Ab(ex)traction. Dwayne Holliday
Ab(ex)straction is, was and will continue as a physical interrogation of ballet, with the ethical tools of new-materialist feminism, post-colonial theory and queer and trans theory. It is a research towards a contemporarily relevant, body-ethical and deeply material melting of ballet into contemporary dance practices. The goal is the abstraction of the ballet vocabulary, semiotics and formal elements, extracting what remains for the creation of works of contemporary dance. The goal is a rethinking of ballet knowledge for contemporary dance and choreographic practices.
This research occurred over 2019 and 2020 at the Quartier Am Hafen in Cologne, and was documented as a film which was premiered in the 2020 “Beamed Dance Film Festival” (NPN gefördert) in Mannheim, Bonn, Cologne and Dortmund. This research perspective has contributed to the production of not only a documentation film, but also other dance films both of which were made with together with the visual artist Alessandro De Matteis. Here are links to the documentation and one other dance film produced through this Stipend.
