Residens uke 7 – 8 / 2022

“Everything brings us back to the body” is a research project by choreographer and dancer Ehsan Hemat with dramaturg and critic Yasen Vasilev towards the creation of a solo for a human body and an 18-kilo brass sheet.

Focused on the production of reflection and sound through the interaction of the living body and non-living object, the movement material is re-organized according to musicality, visual and sculptural quality, geometry, composition, and cultural references. At the current step of the research the focus is on making labour visible and addressing working conditions – both in independent dance making but also in a global supply chain that makes possible the mining, extraction, production, purchase, and delivery of the brass sheet for the purposes of this performance.

The two-week period at DansiT and Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder comes after residencies at Co-LaBo / Les Ballets C de la B, STUK, Workspace Brussels, KC Nona, a presentation at Winternights Maastricht, and before the finalization of the research at WpZimmer and KAAP in April-May 2022.

About the artists

Ehsan Hemat (Iran, 1980) is a Brussels-based dancer and choreographer. Dance on Glasses/Amir Reza Koohestani marks the beginning of his dancing career in 2000. He has worked with a number of various artists from different disciplines such as: William Forsythe, Anke Blonde, Felix van Groeningen, David Zambrano, Goele van Dijk, Lance Gries, Mokhallad Rasem, Eric Kaiel. He teaches at Fontys Academy (Tilburg), LCDS/The place (London), ICCD (Tehran), CCDC (Cairo), Dance academy of Bahia Blanca (Argentina), wisper (Belgium). Ehsan’s debut piece I put a spell on you is an ambitious exploration of the effects of discipline and control on the human body, which was awarded with the Best Choreography from the International Fadjr Theater Festival in Tehran-2019, and the Grand-Prix at Belgrade international theater festival in 2021.

Yasen Vasilev works in the field of contemporary dance and performance as a maker, dramaturg and critic. NUTRICULA is the practical research of his master thesis on the politics of dance from Shanghai Theater Academy, developed and presented in the form of workshops and performances internationally. Since 2018 he’s been a contributing author for Springback magazine and a dramaturgical consultant for choreographer Ehsan Hemat (BE/IR). Locally, he works with Radar Sofia – an artist-run residency space for playwrights and artists at risk, and co-runs Drama Pact – a collective of writers and performance makers who share resources instead of competing for them. Vasilev has published four poetry collections and four plays, and received the audience award at Sofia:Poetics 2010 and the CEI Fellowship at Vilenica festival in 2020.