January 19-26. Residency: Anne-Mareike Hess (DE) – Dancing Plague
From the 19th till the 26th of January the luxembourgish choreographer Anne-Mareike Hess is in residency at Weld.
On the base of the dancing plague in Europe’s Middle Age Anne-Mareike will follow her research on the infectious potential of movement and possibilities of surrender.
Anne-Mareike Hess is interested in dance as a medium for the formation, negotiation and experimentation of body concepts. Through the centuries dance appeared repeatedly as a mean of liberation and ecstasy, and at the same time as a way of disciplining and healing the body. Concrete examples for this are the choreomania epidemics between the 14th and 17th century in Europe. In these delusional mass dances up to several hundred people danced uncontrollably and seemingly motiveless for hours and days – until they collapsed from exhaustion.
Choreographer Anne-Mareike Hess uses this phenomenon as a peg in order to question the contemporary reception of body and dance through her own movement practice: how can dance serve as a refusal of existing norms? How can dance create utopian bodies?
The residency at Weld is part of the project Dancing Plague and is a collaboration between Weld and Skogen.
This residency is supported by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg.