Anna Seymour: Challenging normative perceptions of dance

The Dancers Exchange at UferStudios was an interesting experience for Bernhard and I as we have never met before nor were we familiar with each other’s work. Yet together we taught an improvisation-based workshop – an enjoyable challenge!

PHOTO: Anna Seymour teaching at the Dancer Exchange workshop. CREDIT: Jacqueline Homer

Uferstudios is the centre of contemporary dance in Wedding, Berlin which used to be a maintenance facility for Berlin’s buses. The garages have been transformed into fourteen studios and offices as well as a library, kitchen and a courtyard. Bernhard is from Tanzfähig, an initiative that advocates for physical diversity in contemporary dance.

At the workshop, Bernhard and I proposed different tasks for the participants that focused on self-awareness, awareness of others, awareness of space and physical connection with others. We ran activities that asked what counts as movement, and different ways to practise tuning into senses that you normally don’t rely on.

PHOTO: Workshop participants improvise at the Dancer Exchange. CREDIT: Jacqueline Homer

A lot of these activities were done in silence and without verbal communication. However, there was one activity where people had to watch a person move, describe the movement to another person who had to listen to the descriptions and do the movement without being able to see the person who was doing the movement. That raised questions of language in dance: how limiting it can be for some people and the difference between describing what you literally see or describing movement metaphorically.

I was really pleased with how well-attended the workshop was, with ten people participating in the workshop – all from different backgrounds and experiences in dance but united with a common interest in mixed abilities in dance. They approached the workshop with open-mindedness, and embraced its process and experimental nature.

Bernhard and I kept it very simple and people responded to the tasks really well and we got some good feedback where the participants said they felt safe in the space just to move and be themselves. We shared our experiences dealing with difference in dance and I think people left feeling like what they are doing is valid. We talked openly about knowing our weaknesses and strengths and figuring out our movement possibilities. It left me feeling refreshed as sometimes I feel dancers tend to cover up their weaknesses as we are trained to look perfect all the time.

[Video description available at the end of this of post.]

I feel very privileged to be here as an artist for the arts exchange. Berlin is such a fascinating city and there is a very edgy creative energy here. There is something on every day, every night that caters to all kinds of tastes and I love the freedom of expression here.

My goal is for the Arts Exchange to result in new connections with Berlin-based artists and to generate ideas about increasing diversity in dance and the arts. I’m looking for ways of how we can have more Deaf-led and disability-led art and to increase standards of art even higher. I will bring these new ideas and perspectives back to Melbourne, and hope to seep them into my arts practice and collaborations.

Video description

A one-minute silent dance improvisation with 11 dancers. The scene opens with dancers posed with statue-stillness in various poses across the studio space. In the foreground, one dancer is posed on her hands and knees with her back to the camera. Three other dancers stand, while the other six sit on the floor. Everything is still. Then, the dancer with her back to the camera shakes her hips for a moment. She becomes still again. At the same moment, across from her, a dancer sits and begins to shimmy her shoulders. She pauses. A dancer standing in the background turns and walks behind the dancers and repositions herself to the right, still standing. When she stops, the second dancer shimmies her shoulders again and leans forward. A dancer standing to the right leans forward, arms outstretched, and becomes still again. A sitting dancer moves herself backward with her hands. When still, a standing dancer in the foreground to the right stretches his arms out, pausing. The standing dancer to his right stretches her arms in a slight windmill and takes a step back, repositioning herself and exploring movement. A dancer sitting in the foreground moves to uncross her legs and lean back on her arms, opening up her body to a more comfortable position. A dancer in the background then crawls forward on her hands and feet to reposition herself in the foreground.

CREDIT: Pippa Samaya

Author: Anna Seymour

Anna is a contemporary dancer based in Melbourne. Anna was born profoundly Deaf and uses Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as well as written and spoken English to communicate. She completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance) in 2012 at Deakin University and has worked for various companies and choreographers.

Read more about Anna and watch a video of her work.