Responsive Body | Responsive Tech

Number of Participants: 10-15
Place: Bergen Dance Center, Georgernes Verft 12, 5011 Bergen
Time: Saturday 20th of November from 10-14h
Duration: 4 hours

This workshop is part of the Performing Arts Workshop program, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts. It is a Piksel initiative in collaboration with PRODA-professional dance training/Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland.

To register please send an email to: piksel21@piksel.no with your name and the name of the workshop you want to attend.

https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Responsive Body is a dynamic system created by Roosna & Flak based on listening to yourself and the environment, training sensitivity and coordination as well as strength and stamina. Its purpose is to develop a strong, resilient and intelligent body that is open to internal and external impulses.

Roosna & Flak created the training from a need to prepare for a wide range of challenges. The system is under continuous evolution as a result of an ongoing movement practice and teaching.

The training starts with a gentle warm-up to access the breath and the joints, before bringing up the pulse and working through the major muscle groups. This is followed by a section focusing on more complex coordination and use of space, preparing for individual and partnering work, where the focus is on creating movement material based on listening to impulses from both outside and inside the body. This leads to more in-depth investigation into both creating and organizing material into choreographic structures.

Towards the end of the workshop sensor technology is brought into the game, enabling the research of a new set of connections between movement and sound. For this we use our own set of sensors.

Workshop leaders would offer a hands-on introduction to performing physically with movement sensors, developing the necessary sensibilities for producing sound and movement as an integrated whole.

About the dancers and choreographers:
https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Internationally active choreographers and dancers Külli Roosna (Estonia) and Kenneth Flak (Norway) have been collaborating since 2008. Whether they are creating their own choreographies or collaborating with others, their work deals with the narratives and technologies of the body. They have explored a wide range of themes, including deep ecology, Viking mythology, totalitarianism and internet culture. The core of their work is human experience in interconnected realities. This is often explored through the dancing body’s possibilities and limitations, in a constant dialogue with the digital technologies and discourses that extend and counterpoint it.

They have performed their works all over the world. Additionally, they teach Responsive Body movement technique, composition, and sensor programming at various universities and festivals, adapting their methodology and content to different contexts.

Their interactive music and dance performance Blood Music was nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards 2015; Stalking Paradise, a commission work for Lublin Dance Theater, was selected for the biannual Polish Dance Days. Prime Mover (2018) and Two Body Orchestra (2020) were nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards.

Külli Roosna (EE)

Born 1981, is an Estonian dancer, choreographer and teacher. She graduated Tallinn University in 2005 as a choreographer/dancer and continued her studies in Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands, obtaining her second bachelor degree in 2007.

In 2013 she obtained an MA of choreography at Tallinn University.

She has worked with international choreographers Stian Danielsen, Karen Foss, Kari Hoaas, Cid Perlman, Richard Siegal, Dylan Newcomb, Fine5 Dance Theater, and many others.

In 2010 her solo performance Circle Through was awarded the First Prize at the International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk, Belarus. She is the recipient of the 2017 Pärnu City Creative Stipendium.

Her teaching and performing has brought her to festivals, universities and theaters in Estonia, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Jordan, India, Japan, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Finland, Lithuania, Belarus, and South Korea. In 2014-15 she was board member of Estonian Dance Artist Union and head of its Stipendium commission.

Kenneth Flak (NO)

Born 1975, is a Norwegian dancer, choreographer, composer and teacher. He has performed in the works of André Gingras, Dansdesign, Richard Siegal, Kari Hoaas, Preeti Vasudevan and many others.

He is educated at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Norway and the Amsterdam Arts School in the Netherlands.

In 2007 he received a Bessie Performer’s Award in New York for his interpretation of Gingras’ solo CYP17. In 2010 he was nominated for the BNG Award in Amsterdam for his choreography Of Gods and Driftwood.

Flak has taught contemporary dance and sound design at universities and festivals around the world.

A self-taught composer and creative coder, he makes music and interactive tools for live choreographies and dance films.

He was chair of Norwegian Arts Council Commission for Dance 2018-2020.

Press
Kahe keha orkester, Anu Jurisson, Pärnu Postimees, 26 March 2021.
Post-dramaatiline tantsu-uurimus ja numbriballett, Heili Einasto, Postimees, 12 November 2020
Kehad tehnoloogia ja tantsu puutepunktis, Iiris Viirpalu, Sirp, 23 October 2020
Video: Sõltumatu Tantsu Laval kohtuvad kehad ja tehnoloogia, ERR kultuur, 6 Oktober 2020
Olemise protsess, Eline Selgis, STL, 29 September 2020

Media
11 January 2019: Elu pingeväljade liikumapanev jõud (Marie Pullerits, Sirp)
13 November 2018: [Külli Roosna rääkis tantsulavastusest “Prime Mover”](https://treraadio.bandcamp.com/track/1 November 018-k-lli-roosna-r-kis-tantsulavastusest-prime-mover) (Tre raadio)
12 November 2018: Külli Roosna lavastusest “Prime Mover”: see sündis meie endi elust (Ester Vilgats, ERR)
12 November 2018: Endlas esietendub pärnakate rahvusvaheline tantsulavastus (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)
12 November 2018: Endla Teatris toimub tantsulavastuse “Prime Mover” Eesti esietendus (ERR)
5 November 2018: Video: katkend Külli Roosna ja Kenneth Flaki uuslavastusest “Prime Mover” (ERR)
2 November 2018: Tütrekese sünd ärgitas looma Endla Küünis tantsulavastust (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)