LACE Symposium

It’s an honour and a joy to close what may be our last LACE Symposium at the ImPulsTanz Dance Festival with Kerstin Kussmaul, the originator of the IDOCDE project that the LACE Symposium stems from. As the originator of the IDOCDE project, Kerstin herself has been there since the very beginning. The poetry of endings as beginnings abound.

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Written by Kerstin:

Defining ‘a thing’ simultaneously creates what is NOT: the interstitial. What if this in-between isn’t absence, but the most ontologically radical site? Drawing on my fascia research (tensegrity, feminist new materialism, Greek chôra) we explore the ECM—the body’s liquid crystal interstitium—as boundary-maker. Fascia doesn’t separate; it creates the very possibility of ‘things’ existing: Maybe we arrive at fascial ontology as choreographic practice.

bio: Kerstin Kussmaul (PhD) is a dance researcher and artist whose work focuses on somatics and embodiment. Over the past four years, she has investigated myofascia in movement as the core of her practice-based doctoral research at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her most recent work, the matter of fascia, emerged from this research and can be accessed at [www.fasciamatters.info](http://www.fasciamatters.info/). Prior to this, she explored creative processes in Contact Improvisation through the lens of embodied cognition. She teaches at universities, higher education institutions, and dance centers across Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Kerstin Kussmaul is the founder of IDOCDE and its associated symposium, now known as the Lace Symposium at ImPulsTanz. In addition, she works as a mentor for ImPacT at ImPulsTanz.

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Made with the support of PART Residency, and ImPulsTanz — Vienna International Dance Festival!

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or OeAD-GmbH. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

In one of our conversations, Olive described their work—I think it was their work they were describing—as moving from “object-oriented ontologies” to “relation-oriented ontologies”. For context, I’m always on the lookout for an elegant way to envisage what is otherwise difficult to hold in one’s focus, like “relation-oriented ontologies”. I can barely remember what else was said in the coming minutes, that’s how excited I was about Olive’s turn of phrase.

Olive Bieringa comes to the LACE Symposium for the first time this summer.

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Written by Olive:

Doctoral research question: How does ecosomatic choreography foster embodied ethical relationality? Underlying this question is a larger question: How can body-based practices support a cultural shift away from human-centered systems toward a worldview based on interdependence and relationships with all living things?

This research proceeds through artistic processes that generate practices for reweaving relational fields and for producing new narratives of embodiment through somatic choreography. Its contribution lies in the capacity to resonate across contexts demonstrating how somatic choreography can intervene in ecological, cultural, and ethical concerns

The artworks follow an ontological journey from conception to death to ask: What is the impact of practicing and remembering our own becoming? What is the impact of practicing our dying and decomposing? How should we grieve our own potential extinction?

bio: Olive Bieringa works at the intersection of creative practice and pedagogy in dance, performance, somatics and media. She holds a BA in Dance from European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands and an MFA in Performance and New Media at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. She is a doctoral candidate at Uniarts, Helsinki. She is Certified Movement Therapist (ISMETA), Infant Developmental Movement Educator® and Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and Program Director of Somatic Education Australasia. She founded BodyCartography in 1997 in San Francisco.

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Made with the support of PART Residency, and ImPulsTanz — Vienna International Dance Festival!

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or OeAD-GmbH. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.



BMC® and Body-Mind Centering® are registered service marks of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, used with permission.

With the exception of Kerstin Kussmaul, who originated the IDOCDE project, Amaara Raheem is the only contributor who’s previously presented at the IDOCDE as well as the LACE Symposium. As far as the interstitial matters are concerned, how will we know—be able to recognise—someone’s experience? In terms of the symposium, how will the fact of someone’s returning or approaching to symposium for the first time situate the way we’ll be able to perceive each other, know each other, meet each other, and communicate with one another?

the category is, the musings of a curator on a wednesday morning.

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I have participated in many Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programs over the years across different sites, and conditions. AiRs are widely acknowledged as valuable models for exchange and collaboration, and yet they are also built on assumptions, privileging a certain kind of access and mobility. My experience of migration and dance, leads me to continually make, unmake and remake ‘home’. I’m interested in residency practices that attune to this Body, in this Time, in this Place; ‘in-residence’ then as an interstitial process - intentional and also, fluid. We will work inside and outside, please bring layers of clothing and shoes for walking.

bio: Amaara Raheem (b. Sri Lanka) is a dance-artist whose work crosses many borders. Amaara practises multiple belongings, and is fascinated by meeting and exchanging with creative thinkers and workers; uniting experiences, skills, and efforts to make new tools for repair. Amaara currently lives in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, where she is a Forrest Foundation Creative Fellow, working at Edith Cowan University, exploring ‘in-residence’ through the medium of radio and voice.

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Made with the support of PART Residency, and ImPulsTanz — Vienna International Dance Festival!

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or OeAD-GmbH. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.