research (improvisation and creation of scores), based on
the material gathered.
2. Inspired by Pina Bausch
Warming ups with some principles for movement improvisation developed by Rudolf Laban
Experimentation based on the question: what remains (of a dance, of an experience)?
Readings and discussions about Bausch’s works, body memory and what I call her “oneiric procedure” for choreographic creation
Experimentation and reflections regarding relations between words, emotions
and different modes of presence
Movement research based on some questions developed by Bausch
Choreographic creation based on dream formation.
3. Inspired by Kazuo Ohno
Short training based on suriashi walking
Readings and discussions about Ohno’s work; relations between dance, death and life; the concept of soul in Ohno’s work; otherness and forms of mimesis
Experimenting to follow the movement that is already going on: to other oneself
Investigating and playing with the odd and strange: seeing the strange and unexpected inside the banal and daily life
To treasure life and every moment
Movement research/creation based on Ohno’s poetic images
Practical information:
Dates: April 4, 5 & 6 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) – 2025
Hours:
•4 (Friday) 16:00-21:00 -Steve Paxton and perception
•5 (Saturday) 10:30-15:30-Pina Bausch and body memory
•6 (Sunday) 11:00-16:00 -Kazuo Ohno and otherness
Place: DSF Studio – Tagensvej 85, 3rd Floor. 2200. Copenhagen N
Price: 500 kr per day or 1200 kr for the three days.
* Early bird price (until March 10): 400 kr per day or 950 kr for the three days
For subscriptions, practical questions and payment procedures, please write to: [email protected]
To contact the teacher, please write to: [email protected]
Open to everyone interested in arts (visual arts, theater, dance, music, performance etc), movement research, martial arts, somatics and body work, with some previous experience in any of these fields.
Short bio of the teacher:
Pedro Penuela is a psychologist, master degree in clinical psychology, dancer and PhD in performing arts from Brazil, now living in Greece.
He works as a psychotherapist since 2012, based on a psychodynamic approach.
He is also a dancer and teacher of Contact Improvisation, a form of contemporary dance that proposes a touch based communication between bodies, focusing on their physicality.
In his PhD he researched the topic of presence in the works of choreographers Steve Paxton, Pina Bausch and Kazuo Ohno, developing a discussion that connects philosophy, dance studies and psychoanalytic theory.
Pedro is an author of papers and lectures in different spaces and events and has given workshops and classes in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Israel/Palestine, France and Greece.
Website: https://pedropenuelaeng.wordpress.com