SODA Works 2020

A 

AWARENESS 2 / 10 

AGENCY 6 / 8 / 22 

ALGORITHM 6 / 8 / 22 

AMBIGUITY 17 / 25 

ARTICULATION 22 

ARTIFICIALITY 22 

AUTHENTICITY 10 / 

18 / 22 

B 

BODY 10 / 14 / 18 / 26 

C 

CIRCUS 2 / 18 

CHOREOGRAPHY 8 / 

15 / 20 

CODE 6 / 22 

COLLABORATION 2 

/ 9 / 10 / 17 / 20 / 22 

/ 26 

COMPOSITION 27 

CONDITION 2 / 15 

CONSCIOUSNESS 2 / 

10 / 26 

D 

DEEP LISTENING 26 

DANCE 2 / 7 / 8 / 12 / 

14 / 20 

DRIVE 2 / 10 

DIARY 20 

DICHOTOMY 17 / 25 

DISTANCE 2 / 7 / 22 

E 

EMBODIMENT 2 / 10 / 

15 / 18 

ETHERIC ENERGY 2 / 

10 / 28 

F 

FAMILIARITY 10 / 25 

FICTIONAL 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2 

/ 22 

FIELD 10 / 15 

FLOW 2 / 10 

G 

GAME 21 / 22 

GAP 13 / 16 

H 

HOSTING 21 / 22 

I 

IMAGINATION 2 / 18 

IMPROVISATION 2 / 

6 / 12 / 14 / 20 / 22 / 

27 / 28 

INTERNAL- 

ALCHEMY 26 

INTIMACY 2 / 10 / 18 

INTUITION 3 / 12 / 14 

/ 18 

J 

JUXTAPOSITION 9 / 

10 / 17 / 25 

L 

LANDSCAPE 2 / 8 

LIMINAL 10 / 25 / 26 

M 

MAGIC 4 / 10 

N 

NONSENS 2 / 25 

O 

OPENING 2 / 10 / 15 

/ 18 

ORDER 15 

P 

PLASTICITY 14 

PRESENCE 2 / 12 / 25 

PROCESS 6 / 8 / 12 

/ 15 

PRACTICE 18 

R 

REAL-TIME 2 / 12 

RELATIONALITY 12 / 

18 / 25 

RECOGNITION 12 / 25 

REALITY 10 

RHYTHM 14 

RITUAL 3 / 13 / 14 / 20 

S 

SCALE 9 / 24 

SELF 13 / 18 / 22 

SENSE-MAKING 25 

SILENCE 16 / 27 / 28 

SOLO 2 / 6 / 8 / 12 / 14 

/ 22 / 26 

SOUND 12 / 20 / 26 

/ 27 

SPACE 7 / 14 / 26 

SPECTRUM 2 / 24 

SPECULATION 2 / 22 

SPIRITUALITY 10 

STATE / STATES 10 / 

15 / 24 / 27 / 28 

STORY-TELLING 2 / 

18 

SYSTEM 8 / 22 

T 

TRANS- 

EXPERIENTIAL 26 

TRUST 16 / 21 

TUNING 12 / 15 

V 

VIRTUAL 22 

W 

WHAT-IS- 

ALREADY-THERE 2 

/ 9 

WRITING 12 

Z 

ZONE 2 

SODA 

2018–2020

INTRO DUCTION 

“Henceforth the writer [dancer, performer, artist, spectator] is immersed in multilinguism, 

which does not mean that he necessarily speaks or writes in different 

languages, but that the language and the culture of other languages and cultures, 

are always there in their multiple resonances, indispensable, and infusing his own 

cultural expression, in one way or another.” 

Bernadette Cailler on Édouard Glissant: Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 19/1, 2011: 145.

This publication comes with a glossary index on its front cover: an unfinished list 

and collection of terms and ideas resisting completion - always to be revisited. Some 

words might feel familiar, others less so. Either way, during the artistic research and 

working processes of Kuba Borkowicz, Bernardo Chatillon, Jorge De Hoyos, Jason 

Corff, Ana Lessing Menjibar, Minna Partanen and Rhyannon Styles these words 

have gained momentum and been repeatedly identified with increasing specificity 

and in this iteration, accompany their final performance presentations for the MA 

program. Although the glossary and its alphabetic arrangement might suggest 

order, an overview or some kind of proven expertise, much of what it references 

lies in between its terms, best experienced fully through physical explorations, 

choreographed and improvised movement and embodied experience, focused 

theoretical encounters and incommensurable speculations, via small-scale, latent 

details of the everyday or strolling the streets together and gathering around food 

and drinks. To approach this, the publication encourages transversal readings. It 

is more of a companion to the work than a documentation of the two year process 

which invites students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to critically challenge, 

reflect and develop their artistic practice. Accompanying those individual 

technical and theoretical skills brought into an academic setting, in dialogue with 

an international community of peers and teachers. 

While the focus of the MA SODA program is on the specific, individual 

body and movement-based performative practices of all participants, it also 

seeks to provide and open up a collective learning and research environment. The 

philosopher Édouard Glissant, in conversation with filmmaker Manthia Diawara, 

speaks of the necessity to “consent not to be a single being.” 1 His phrase, however, 

does not claim consensus and normative imagination, actions, values or rules. It 

is not about hasty alignments and quick declarations of sharing and complicity. 

Rather, it encourages us – artists, thinkers, audiences and citizens – to question 

ever anew what brings and holds our individual bodies together, and what tears 

them apart: what defines a body’s singularity while acknowledging its manifold 

perceivable and non-perceivable bonds and commitments to the contexts and surroundings 

in which it is embedded and in dialogue? The question of how to open 

up in our individual dances, performances and writings – which the conversation 

at the end of this publication addresses - considers alternative and collective ideas 

of agency and responsibility immanently bound to moving, thinking bodies. In 

Glissant’s terms, seeking to access a “poetics of relation” 2 , which navigates the 

challenge of not reducing other bodies, the body of the other, to existing models 

of that which we are ready to recognize. 

TO CONSENT 

NOT TO BE A 

SINGLE BEING 

SODA (SOLO/DANCE/ 

AUTHORSHIP). 

THOUGHTS FOR THE 

GRADUATES 2019/20 

1 Édouard Glissant and 

Manthia Diawara: „One 

World in Relation,“ 

trans. by Christopher 

Winks. Journal of 

Contemporary African 

Art (2011, 4-19). 

2 Édouard Glissant: 

Poetics of Relation, 

trans. by Betsy Wing 

(Ann Arbor: University 

of Michigan Press 1997). 

Sandra Noeth for the team of the MA SODA 

Prof. Rhys Martin (program leader), Sophia New, Prof. Dr. Sandra Noeth 

https://www.hzt-berlin.de/en/courses/study-courses/ma-soda/ 

1

BERNARDO 

CHATILLON WHO AM I? 

EMBODIMENT 

Embodiment does not 

have to do with my human 

body but with the 

relationship between 

my body and other bodies, 

whichever matter 

they are made from. 

Imagination and ideas 

are embodied when we 

give them a shape, that 

is what making staged 

pieces is about. 

The experience of being Bernardo is a fractal. Dance is an intermediate space for 

this fractal to emerge. All intermediate spaces are possible spaces to live in, invisible 

and visible. My intermediate space is based on what I experience in life. In my 

dance there are uncomfortable places; my dance is about paranoia, manipulation, 

violence between bodies, sex, fear, complexes, shame, terror, loneliness, panic, a lot 

of panic attacks, a lot of food to hide the pain and the crying, despair, my mother, my 

father, my grandparents, uncles, cousins, the neighbors around my neighborhood, 

the courtyard, heroin, blood, knives, weapons, television at lunch, television at 

dinner, television at breakfast, Jean Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold 

Schwarzenegger, DJ Quicksilver, Freddy Krueger, sad meals, policemen, Brazilian 

soap operas and trying hard to be a good skater, trying hard to ride a bike on only 

one wheel, trying hard to do sports, trying to be good at something, working, working 

to have money at McDonald’s, falling in love, falling in love, falling in love, love 

sometimes allowed and forbidden, a lot of fantasies, real danger, moments of death, 

some scandals, moments of clearness, inspiration, a lot of strength, motivation, until 

now -- this moment, where I believe is the place I project the plays where I make 

the future, the plays where I own the narrative, I shape, I own and I create. I am a 

consciousness having the experience of being Bernardo. 

IMPROVISATION 

what happens 24 hours 

a day. Improvisation 

is always happening 

even when we follow 

habits and patterns, it 

is the breath of fresh 

air, the key for us to 

become witnesses of 

our actions, it gives us 

agency. If we notice we 

are always improvising 

we may understand 

that we can change the 

course of our actions. 

Improvisation is eradicated 

by political and 

economic structures of 

power: the possibility of 

citizens realizing they 

can change the way 

they follow systems 

and rules. 

WHERE DO I COME FROM? 

Imagine you go to a place where you are asked what is most relevant and important 

to you. This is SODA. Then you are asked to show answers to these questions and 

explain how you found them. This is also SODA. 

So, how can I access, show and translate an idea and concept that is so ingrained 

in layers and layers of habits of speech, thought and movement? How can I dig 

through those layers to uncover the answers? In this process of digging I have 

revealed a part of me that creates stimuli and generates questions that give me 

new options to reflect on what I say or do. These reflections make me critical of my 

means of expression. The possibility to have time for self-criticism and -reflection is 

a candy, a present, a privilege. What have I done with this? I returned to my origins, 

back to my family. To the smile of my grandfather when he did magic tricks for 

us. What was this childhood aura that made me feel alive and connected? It was 

an environment of magic, and when I said this word I started to think about what 

is magic, what is this concept and as it emerged in me I was reminded of the way 

in which I entered the dance studio: as if there were two different worlds, one I 

inhabited as a child and a new one there in the studio, of rehearsal and practice. 

But they are not separated... 

During my time at SODA, I went home to see my grandfather 

and he asked me what I was doing in Berlin. I told him that I go to the studio and 

there I am a kind of scientist looking for ways to speak about the world and my 

2

experiences, ways of relating with people and making dance pieces. For example, 

I believe that in the future people will be able to fly so I go to the studio and 

I try to fly in the studio. And my grandmother says, “You are crazy just like your 

grandfather with all that stuff about magic and tricking people.” But it’s true. I 

go to the studio, I stand still and don’t move for an hour and then strange things 

start to happen. “See, that’s witchcraft!” “No, but if you stop that fork with food 

on the way to your mouth don’t you start feeling things? That’s what I do in the 

studio. I wait for it to tell me things.” And my grandfather says, “That’s like when 

I am making magic tricks and people are waiting for something to happen and 

try to understand what is the trick.” “Yes, but in my case when I go to the studio 

I trick myself into waiting for the magic to happen and then I try to repeat these 

experiments and show them to the people in school.” 

This is what I am doing when I work with concepts of real-time 

composition and improvisation in my work: I read the space and the audience so 

that I can react and create my tricks on stage. My grandfather knows the tricks he 

will do, but he always has to contextualize them, which has to do with reading the 

audience and the space. What interests him is to insert dynamics into the space and 

to activate it. As if he is orchestrating and modulating the space through his voice 

and movements. When I go to the studio I work with movement, words, time and 

space of the studio to create my magic trick, my piece. When I explained this to my 

grandfather, he asked,“That’s all very good, but how can you be sure that you will 

produce in the audience that moment when they get amazed, like when I reveal 

that the toothpick they broke isn’t really broken?” “I don’t know yet...” 

WHERE AM I GOING? 

· Don’t get lost in the map. 

· Easy Going Going Easy 

· Intuition and free association are the grounds for my process. 

· Everything is visible and part of the stage, audience included. 

There is no way to exit. 

· The project asks for the medium. The content asks for the form. 

· Real-time composition is just one possibility. 

· Improvisation is a political weapon. 

· Giving attention is a process of civilization. 

· The aim is always different. 

· Studio practice affects the real and the logical. 

· Words serve to distract and confuse: use this in your favor to find 

what is already there. 

· Words serve to focus and clarify: use this in your favor to find 

what is already there. 

· Seek satisfaction. The satisfaction with yourself, the world, reality. 

RITUAL 

a practice that disrupts 

and dismantles perception. 

This rupture grants 

access to other ways of 

gathering and generating 

knowledge of the 

world as a complex and 

non-linear entity. The 

body knows the world is 

not as linear as it is portrayed, 

so it accumulates 

pressure and tensions, 

as it faces the conflict 

from different perceptions. 

Creating artistic 

work is a way to develop 

rituals that acknowledge 

both the world and time 

as non-linear paths. 

3

This is the source of all inspiration and the impulse to create. 

· Seek dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction with yourself, the world, reality. 

This is the source of all inspiration and the impulse to create. 

· All spaces have their mysterious zones. But if we enter spaces as a tourist, 

we do not have access to the mysteries of these zones. 

· Rituals give structure; structures are endless. 

· Technique is what allows me to continue independent from motivation. 

· It is time to return to oral tradition. 

· No one taught me how to walk, I copied a vertical template. 

· No one will teach me how to levitate, I need a levitating template. 

· Beware of sleeping and waking up. 

· Remember to recall or revisit moments where I have experienced Magic. 

· Use suggestion and visualization as generative tools. 

· Create a glossary for each creation. 

· Work with invisible collectives. 

· The topic - the visualization - the experience - the repetition - the frame. 

· Choreographic memory is a thermometer to see if we were present 

during a research process. 

· Waiting is a tool, but it can also be something else. 

· Music and objects work when you are not dependent on them to keep 

the energy you search for in your dance. 

· A solo is a duet that becomes a familiar monologue between generational 

layers of the body. 

· What do you eat, what do you think, what do you say before and after 

you go into research? 

· My generation is experiencing an era of perceived and non-perceived crises... 

I want to work on a non-perceived crisis. How do I manifest this? 

MAGIC 

It’syouuuuuuuuuuuuuu 

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu 










uuuuuuuuuuu 

WHAT AM I DOING HERE? 

I am looking for a place with people that believe the world is beyond what we 

see and that there is a lot of artistic, political and social work to do between the 

visible and the invisible. I want to find this place, so that together we can access 

these worlds that are not logical or practical or clear. In order to do this, I am creating 

practices through which I can access insights that help me shape and refine 

intuitive processes. This is one example, where for three days I sat in my room 

working with CA Conrad’s somatic writing exercises. 

4

levanta voo 

despega 

para matar 

Racha 

Excalibur 

o livro 

dentro do 

mapa 

massa 

porco 

cabra 

o Raio 

Vertical 

Baixo 

Cima 

cristal 

congela 

Chora 

corta 

retina 

cega 

rasga 

que não há 

O gordo nos 

folhos 

é Júpiter 

Arvore de 

figos! 

rósna 

uma linha mais 

dura 

a luz 

nas unhas 

na pele 

no centro 

no meio 

o braço 

o braço a 

meio 

Perfume 

os dois no mesmo 

ar 

estão a rodar 

susto 

um Laço na 

espada 

Agua 

limite lento 

(tempo) 

aldeia de 

zebras 

princepe 

não há 

apenas 

olhos 

nos teus 

olhos 

doente 

Mordida 

queima 

incha 

na ponta 

Fino 

calaram-se as 

baterias 

Tremo 

imagens 

calaram-se as 

baterias 

tremo 

o frio 

água 

tremo 

a criação 

engalinha-se 

sou filho de 

todas 

vi assim 

Queimar 

ditaram 

soltar a 

esgrima 

pesado 

refazer 

mãe 

as coisas merecem 

atenção 

As coisas merecem 

atenção 

eu sou todos menos 

esse mesmo 

um 

dos 

vou sentir 

memoria 

queimo 

no inferno 

impulso 

Sou peso 

palavras 

figura 

mecanica 

descender 

mais nada 

Gritos 

fogueira 

Acontece o 

medo 

tempo 

contemplar 

o segredo 

a dança em 

mim 

cantiga 

cinzas 

mascara 

o que me 

deste 

Amor 

este mundo 

inflamavél. 

Á imagem do que podias 

imaginar 

abro a porta 

Nada 

vou à volta 

pela chapa do 

sol 

o cheiro da cozinha 

antiga 

visual perdido 

a minha lingua 

desenrola-se as patas 

avanção 

assumo a forma 

perfeita 

acelerado vou ao 

encontro 

No menu do teu estomago, 

ácido 

fez-me num 

dia 

vomitei 

a minha cara 

consagração 

o que esperas ser 

espirito 

lagarto neste 

dia 

o tempo 

espera-nos 

liquido 

expilrro 

palavras 

ácido 

Terror 

termino 

desejo mál 

desejo 

mesmo 

as botas que tu 

exibias 

a tua cara 

mereces 

vergonha 

entre as narinas uma 

chama 

grito 

livros atrás de 

livros 

os anos que 

perdi 

atras de mim 

perdi-me 

esta vergonha 

solta 

despe em 

cúspo 

o teu 

aos olhos 

a minha avó na cozinha 

a prever 

o que tu 

partiste 

queimas-te 

matas-te 

e mesmo assim 

continua-va a 

cozinhar 

a preparar 

sessão 

ritual 

seja 

salvou 

louros 

do mercado 

morre César 

descoberto 

riso louco 

Ela cozinhou 

nós todos 

comemos 

não te 

lembras? 

Vinha 

misturado 

Arroz 

tomate 

coloquial 

soletras 

o bom nosso de cada 

dia 

Lagarto 

visto 

ataco 

água 

ausencia 

complicadas 

febres 

assaltavam 

tudo 

de cima a 

baixo 

estrada 

chega 

Nosferatos 

cortejo 

pequenas 

cordas 

o amor deixa as 

marionetes 

escamas 

resuscito 

monto em cavalos e 

cascos 

apodrece 

virulentos 

uma côr 

(forma) 

apoderasse 

choro 

quimico 

arde 

Agora que te 

sabes 

sabes igual 

O que te deram 

hoje 

todas as 

refeições 

Raspar 

esperar 

faz-se em ti 

confunde 

buraco 

prontidão 

Retaguarda 

tempo 

só sobras 

a morte 

nada 

espera 

perto de voar 

desenrola 

a bacia 

oca 

afunda 

nada me 

deves 

avesso 

se saíres por onde 

entras-te 

nunca tivesses 

saído. 

escrever 

incesto 

Na maçã as 

árvores 

ponto 

som 

rrrrrasgão 

morreste 

ponto 

poema de rua 

silencio 

ponto 

fiquei 

escutar 

mostra 

poema 

ponto 

incredulo 

morrer 

mostras-te 

quantas vidas 

tiveste 

ponto 

quantas vidas 

tive 

pensei 

quantas vou 

ter 

até me olhares nos 

olhos 

agora que me 

viste 

ponto 

que fazer 

assisto 

o que se sabe 

é isto que se 

lê 

nada se forma 

em nada 

Partimos 

juntos 

sem dar as 

mãos 

sentimos o 

cruzar 

interno 

eterno 

um x que se 

faz 

promete a tua 

barriga 

promete 

partida 

naquilo 

sou 

sei 

saio 

entro 

sempre gostei 

entro mais 

sou e sei 

mais aquilo 

mais forte 

sempre 

gostei 

engorda 

Mistério 

Levanta voo. 

5

JASON 

CORFF 

ALGORITHM 

A stochastic process, a 

system of rules that can 

be used as a predictive 

technology. One system 

that allows its user to 

know an outcome or at 

least have a semblance 

of an outcome before a 

process is undertaken. 

CODE 

Mask for information 

to hide importance, 

intention and meaning. 

A code is its own language, 

a way something 

understood by one is 

communicated to others. 

A code’s reader could 

decipher meaning different 

from what its maker 

intended. In this case, 

a message could be 

skewed or reinterpreted. 

It could be broadened; it 

could be narrowed. 

6

Excerpt from a transcribed conversation with self while moving. 

09.09.19 11:05 N 52˚ 33’ 11.693” E 13˚ 22’ 36.891” 

Here. Arrival. Here. Here is a closed system. Here is a location. Here is definitively 

different from there. Here can be defined by what it is not. Not far away. Not in 

the past. Not in the future. Here. Here can be shown with coordinates. Here. It 

can be shown with time. Here. Meaning more than coordinates. Meaning more 

than a moment. Because here indicates presence. Here could be shelter. Here 

could be food. Here might be what you find or what you need. Here includes you. 

Here indicates you have arrived. Here is no longer there. 

Arrival. Arrival is a point in space with meaning. Arrival is an 

intentional location. You are aware you have arrived when you can say, “I am here.” 

Here. Begin. Arrival is not just here. Arrival indicates now. You cannot arrive at a 

place unless you intend to be there. You cannot arrive unless you arrive early, late, 

or on time. You have arrived. Your destination becomes a point of arrival. Here. 

You have arrived when your presence, your awareness, enters a point in space. 

At that point and that moment, space becomes place. Place has meaning because 

you define it through your presence. That point in space is here. Arrival. Arrival 

is a stopping. Arrival is an end. Arrival always involves here. Always. 

Because here is a point in space, because here is a point with 

meaning, always here becomes place. Here is where intention leads. A point of 

arrival. So here is linked to time. Here is the endpoint of a journey. Here is defined 

space. Here is a closed system. And here is fleeting. Here cannot stay. When you 

step away from here, your understanding of here shifts. 

Here. There. Not here. 

The difference between here and there: between here and not 

here is not here always represents a loss. Not here is never present. Not here is 

unattainable. It’s unreachable, forever behind you, and forever in front. 

You can never say, “I am not here”, but if you know where it is 

that you are not, you will always know you are here, that you have arrived. Here 

is the present tense. Here is a moment in time, always now. 

A walking score sends you into the landscape. A walking score 

prejudges distance. A walking score determines your journey, your expedition, 

your there. But a walking score relies on you to recognize when you are here, 

when you have arrived. It is your endpoint that has meaning and your endpoint 

that you carry at all times. Your sense of here, your sense of now, your sense of a 

different closed system. 

Arrival. Here. Begin. 

DISTANCE 

We think of distance in 

terms of both space and 

time. To cross distance 

requires a journey, a 

measurement, to understand 

you have traveled 

from here to here. Distance 

is a gap that contains 

the entirety of this 

journey. Distance can be 

measured, but it cannot 

rightly be predicted 

because distance holds 

experience yet to be. 

7

Walking Score, No. 2 

LANDSCAPE 

A survey of the space 

before us. Landscape 

involves textures, 

relations, challenges. 

Landscape is a habited 

space. Landscape 

can be traversed. A 

landscape can be 

familiar or it can be 

alien, but a landscape is 

always known to Some. 

To others it may need 

to be found or experienced, 

but to Some it is 

always familiar. 

What you will need: 

1 deck of Tarot cards 

1 landscape to explore (e.g., city, plaza, park, orchard, living room, etc.) 

1 camera 

π= 3.14159265358979323846264… 

Steps: 

1. Shuffle the Tarot deck thoroughly. As you shuffle, ask yourself “What shall I 

focus on as I walk?”, or use a similar phrasing that resonates more strongly 

with you. 

2. When you have finished shuffling the cards, place them in front of you. 

3. Select the top card and turn it over. 

4. Focus on the details in the imagery of the card. Rely on either your preexisting 

knowledge of Tarot or a guide such as one included with the deck, contained 

in A Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray, on a website, etc. to familiarize 

yourself with the meaning of the card. 

5. Note the number of the card (e.g., 7 of Wands, card 9 [The Hermit], etc.). For 

non-numbered cards, use 11 for a Page, 12 for a Knight, 13 for a Queen, and 

14 for a King. This number will become the number of decimal places of π to 

use for the next section of this score. 

Example: Card 14 [Temperance]- an achievement of mental balance, 

adaptation, coordination, modification. Successful combinations. 

π is calculated to 14 decimal places at 3.14159265358979 

6. Each digit of π will determine how many units you will walk before making 

a turn. A turn can range from 0˚-360˚. This choice is yours, either as a firm 

decision to make prior to beginning your walk or in the midst of the structure. 

Turns will alternate right and left with each successive digit. 

7. Decide what will constitute one unit for the walk you are about to begin. One 

unit could be one city block, one paving stone, the duration of one song you 

listen to on headphones, etc. 

8. Begin the walk when you are ready. If the number of the card you selected 

was even, begin your walk by turning to the right. If the number was odd, 

this first turn is to the left. 

9. During the walk, give thought to the meaning of the card you selected. 

10. When you finish walking the units prescribed by your calculation of π, pause 

and observe your surroundings. Take a photograph of what you see. 

Note: 

On occasion, you might find you cannot walk the necessary number of units 

because of an obstruction or because the path in front of you ends. If this 

occurs, ricochet your trajectory off that endpoint and continue to count units 

until the next determined turn. 

8

SCALE 

A means to define this 

as that. Scale creates 

proportion to help a 

new learner grasp the 

iconography of a space 

or a place. Scale is 

necessary for navigation, 

indicating that you 

have come this far, this 

high. Scale insists what 

you see is not what is. 

Scale insists there is 

more, there is less. 

Photos © Effy Grey 

Π 

3.1415926535897932384 

62643383279502884197 

16939937510582097494 

4592307816406286208 

99862803482534211706 

79821480865132823066 

4709384460955058223 

172535940812848111745 

02841027019385211055 

5964462294895493038 

19644288109756659334 

46128475648233786783 

16527120190914564856 

6923460348610454326 

64821339360726024914 

12737245870066063155 

88174881520920962829 

25409171536436789259 

0360011330530548820 

4665213841469519415116 

09433057270365759591 

9530921861173819326117 

93105118548074462379 

96274956735188575272 

489122793818301194912 

9833673362440656643 

08602139494639522473 

71907021798609437027 

705392171762931767523 

84674818467669405132 

00056812714526356082 

778577134275778960917 

36371787214684409012 

24953430146549585371 

0507922796892589235

JORGE DE 

HOYOS 

10

Risk on potato bag #2 

by Alessandro Ubirajara 

11

RELATIONALITY 

Nothing exists in 

isolation to itself. Every 

thing has a relationship 

to other things and 

finds its constitution 

through these 

relationships. 

IMPROVISATION 

In terms of performance, 

the act of 

physically responding 

in real-time to internal 

and external impulses 

and shaping these 

responses so as to 

share with an audience. 

The public space where 

intuition gains a body. 

PRESENCE 

A state of existence 

where consciousness 

intersects with 

limitation. 

RECOGNITION 

the repeated process 

of incorporating an 

“other” into a self, and 

vice versa. This process 

implies an expansion of 

one’s understandings of 

themselves. 

Alessandro and I met at a Berlin sex club where we immediately entered into a 

committed boyfriend relationship from the moment we made each other orgasm 

until around 8am the next morning—one of the most erotic nights I’ve ever had. 

After this 11-hour, polyamorous partnership, we didn’t see each other until riding 

on the S-Bahn a year later. We didn’t become regular friends until even months 

after that. Now, having grown very close, Alessandro mentioned how a deep, 

inner-guidance insisted that he must get to know me that night. I remember our 

attraction…not just sexual but some-cosmic-thing else that leaves a distinct impression, 

the feeling of which is specifically easy for me to recall. It feels like the 

bitter taste of semen and carbonated beer being washed away and swallowed by 

a soothing, ravenous tongue. It feels like recognizing. 

As my visual arts collaborator, I asked him to contribute an image 

that reflects and gives insight into my ongoing research on presence: how can I be 

more deeply grounded in my body so as to improvise dance performance at my 

fullest capacities—to not overthink so as to allow my intuition to lead the dancing? 

The work demands releasing control of rational decision-making procedures so as 

to allow whatever is inside of me or wanting to come through me to gain physical 

expression into legible form. 

I was explaining, “In general, but also specifically for the final 

presentation, I want to be dancing so open and full of vitality so that my spirit can 

be free and I can embody and satisfy all the passions and desires. You know, like 

Billy Elliot who later becomes the beautiful Swan...” With a knowing look he said, 

“I have something that is you. I will send.” 

There is an inherent violence in expanding beyond borders, in 

entering territories defined in relationship to oneself as “other”. This process 

entails confrontation, a struggle for dominion. In the context of becoming more 

grounded as a dancer to perform at an expanded capacity, this struggle takes place 

in the realm of the self and is largely a matter of recognition. Recognition is here 

understood by the fact that borders demarcating a sense of oneself as separate 

from an “other” are always changing and that, through a continuous tug-of-war, 

processes of incorporation and growth occur as one side eventually cannibalizes 

the other. The “other” becomes the self, and vice versa. Recognition, therefore, is 

a repeated process of incorporation. It means to expand one’s definitions of what 

constitutes one’s self to include otherness. The violence inherent in this process 

emerges from the precondition of ongoing struggle, and the violence intensifies 

and gains sharp teeth when this process is resisted. 

I initially resisted Alessandro’s painting—a screaming figure masturbating 

as a demonic shadow looks on. I feared to recognize it as the accurate 

and insightful reflection of my research that I now consider it to be. Upon first 

encounter, my stomach clenched as if trying to stabilize an internal breach, as if 

clenching could prevent something personal and valued from cracking. Yes, the 

12

image could relate to the human-to-swan transformation story with which I was 

initially identifying, but it was the nightmarish, “other” black swan version that had 

manifested like an intruder. I felt momentarily seized in suspension between my 

resistance and an impending sense of destabilization. The violence in this uncanny 

confrontation felt like the instinct to defend myself or seek refuge. Have I been 

understanding myself and my research in an entirely wrong way, foolish and even 

immoral? Have I naively opened myself up too much, leaving me susceptible to 

a demonic takeover or an eternal hell of serving relentlessly throbbing passions? 

At stake was a sense of personal power…am I now lost? 

Of all the fears I experience while dance improvising in front 

of others, getting lost is the strongest and the most recurring. It happens when 

I worry: Am I really present? Will I look ridiculous if I follow that feeling? Am I 

being interesting enough? Such thoughts create a mind-body split, and in this gap 

between intuitive impulse and physical action, time goes missing. I become confused 

and fearful and lose orientation leaving me vulnerable to the rampage of internal 

voices. What results is that my spirit, for fear of demise, seems to evacuate my 

body while my physical remains proceed to operate along habitually programmed 

movement pathways, like a machine on autopilot—unresponsive. Dancing like this 

feels from the inside like a waking rigor mortis. A body somehow survives but at 

the cost of the quality of life. 

Grounding my energy has become my main area of inquiry and 

practice to keep re-finding myself in my body and, in the process, to revitalize 

it. Breathing deeply, for example, is one of the everyday tools I use to dissolve 

stiffness—stiffness as in freezing into pre-defined patterns, as in becoming slave 

to the tyrannical penis-passions depicted in the painting, as in not moving freely. 

Breathing, a main way of grounding, helps me dissolve internalized obstructions 

so as to cultivate my intuition. 

Confronting Alessandro’s painting, I breathe deeply to dissolve 

my resistance to recognizing how something so true and revealing about me--my 

desires, dreams and questions--stands naked, reflected and immaculately transparent 

to my perception. 

As the spiritual teacher Caroline Myss explains: “Every time you 

learn something that is more accurate, more authentic, or true than what you 

were just believing, you crack open a little bit. In that moment of cracking open, 

you become very vulnerable because you know that the world you were just living 

in is gone. It evaporates in front of your eye. Just like that” (Myss 2019). 

Billy Elliot. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 2001. 

Myss, Caroline. (2019). Understanding Your Own Power – Enchantment 2018. [YouTube Lecture] 

Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeY_SmJafSQ&t=203s [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019] 

Ubirajara, Alessandro. Risk on potato bag #2. 2015, Berlin. 

SELF 

a conglomerate of different 

entities constantly 

vying for dominion over 

a physical body. A constant 

process of seeking 

harmony between the 

voices in the mind. 

13

ANA LESSING 

MENJIBAR 

Having a background in flamenco dance, 

design and visual arts, in my studies at 

SODA I started to investigate the limits of 

the genre of flamenco, exploring its transformative 

potential within contemporary 

performance practice; looking specifically 

at its dramaturgical structure; interrelated 

rhythms; emotional and energetic 

states and movement qualities. 

Experimenting with a cultural legacy 

archived within my body. 

True to Joseph Beuys’ motto “Show your 

wound,” flamenco for me is an artform 

based on a collective agreement to listen 

to a single body’s wound. You merge with 

the other, you become the other. “Sensing 

is sharing” (Arno Böhler 2019). This collective 

agreement about sharing and sensing 

transforms pain into energy, empowerment 

and even joy. The performance 

as a collective emotional and energetic 

journey, or perhaps even a ritual? 

Between the ecstatic and formal 

investigation I open this archive to 

reveal a series of states, creatures and 

concepts of spaces. This collective 

journey includes: a digital and 

energetic feedback loop, a vulnerable 

dialogue of inner and outer bodily 

sounds and rhythms in a hybrid space 

somewhere between installation and 

the black box theatre. 

PLASTICITY 

is polyhedral, - morph, 

- metric. A process of 

shaping, sculpting and 

deformation. 

Different styles exist in flamenco, and 

each has a specific topic and structure. 

Some are dedicated to joy, playfulness or 

sorrow. These styles are built on a shared 

knowledge of structure, fragments, rules 

and signs that form a language of communication 

for improvisation. This collective 

knowledge has been transmitted 

over generations from one body to another. 

I am interested in analysing one 

such structure and its fragments. With 

their interrelated meanings, functions, 

rhythms and physicalities, I can create my 

own interpretation of the form. 

A methodology to isolate a vocabulary. 

The first step of my research was to analyse 

a flamenco structure by asking: How 

is it composed? Why is it constructed like 

Transition from something personal to 

something collective. 

Methods & Strategies. 

Body, space and sound. 

Poly 

hedral. 

morph. 

Decomposition 

metric. 

goes beyond the limits of the 

flamenco genre. 

Plasticity. 

Observation. 

Translation. 

14

Exploration. 

Transformation. 

Formal investigation. 

Embodied knowledge. 

Order and disorder. 

this? What does it provoke in the body? 

I conducted this research from the perspective 

of a moving body, as I wanted a 

better understanding of the choreographic 

decision-making processes behind it. 

This investigation made me aware of the 

strategies and methods of composition and 

made me recognize and articulate procedures 

and processes that have so far run 

rather unconsciously through my body. I 

divided the traditional structure into acts 

or fragments and formulated my own titles 

and interpretations derived from their primary 

functions within the whole. 

ORDER 

is the fraternal, 

conjoined, disowned, 

orphaned twin of chaos. 

There exists no order 

without chaos. 

To open a collective field. 

Being in the moment. 

The vulnerable body. 

Empowered body, calling for change. 

Body as a source and holder of sound 

and rhythm. 

Technical transfer of the involved 

body. 

Inner meets outer world. 

Share your wound. 

Meta text. 

Receiving, reading and processing. 

Sonic, energetic and emotional circuit 

as an impulse generator. 

Bringing into being. 

Friction. 

Storytelling. Juxtaposition. 

Tech-body. 

Introduccion 

Opening a door, to step in is about a 

body that tunes into a space and an emotional 

state. Coming together. The act of 

merging, of immersion. 

Llamada 

The call serves to draw attention, to raise 

the pace and intensity with the intention 

to provoke a change, in order to conclude 

and begin a new part of the choreography. 

All the tension and energy the body 

has absorbed erupts and spreads into the 

space, saying, “Here I am!” 

Letra 

Fight and Poesis. The body as a polymorphic 

space & the space as a polymorphic 

field. This fragment is an emotional 

and poetic part where the body tunes 

into a collective agreement to channel, 

discharge and transform energy and express 

emotions in the form of a dialogue. 

An emotional, energetic and rhythmic 

feedback loop. The body has the responsibility 

to listen, to hold, to stimulate the 

Digital manipulation and multiplier of field and to react to provocation through 

energetic outbursts. 

STATE 

is a condition in a 

specific time and place. 

State is a condition 

without awareness of 

any specific time and 

place. 

15

Remate 

Provocation. A stimulation where the 

body pushes the energy level up to produce 

a climax. Leadership that guides the 

group toward an explosive moment. It is 

the body’s decision as to which curve of 

energetic development is produced. The 

body is in full control and simultaneously 

in an explosive state. The others follow 

the body. This increase ends in a collective 

final point. A closure. A discharge 

followed by silence. 

digitally reproduced and 

organic sounds. 

Insistent and uncanny. 

Intimacy and show. 

Tenderness and brutality. 

Noise. Deep bass tones. 

Interruption and Eruption. 

SILENCE 

I know when it starts 

but I don’t know when 

it ends. An interregnum. 

A past event disappears 

with a new one not yet 

in sight. It is the space 

between events in relation 

to time. A space for 

decision-making. 

Un silencio. Pero no el silencio. 

Silence. A collective silence is a moment 

like a crossroad, and you don‘t know 

where you are going or who is going next. 

This moment is full of tension and suspense. 

It gives space for a decision-making 

process. 

Falseta 

Reconnection. A space for a softer, more 

permeable body, moving without resistance 

or fight. Here, the body can give 

attention to detail and subtlety. It is a 

sensitive and fragile body. 

Gap. 

Interregnum. 

Vibration and feedback. 

Dreamlike state. 

Juxtaposition. Distortion. 

The unknown. 

Escobilla 

Ecstasy. Increase. Deceleration. Interruption. 

It is an ecstatic part, where the 

body is in full control of the situation and 

plays with its own power. It is primarily 

a rhythmical part, involving a power play 

between devotion and restraint. Energy 

is released and gained through suspension, 

outburst and physical force. 

Salida 

Resolution. A collective closure. This 

part often celebrates life in a joyful, sometimes 

even grotesque way. It can also be 

a return to a state of calm connection, 

and togetherness after having shared a 

collective journey. 

Materials as collaborators. 

Metall. Foam. Cloth. 

Moving image. 

Trigger. 

Dionysian creature. 

Repetition. Duration. 

Physical power. Exhaustion. 

Grotesque. Dynamic. Rhythmic clashes. 

Feeding and receiving. 

Polymetric rhythm. 

16

Body is rhythmically tuned. Rhythm is the main element from which 

Heartbeat. everything is built. Emotional and energetic 

Craniosacral. 

states emerge from an autopoietic 

Trust your tides. feedback loop through rhythm, movement, 

music or voice. 

Breath in. Silence. Breath out. 

Language. Loop. 

Power relationships between body, 

voice and instrument shift within different 

parts of the structure and create 

different spaces for decision-making. 

Collaboration. 

Visual, sonoric, emotional, rational 

exploration 

The in-between space of movement and 

tonality, the silence, the stillness, are the 

predominant factors that grant tension 

and organize the structure. 

Score & Improvisation. 

Dichotomy. 

of the body 

with the body 

by the body. 

Flamenco is based on a dialectic of the 

Apollonian and Dionysian principle: a 

principle of beauty, joy and fragility on 

one side and that of catharsis, rawness, 

pain and ugliness on the other. These are 

juxtapositioned in rhythm, physicalities 

and the structure itself. Always looking 

Intimacy and exposure. 

Dramatic and formalistic. 

for the unexpected. Different states of 

tension and release, energy build-up, interruption 

and eruption that create and 

increase energetic states. 

A hybrid between installation and 

black box. 

Translation into space. 

Relation to space. 

Spatial transfer. 

How can I translate the original dramaturgical 

structure or its fragments - 

the roles that body, sound and rhythm 

play in it - into my own world? What 

happens if I change and deconstruct 

these fragments? How can I use these 

strategies and methods in other fields of 

A Ritual. performance art? 

JUXTAPOSITION 

Position means the fact 

of being able to define 

and position something, 

to bring it into relational 

order. Order stands in 

contrast to ambivalence, 

ambiguity or something 

indefinable. The relation 

is the field of tension. 

‘Everything in the world has its own 

spirit which can be released by setting 

it into vibration.’ 

Oscar Fishinger 

17

KUBA 

BORKOWICZ 

18

19

COLLABORATION 

a process where two 

or more people work 

together to achieve a 

shared goal. 

DIARY 

an object containing inscriptions 

of memories. 

There was a ritual in my primary school involving diaries that children gave to 

each other, where they could do whatever they wanted on one of the pages. It 

was a space to consciously focus on the other person and your relationship with 

them, and you had to find a way to express that in the form of text, drawing, or 

manipulation of the surface of the paper. This creative outburst was also framed 

as a collection of similar entries from other people, and it automatically became 

a collective gift as everyone ended up with a book filled with pages inscribed with 

the memories of all their classmates. 

My first tattoo is an intimate duet ritual that I began developing 

in 2016 in my gallery, Oficyna. It emerged out of the feeling of strange loneliness 

caused by spending short periods of time with a lot of different people. I was 

looking for new ways of relating to the people who were close to me. Tattooing 

is by its nature a collaborative and creative process. I started inviting my friends 

and people who inspire me to consider the surface of my skin as a canvas for their 

creative input. In exchange, I teach them how to make a tattoo. The process usually 

enables me to create a space for an intimate conversation. With almost one hundred 

people I talked about this ritual through the lens of empathy, trust, fear, faith, 

spirituality, creativity, culture, language, permanence, death, prayer, meditation, 

improvisation, body, touch, dance, poetry, art, drawing, memory, friendship, diary, 

collection, archive, symbol, semiotics, representation, reincarnation, pain, torture, 

penetration, masochism, sin, dreams, magic, borders, and many others. 

The drawings inscribe traces of moments in time and space where 

the meetings took place. They often reflect something about the person who made 

it, their image of me, or an idea that resonated between us. Most of the people try 

to make their first tattoo meaningful. When I look at my tattoos they recall the 

specific memories and stories behind them. 

If a person that I invite has already done some tattoos in the past, 

we try to figure out a way to make the action a new experience for both of us. In 

this way I have received tattoos made with a foot, a left hand, blindfolded, using 

a drone and a spear. 

Drawing is an interesting exercise because it teaches you something 

about the thing you draw. You have to look at your subject in a different way. You 

can draw what you see if you are observing light, shapes, and colors. You can draw 

from your emotions if you focus on how you feel and try to put it on paper. You 

can draw from your memories - your home, your grandma, your favorite cartoon. 

You can draw from your imagination if you close your eyes, silence your mind 

and let the images appear. 

From some of the participants in My First Tattoo I have collected 

choreography, dance moves and positions that I’m trying to embody which are now the 

material for my movement research. In an attempt to stage this ritual as a Solo/Dance/ 

Authorship graduation performance I will try to perform this eclectic dance. 

20

List of collaborators: 

Adrian Kolarczyk 

Adrianna Orłowska 

Akemi Nagao 

Aleksander Błażkiewicz 

Aleksandra Kołodziej 

Amin Lahrichi 

Ana Lessing Menjibar 

Anastazja Pataridze 

Andrew Champlin 

Andrzej Pakuła 

Anni Taskua 

Bartosz Zaskórski 

Bernardo Chatillon 

Borys Wrzeszcz 

Christoph Thun 

Claire Scarlet 

Claudia Grande 

Claudius Hausl 

Dawid Misiorny 

Diego Agullo 

Egon Fietke 

Eloy Arribas 

Evgenia Chetvertkova 

Ewelina Cichocka 

Floris de Groot 

Frédéric Gies 

Freya Edmondes 

Garazi Peio 

George Upton 

Gosia Bartosik 

Iman Deeper 

Irmina Rusicka 

Izabella Gustowska 

Jakub Bolewski 

Jakub Gliński 

Jakub Jasiukiewicz 

Jan Piechota 

Jason Corff 

Jean Steeg 

Jędrzej Suchy 

Jianan Qu 

Joanna Filipiak 

John Klein 

Judith Förster 

Karol Komorowski 

Katarzyna Borelowska 

Kelly Dochy 

Kike Garcia 

Kiril Kogan 

Lidia Gąszewska 

Lucas Jezak 

Łukasz Richter 

Maciej Klim 

Maciej Rudzin 

Maciej Thiem 

Marek Rachwalik 

Mariana Vieira 

Mario Gomez 

Marko Markvic 

Mateusz Urban 

Michał Knychaus 

Michiyasu Furutani 

Mikołaj Szymkowiak 

Ni’Ja Whitson 

Nicola van Straaten 

Noriaki, 

Oteth Slayer 

Partyk Wejnert 

Paulina Bill Jaksim 

Paweł Mikołajczyk 

Piotr Kurka 

Raman Tratsiuk 

Rhyannon Styles 

Robert Łuksza 

Sara Abed 

Sonia Dubois, 

Stachu Szumski 

Thomas Scheele 

Ula Lucińska 

Ula Szkudlarek 

Wojtek Didkowski 

Żaneta Masiak 

Zuza Koszuta 

GAME 

a form of structuring an 

activity by specifying 

the rules, roles, available 

objects, and space. 

HOSTING 

organizing a platform 

with the possibility of 

inviting others. 

TRUST 

readiness to rely on 

other people. 

21

MINNA 

PARTANEN 

Self 

consciousness 

dialogue 

fiction 

optimization 

perception 

performance 

promotion 

reflection 

CODE 

an enclosed system 

that has its own logic 

and follows a set of 

rules, impossible to 

access from outside 

without understanding 

the parameters, 

can also be used as a 

strategy to generate 

material or as a tool for 

decision-making. 

FICTIONAL- 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

autobiographical 

material that is treated 

through a process 

of distancing (e.g. 

using an algorithm), 

or claiming found 

text as a biographical 

material, can also apply 

to self-dialogue with an 

alter ego. 

During SODA I have moved through identity politics, crashed into questions of 

agency, thought of self as material for performance by reflecting on psychological 

theories and finally arrived to consider different articulations of self in the body. 

Simultaneously, I find myself moving about in the world in the age of surveillance 

capitalism and heightened self performance with an uncanny feeling of what it 

means to be a human. How do different technologies infiltrate my body? What 

kind of knowledge am I able to produce within this discourse by looking for information 

in the body? 

We long to both cling to and escape our bodies, we want to use technologies while 

we rail against its misuse, but bodies must be the starting point for any discussion 

of technology. They shape-shift and dance into other forms with technologies, but 

remain our refer to the world. For now. (Parker-Starbuck 2014: 93) 

I grew interested in articulations, echoes of characters or alter 

egos, inscribed in my body. I wanted to know how I could access them on stage. 

My body contains potential for numerous second selves that can be invoked and 

activated through different means and technologies. How do these articulations 

(mediated, synthetic, theatrical, fictional) of the self or the body form, fall apart 

and merge with each other? How can moving between them create an experience 

or notion of authenticity or artificiality? 

I wanted to gain insight into the mechanics of authenticity and 

artificiality in relation to representations of the self. For me, the question of second 

selves does not stop on stage. As new technologies provide spaces to fabricate new 

formulations of self, what then is considered artificial and what is authentic? I 

wanted to approach this question with a hypothesis: What if something artificial 

could produce authenticity and vice versa? 

I first started working with generating text through an algorithm 

using old personal written conversations as a source material in order to create 

fictional autobiographical material. Something that sounded and looked familiar 

22

Cut yourself an analog filter today! 

23

SCALE 

temperatures of 

recognition relating to 

sense-making and nonsense, 

presence and 

absence, authenticity 

and artificiality, familiar 

and alien, a performative 

rendition loosely 

referring to the concept 

of uncanny valley. 

STATE 

qualities and modes 

of presence in the 

body evoking different 

articulations of the self 

by using performative 

technologies, connects 

to questions and experiences 

of autonomy 

and agency, whose 

body is it? 

24

ut that was not, exactly. By receiving this data, I saw patterns, a network or a 

library of my subconscious, just differently organized. The multitude of versions 

had different temperatures depending on how well they managed to mimic the 

original source. This brought me to questions of sense-making, as in, where and 

when does sense-making happen? How do we move from nonsense to something 

that we recognize? 

“Recognition” seems to me to be a much deeper element of theatrical performance 

than that [the structural turning point of drama]: even in the most non-narrative, 

post-dramatic performance, the communication between audience and performer 

relies on the mutual recognition of readable human action. (Dorsen, n.d.) 

Secondly, how does sense-making manifest in the modes or quality 

of presence in the body? I wanted to bring a living body to the equation. I have built 

internal strategies that keep me busy and connect me with my body. Blinking was 

one way to hijack an involuntary action. Blinking synchronizes with the breath 

and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. However, the question for me 

is: What kind of presence does it produce on stage? How can a seemingly easy 

task fade out the persona and make space for the body itself? Are there different 

temperatures for presence? 

Quite early in the process, I noticed the materials were neither 

obstacles to authenticity on stage nor revelators of it. All of the materials had a 

potential to move anywhere on the scale between familiar and alien. I have started 

to work with a dramaturgical principle to move on this scale: In and out of qualities 

that might produce notions and experiences of authenticity or artificiality. Whether 

it is in the level of the material itself or in the delivery of it, I am interested in the 

ambiguous in-between, liminal space of those experiences where we do not yet 

quite recognize where we are being taken. 

Maybe we could question whether the juxtaposition between 

authenticity and artificiality is even useful. Maybe it is not a catastrophe if we 

discover machine-like qualities and even the pure fiction about ourselves and 

accept that we are all somewhat an artificial mix. What if it has something to do 

with freedom that we become more aware of our own algorithms, our behavioral 

patterns? Or if we know what systems are at play in ourselves? To become aware 

of our situatedness and overcome it? 

In search of the authentic self, I would like to quote Arno Böhler 

who quoted Judith Butler and Jacques Derrida by saying that “self is a quotation” 

(Böhler, 2019). I am becoming me through the encounters I have. This also includes 

the thought that the other, instead of being outside of the self, is incorporated in 

the self. In itself, it is a process of unfolding and in-folding. 

The more dreadfully disquieting thing is not the other or an alien; it is, rather, 

yourself in oldest familiarity with the other, for example, it could be the Double 

in which you recognize yourself outside of yourself. (Ronell, 1989: 69) 

RELATIONALITY 

moving between two 

ends of a dichotomy in 

order to create ambiguity, 

focusing on the 

in-between space as 

a potentiality, working 

with blending qualities 

together in order to 

research their relation. 

Bibliography: 

Etcetera, (n.d.). Algorithm, 

composition and 

metaphor (interview with 

Annie Dorsen). Retrieved 

September 13, 2019 

from https://e-tcetera. 

be/algorithm-composition-and-metaphor/ 

Parker-Starbuck, 

Jennifer (2014). Cyborg 

Theatre - Corporeal/ 

Technological Intersections 

in Multimedia Performance, 

UK: Palgrave 

Macmillan. 

Ronell, Avital (1989). The 

Telephone Book: Technology, 

Schizophrenia, 

Electric Speech. Lincoln: 

University of Nebraska 

Press. 

Illustrations © Cedric Flazinski 

25

RHYANNON 

STYLES 

26

I 

listen, 

give permission. 

Embrace silence 

absorb 

wave 

undulate, create states. 

Drop in, fall out, shake it all about. 

Hum 

rattle 

fold. 

Sounds like 

I’m out of tune, or is that time? Please don’t turn it up, it Hz this frequency of 

mine. 

I’m 

hanging on a single string, a wire, a thread, 

I’m improvising again, 

it fills me with 

dread. 

Dive towards what you don’t know, 

ride the acoustic swell. 

A 

composition emerges that is neither here or there, a fragment of an experience 

that we all just shared. I’m looping the loop - number 49, trying to remember 

my last line. 

I 

arrive by listening to my internal drive. 

A beat 

A breath 

A pirouette. 

Linger with one finger pressed against a rosewood neck. 

Traverse spatial boundaries, 

move up a fret. 

Sound is my stage, 

my intention is set. 

I’m sure I will lose it. I can’t find the step. 

Relax 

don’t fight it, 

penetrate the cracks. 

Scratch below the surface, 

feed the feedback. 

27

SILENCE 

The presence of silence 

within a performance is 

a recurring entry point, 

moving the physical 

body towards its next 

expression. 

STATES 

A multi-dimensional 

experience which is an 

immersive, transitional 

phenomenon, 

locating performer and 

spectator beyond the 

parameters of spatial 

boundaries. 

IMPROVISATION 

(IMPROV) 

A medium of performance 

that is dependent 

on accessing an 

internal landscape to 

find ways of achieving 

readiness, where both 

body and mind work 

collaboratively to instigate 

the next moves. 

ETHERIC ENERGY 

is invisible to the naked 

eye. It surrounds all 

living beings and feeds 

energy into the soul 

from which all human 

beings unconsciously 

benefit. 

28

fr 

model of guitar that was produced in Japan in the late 1960s. Its distinctive features include a narrow neck, short scale and light body, making it ideal for the beginner’s market. In the UK it retailed for £40 and was considered a cheap alternative to other guitar manufactures like Fender and Gibson. I bought mine 

aThe Satellite 65/T is 

ficult to create a quality sound without running it through several effects (FX) pedals. But, based solely on its pristine condition and vintage appeal, I was willing to take the risk. I fi ind it interesting then, that in 2019, with risk being a key element in my practice, that the Satellite 65/T is at the centre of my research, as a companion and a collaborator. 

om the Cash Converters in Hackney, East London in 2014. I can’t remember exactly how much I paid for it, but I do remember haggling. I suspect it was under £50. If truth be told, at the time this was an unnecessary purchase, especially since a quick internet search informed me that these guitars were unreliable live, and that it was di 

Photos © Evgenia Chetvertkova 

29

A 

CONVER- 

SATION. 

Berlin, September 2019 

Kuba Borkowicz, 

Bernardo Chatillon, 

Jason Corff, 

Jorge De Hoyos, 

Ana Lessing Menjibar, 

Minna Partanen 

and Rhyannon Styles 

with Sandra Noeth 

Sandra Noeth (SN) We are sitting together, preparing this publication, 

and actually writing, framing and researching have been a continuous 

element throughout the studies. I am curious to know where they sit within your 

artistic practices? 

Ana Lessing Menjibar (ALM) When starting to think about the 

publication, I came to realize the different states involved in writing: it is a kind of 

transcription of what is happening in the body into words, that then again influences 

what happens performatively later. Somehow this publication is a performance 

from the past, the presence and the future. I really like how writing actually became 

a part of a process of awareness, a dialogue between thought and body. 

Bernardo Chatillon (BC) When reflecting on this, there is a difference 

between tools that we use for certain things, like a screwdriver or a hammer. 

Tools that execute a precise and practical function, and tools in the context of 

artistic work that have a completely different meaning. For example, my question 

is, how can I be writing with the same bodily presence that I am applying when 

I am researching in the studio or when I am improvising? How can I capture the 

velocity of my associations? One way is to think and speak at the same time, and 

like now, using my arms, making gestures. I think this brings thoughts to the fore 

that are maybe hidden, it’s a somatic way of producing writing. 

Rhyannon Styles (RS) This makes me think about the tools I use. I 

didn’t have a physical practice for a very long time, and recently this shifted due to 

the frame of SODA. It’s an interesting exercise to write about a specific idea, several 

times on different occasions. I have noticed that the state that I am in, in terms of 

how I feel or what I just experienced, and also my position in space, and the kind 

of tools that I am using for writing also influence the text. You can see what is going 

on between these instances when you address the same idea in variations. 

Jason Corff (JC) I think writing is almost a centring way to put my 

ideas into a different mode. When ideas are generated through movement, this 

prompts me to identify in a specific way what it is that I am doing. However, the 

writing can exist in its own space, and I can see where connections continue, even 

if I didn’t sense them in the beginning, so the writing is a kind of evidence. 

30

Minna Partanen (MP) In general, we talk a lot about reframing in 

the program, and writing is a very powerful tool for this. I think about how many 

times I wrote about the same thing over these two years, it’s quite a few... When I 

read my past texts, I am actually saying the same but there are these nuances that 

are all the time becoming more and more detailed and I am understanding why 

am I choosing this word over that word. I like that I become more specific and 

more careful every time I try. I guess that’s how all of the artistic research should 

be, but with the words, the result stays. 

SN Writing seems to be many things: a way of looking back but also 

opening up in a very physical, almost performative sense. 

MP But also, I found it a relief that it is a part of the knowledge production, 

that I can call part of my artistic research. To realise that the writing is an 

extension of my body - I feel like it gives liberty. I can treat things by different methods. 

ALM When you, Sandra, introduced writing as a physical act, it 

changed my relation to writing a lot. This idea to open my senses in the moment 

much more and somehow stop to produce this continuous censoring. To make 

writing itself more like a sensory experience. But writing is also a practice. If 

you go to the studio and you move, you are not going to use all the movement in 

your performance, but you create a vocabulary. So, writing is a physical exercise 

and you are not going to use every single word, but in the moment, you generate 

material, it becomes dense, exact. 

JDH Maybe what’s been nicest when there’s been deadlines of 

either the essays or text for publicity, because then all the writing or all the thinking 

has to somehow get formed into a digestible format. I appreciate that there’s a 

specific form, a specific way to give a quick hello to people out in the world. 

RS There’s so much also about finding your voice. I suppose, because 

I’ve got previous experience being a writer, I know what my voice is when 

I’m writing a magazine article for example. The time at SODA has also been about 

finding a different voice to articulate my practice. That’s a very new thing to be able 

to reflect, analyse and talk about. It’s like a muscle you have to keep training. 

Kuba Borkowicz (KB) You’re creating a body. 

SN You are all bringing different disciplines and backgrounds into 

the program: sound, visual arts, curating, dancing, choreography but also meditation, 

tattooing, healing, flamenco, geography, maths... I could go on. What are the specific 

challenges that this might create in your own work? 

Jorge De Hoyos (JDH) I studied cultural anthropology and I was 

always very interested in referencing: where did a thought or an influence come 

from, who said what? And this is an endless work of contextualising. At the same 

time, being a freelance performer, dancer and choreographer, there are so many 

31

A 

CONVER- 

SATION. 

influences that make up the hybrid of my practice. It’s really an art of framing, 

of what I highlight: my meditation practice? My yoga practice? It’s a challenge to 

be specific. 

MP I immediately start to see it more through collaboration, that’s 

where clashes most easily show. If I think about working processes, maybe you 

are collaborating with someone who works with other materials that simply take 

time to develop. Whereas when I look for information and make decisions in 

my body, they can react to changes quite rapidly. Or if it comes to programming 

digital interfaces, a lot of hours of work can go into something and you might 

need to know in advance certain parameters and not only become aware of them 

during the process. I think that’s where the transdisciplinary work sometimes 

gets complicated. 

JC In addition to that, it’s also this idea of distancing that comes 

in if you have different disciplines that influence the work. For instance, some of 

the things I focus on seem very unrelated to each other. For example, if you’re 

looking at the intersection of cartography and choreography and at the same 

time thinking about predictive technologies like calculus and four-dimensional 

geometry, the challenge that I continue to navigate through is looking at multiple 

approaches to space, to place or time, even if they aren’t initially related to each 

other. It’s about finding the distance between them so that suddenly something 

comes into clarity. Then of course the challenge is, is it just clear to me, or how 

to find that proper amount of exposure to also make it clear for someone looking 

from a different perspective. How do you articulate that distancing that becomes 

more pronounced in collaboration, to somebody who is working in a different 

discipline altogether? 

ALM This brings a tension. Having had a background for a long 

time in flamenco, there is a negotiation between an embodied, kind of unconscious 

knowledge, and the wish to decompose this embodied knowledge, to understand 

what it is, to become aware of the body and the movement and of my artistic 

language. This tension is beautiful and at the same time it can feel like a conflict 

for myself. 

SN Is this tension also about the claims that come with different 

practices, claims related to a specific knowledge? 

KB Yes, definitely. This experience of clashing my practice in the 

context of academic research was concentrated on the question of how to make 

my practice accessible for other people and actually interesting to watch or to 

even engage with it. Working with meditation or tattooing as a performance made 

me look at these activities from many different perspectives. To decompose and 

find the specific things that makes this interesting for me and to somehow try to 

share them. 

32

RS It’s about making the personal public. Because not all of us 

makers and artists choose to use our personal identity or personal interest in our 

work. But for me, that’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. Take my guitar 

practice for example, it has never really had a platform in the public before, so 

it’s really interesting for me to explore that, to be able to see its potential as a kind 

of artistic future for myself. 

MP In the beginning of the course, I was really busy with the question 

of what does the facilitator-me and the artist-me have to do with each other. 

I feel as soon as I let go of these definitions, the embodied knowledge inscribed in 

me gets to come out. As long as I don’t problematize it too much in my head, they 

actually work quite well together. 

SN In the SODA program, there is this insistence on your own artistic 

practices but there is also a collective, collaborative environment. I am interested in 

how you perceive this relation. 

JDH My research is dance improvisation where I’m trying to allow 

myself to move with the feeling or the intuition first, rather than having prethoughts 

or a decision made already. I’m trying to put the analyser brain way in 

the back. This is very much sort of me dancing and my collaborators are there 

to support me. It’s also very collective though, because I’m trying to get my ego 

mind out of the way, to allow the expression to just come through and consenting 

to serve myself but also everybody else, so it’s an interesting shared space. 

BC This relates to the ideas of solo, dance and authorship; ideas 

that are all the time shifting. The one that strikes me most in the title of the program 

is ‘authorship.’ However, it changes completely with the word ‘dance’ that comes 

in between ‘solo’ and ‘authorship’. This movement in between these two words is 

opening and shaping things in an invisible way: it makes it impossible to think of 

dance as something individual. 

ALM Solo, for me, is also something which doesn’t necessarily 

exist. What I’m most interested in, is the communication, my movement and what 

I want to share, shaping, moulding the space between the audience and me. 

KB From my experience I would like to challenge the idea of solo, 

because during the process of going through the program, there is a lot of attention 

put on being open and sharing and trying out and having feedback. Indeed, it is a 

very collaborative process of refining your stuff, going back to it, but also bouncing 

it off different people and our group internally. 

RS And even last semester you were collaborating with plants… 

KB Yes, that was an experiment of reaching out to non-human 

beings. My question was if these are actually collaborators as well, if solo can be 

translated to plants, to materials, to objects, to space. 

RS I had that exact experience in the studio the other day with my 

33

A 

CONVER- 

SATION. 

mentor and my new sound collaborator, who has made a sound board for me. It’s a 

whole new piece of technology to get my head around, but at the same time that piece 

of technology is my new collaborator. It has its own methodology that I can’t control. 

JC Also, from experiencing the program, there is this underlying 

idea of a body in space, but that body is never alone. And I think that’s been a 

valuable lesson along the way that there are many things that start to influence 

what a body can do: whether it be collaborators, mentors, opinions that we refine 

or find reflected in things that we read, or just casual conversations. 

SN You also decided to collaborate outside of the program as the 

Mineralwasser collective that you founded. Could you talk more about it? 

RS The first thing we did as Mineralwasser was the sangria bar 

that we set up during the presentations of the 2nd year students, right? 

JDH I think there has been an interest and a willingness from all 

of us to somehow work together, to not be in isolation, to build a support network. 

Hosting a bar was a good way because we could have fun together, get to know 

each other, not just artistically, but also administratively and logistically and performatively, 

in an easy setting. The collective is maybe also a response to the big 

word solo and I was excited to grow deeper this time, really wanting to invest in a 

group especially having been a freelancer, where the longest I might be with any 

group of people might be three months or the time of a project. 

BC What is nice is that there is a balance with my own authorship, 

my own research. I have room to be independent, to call my own shots, to direct 

my space. But, I’m not alone, and we can give each other feedback from a very 

different perspective. That’s quite a rich environment. 

KB I believe it really arrived from an urge for a deeper connection. 

I think we all sort of realised that it’s a group of interesting people who share some 

common interests, all using the body as an artistic material. I think we say that we 

could learn from each other. 

MP I’ve been thinking about what you, Bernardo, said in one of 

our last meetings, when you talked about the collective being as strategy, a strategy 

for us to stay together, to invest in each other, to commit. 

BC Yes, to fight this rivalry between us that could have been there. 

JC And, I think it’s an exploration of performativity, but also an 

exploration of connectivity. And going deeper into that, really understanding what 

the collective might mean for a group of people, that might, on the surface, not 

easily identify commonalities, but rather find them through experience and time. 

And then articulate them in whatever way they choose. 

34

SN In many of your writings and statements the word responsibility 

occurs. When we speak about working in a group and individually, how does this 

idea find articulation? 

JDH I’m thinking about an intensive with Arno Böhler and a 

working definition of the capacity to be in the body, but at the same time always 

be outside of it. Because we’re always connected, and open to the world, to the 

environment. In response, entangled with each other. So, responsiveness, being 

able to respond, being able to be in the world. 

BC Collectivity already brings a lot of invisible responsibilities: 

not only the responsibility of being a father or a mother or a teacher in relation to 

my work, but also the responsibility to think about deadlines, an audience, about 

how they read and can enter my work, about why am I doing this. So, I believe my 

responsibility is connected with this deep emotional level of sharing something 

and with working in the direction of something that is calling me. Calling into place 

a collective already creates a sense of responsibility, as well. We are all going to 

care about each other. 

KB Yes, definitely. In my experience responsibility is totally different 

when it comes to solo or collective work. In my solo practice, I am mostly focused 

on experimenting and trying out new things. If in the end it doesn’t really work, 

it’s fine, I learn something from it. But with the collective I feel the responsibility 

differently. If we try to work together and something goes wrong, then actually 

our relations and the integrity of the group are in danger. 

ALM I have a very concrete example from flamenco for this experience. 

In flamenco, if I’m not responsible for the whole team, it doesn’t work. But 

also, if I don’t take the moment for my solo inside the collective, there is no flamenco. 

So that reminds me of what you, Sandra, were talking about, using dramaturgy as 

a mobile, holding different elements and ideas together. It’s the same, each part of 

our collective is a part of the whole dramaturgy, if one changes, the whole system 

needs to change. Somehow these two words – responsibility and ‘dis-responsibility’ 

- are deeply connected, and what is important is the space between them. 

JC I think this creative term, ‘dis-responsibility’ got developed 

when it came to decision making in our work. Focusing, understanding and contextualizing 

what our decisions are. But also to create an awareness of what we 

are choosing against, when we are choosing to not contextualise, and be able to 

identify those moments. 

MP Of course the word responsibility can come with heaviness, 

as well, with having to carry out a project, and be the one that stands behind it. 

But at the same time, I try to use it as a strategy, to think what my responsibility 

is to the work. To think that the work is bigger than me, and actually that my task 

is to show up and do it. 

35

BIO- 

GRAPHIES 

KUBA BORKOWICZ is a performer, visual artist and curator working between Berlin and Poznan. In 2017, 

he graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Poznan (MA Visual Communication). Borkowicz’s research 

framework investigates the affinity between play and ritual through compositional strategies utilized by religion 

to design a set of practices to connect, worship, and learn from plants. Across different media such as 

performance, painting, installations, video, photography and tattoos, his artistic practice focuses on meditative 

qualities of the creative process and their potential to create a shared experience. As a curator, Borkowicz 

develops platforms for collaboration between human and non-human beings. In 2014 he established the 9/10 

Gallery in Poznan with a program focusing on relational pairings of artists. 

BERNARDO CHATILLON was born in Rebelva, Portugal under Aquarius. He trained at Centro Em Movimento 

(CEM) and completed a degree in theatre at the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema (ESTC) in Lisbon. From 

2012-15, he was a company member of the National Theater D. Maria II in Lisbon. Based in Berlin since 2016, 

Chatillon has collaborated as a performing artist on multiple projects with Stephanie Maher at Ponderosa 

Movement & Discovery. In his own work, Chatillon uses elements of real-time composition to question creative 

agency as he navigates the link between belief systems and free association. 

JASON CORFF relocated to Berlin from New York City where he has been a dancer with a+s works as well 

as a frequent collaborator with videographer Effy Grey and multimedia design house Paradox Vested Relics. 

His solo practice is focused on the pairing of cartographic principles with choreography to recontextualize 

the body in space. Trained in dance at Oberlin College, Corff was a company member of 277 Dance Project 

and worked with Laboratory Theater, theARTcorps, Gushue Moving Arts, and Craig Hoke Zarah. He has performed 

at various locations in New York City including Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, The Performing Garage, 

and Bryant Park. One of his dance works for film premiered at Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts 

in Massachusetts, and several others can be found online. 

JORGE DE HOYOS is a U.S. American dancer and choreographer based in Berlin since 2012. He studied Cultural 

Anthropology and Theater Arts at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Collectivity and community 

have been a major aspect of his artistic and spiritual development throughout his trajectory: organizing DIY 

public art actions, hosting sexual-spiritual and performance events in homes and non-institutional spaces, 

and being a core member of performance projects like Turbulence (a dance about the economy) with Keith 

Hennessy and Tanzkongress 2019. As a dancer/performer he has regularly collaborated with Meg Stuart/ 

Damaged Goods and Sara Shelton Mann, among others. He has presented his own work in San Francisco and 

Berlin, and published articles and interviews with In Dance by Dancers’ Group (2008-2014), Dance Theatre 

Journal (2011) and Contemporary HUM (2018). www.jorgedehoyos.com 

ANA LESSING MENJIBAR is a German-Spanish visual artist, performer and dancer born and based in 

Berlin. Her work is an investigation and conceptual interpretation of contemporary flamenco, stretching the 

genre and movement vocabulary to locate transformative potential within the context of performance. The 

body is also addressed as a unique source of sound and rhythm, extending the ability of sound to act as a 

performer in space. Lessing Menjibar’s interdisciplinary practice explores notions of the performative though 

media such as photography, video, and installation. She has performed or exhibited in Berlin at Sophiensaele, 

Komische Oper Berlin, tanzhaus nrw, NGORONGORO, NGBK, and the Kammermusiksaal der Berliner Philharmonie. 

She also has appeared at Villa Romana (Italy), Bienal - Miradas de Mujeres (Spain), and 29. Festival 

Les Instants Vidéo (France and Argentina). Lessing Menjibar received her Diplom in Visual Communication at 

Universität der Künste Berlin, and also works as an art director and publisher in the field of culture and arts. 

www.analessingmenjibar.com 

MINNA PARTANEN is a performer, director, and drama educator hailing from Finland and holds a BA in 

Performing Arts from Helsinki Metropolia. She has a background in devised work, socially engaged art, and 

applied theatre in non-traditional performance spaces and has worked as an applied theatre facilitator in 

contexts such as social work, innovation and organizational development. She was part of a research group 

36

for arts-based initiatives in development processes at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT. 

Currently, Partanen works as a Drama Educator at English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts 

Center leading the theatre’s partnership with Theater und Schule (TUSCH). She has taught Drama in English 

extensively in schools around Berlin and co-founded International People’s Theatre Berlin, an applied theatre 

project. Partanen premiered her solo work Next Time in Berlin in 2015 at Expat Expo festival in collaboration 

with Joseph Wegmann. 

RHYANNON STYLES is a British-born performer, writer and public speaker. In her solo work, Styles uses 

resonance and timbre through spatial explorations to create sonic compositions and improvised choreography. 

She has performed at various locations in London including Barbican Centre, Tate, V&A Museum and Soho 

Theatre. Styles has presented work at both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals in addition to the 

Guggenheim Museum in New York City. In June 2017, Styles released her memoir The New Girl - A Trans Girl Tells 

It like It Is through Headline Publishing. As a journalist she regularly contributes to UK publications, and was a 

columnist for ELLE magazine from 2015-2017. Her next book Help! I’m Addicted - A Trans Girl’s Self-Discovery 

& Recovery will be published in 2021. As a public speaker, Styles uses her media profile to raise awareness for 

transgender issues across a variety of platforms. In 2016 she appeared in The Body Shop’s Stand Up Stand 

Out campaign, and will feature in the upcoming campaign Work It for Sainsbury’s TU clothing brand. www. 

rhyannonstyles.com 

IMPRINT 

Publisher: HZT Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin (HZT), Uferstraße 23, 13357 Berlin / Concept 

and Authors: Kuba Borkowicz, Bernardo Chatillon, Jason Corff, Jorge De Hoyos, Ana Lessing Menjibar, Minna 

Partanen, Rhyannon Styles and Sandra Noeth / Texts and pictures: all rights with the authors if not otherwise 

mentioned / Graphic Design: milchhof.net / Interview transcription: Zoe Martin / Printing Company: Laserline 

©HZT Berlin 2019 / Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin / www.hzt-berlin.de / office@hzt-berlin.de 

MA SODA Staff: Prof. Rhys Martin, Prof. Dr. Sandra Noeth, Sophia New 

Web links are provided for informational purposes only. 

HZT bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of external sites or for that of subsequent links. 

The HZT Berlin is the joint responsibility of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst 

Ernst Busch (HfS) in cooperation with TanzRaumBerlin, a network of the professional dance scene.

CONTENT 

INTRODUCTION 1 

BERNARDO 

CHATILLON 2 

JASON 

CORFF 6 

JORGE 

DE HOYOS 10 

ANA LESSING 

MENJIBAR 14 

KUBA 

BORKOWICZ 18 

MINNA 

PARTANEN 22 

RHYANNON 

STYLES 26 

A CONVERSATION 30 

BIOGRAPHIES 36 

IMPRINT U3 

HOCHSCHUL 

ÜBERGREIFENDES 

ZENTRUM TANZ BERLIN

SODA Works 2020

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?