| Recidency center | |
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| Recidency type | |
| Art form | |
| Time of residency | September 2025 |
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| Contact info | ellenkilsgaard@gmail.com |
| Definition of artistic practice? | First of all I am dancer. By listening to my own and others bodies, my body becomes my teacher. My interest lies in the non-verbal field of energy, feelings, sensations, fantasies, images and movement dynamics which emerge in dance and holds radical knowledge, poetry and render a sense of deep meaning-fullness. I explore how the dancing body can be a bridge to The Other. The resonant in-between, and its ethical concerns, is my working method towards creating aesthetic form and choreographic formats. |
| Title of the investigation at the residency | Dance for the open gaze and the sensitive body |
| Description of investigations and findings | I have danced with others and let myself inspire by the other residents. I have shared my practice and participated in meditations, journeys in nature and many inspiring conversations. All of which has informed my work directly or indirectly. During the two weeks I have come back in touch with my dancing body, which for many reasons, had been lost for a while. With others I have practiced alternate dancing and writing. The written texts became a bridge between the observers conscious and unconscious impressions and added poetic information. I have danced on my own and explored freedom and flow as well as investigated where my dance technique is now, in my 50 year old body. In the last sharing with the audience, I had a very good time dancing. I felt playfull and free. I experienced that everyone was very open and receptive and that the space between them and I became a dance in itself, and that our bodies and feelings were moved. |
| What are you most curious about or invested in in your own practice? | I am invested in exploring how choreography emerge when dancers connect playfully and I ask: How might empathy and listening become organising principes? How might choreographic aesthetic pattern emerge through ethical engagement with an Other? I am invested in exploring how dance practice and performance can contribute to a colorful and inclusive landscape both socially and artistically. |
| What questions did you bring to investigate and what questions are you leaving with? | Questions I brought: Where am I as a dancer now at 50 years old? How can I create a choreographic format that involves an adult audience in a gentle way? How can I create a space of dance where the adult audience discover their own being and being together, through open observation of dance? Questions I left with: How could this make sense as a 45 minutes performance ? Live music? Use darkness and light? How can I continue to draw from nature and meditation practice? |
| Transformative, creative moments at the residency | During and after the first mid-way sharing I was not satisfied with what I did. I fell into an old pattern of entertaining, which I am tired of and not interested in doing anymore. It kept me awake most of the night and working over the following week I came closer to the confidence and trust that I need to become the responsive and receptive dancer, that I wish to be. From radical trust in the dancing body as intelliget in itself, I came closer to a choreographic format. |
| Keywords for the work done at the residency | Age, Embodied Landscapes, Playfullness, Poetry, Resonance, Somatics |
| Research locations | Chakra energy fields, Lilleborg, White Space (BIRCA) |
| Further documentation | |
| Photos documenting the research |
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| Videos of work in progess or reflections | |
| Webside links |
Ellen Kilsgaard
