a workshop with Jenny Döll and Nicole Bindler

September 30th & October 1st 2023 – repetition on request

10:00-17:00 on both days

Using somatic practices and readings about newer understandings of neurology and trauma such as Polyvagal Theory, we will develop methods to (re-)claim and celebrate our uniquely weird ways of thinking, being, and making. Nick Walker, one of the people who coined the term Neuroqueer says, „Neuroqueer is both an identity and an ethos“ and „a verb first and an adjective second.“ Walker describes it as „Engaging in the ‚queering‘ of one’s own neurocognitive processes… Engaging in practices intended to ‚undo‘ one’s cultural conditioning toward conformity and compliance with dominant norms.“

By turning to our senses, we will play with possibilities of liveliness that societal norms often deny us. We’ll access a space of embodied attention and use improvisational scores, somatic explorations, and stimming movements, AKA self-stimulatory behavior. Stimming is any repetitive movement we do in order to regulate our nervous systems. We will play with stimming as dance as well as look at dance as a form of stimming. There will be equal parts learning about the brain, discussing the politics of neurodiversity, moving our bodies, and resting. Our aim is to create a space where we can come out about how we think and learn, and unwind some of the cognitive and bodily holding we enact on ourselves in order to make sense of/in this world.

Where? Kunstquartier Bethanien, Studio 2

How much? Sliding scale: 150-180 €, please pay what you can honorably afford. Two scholarships have already been given to people. If you are short on money you can pay in installments.

Please see the registration form for details: register here

Feel free to get in touch with any questions you have and/or let us know about your access needs so we can try to meet them to the best of our abilities.

Nicole Bindler–dance-maker, Body-Mind Centering® practitioner, writer, and activist–has practiced contact improvisation (CI) for 25 years. Her work has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships, and presented on four continents. Recent projects include curating an evening of Palestinian dance films; somatic research on the embryology of the genitalia from a non-binary perspective; and a solo dance, The Case for Invagination, in which her scars speak candidly about trauma and desire. Upcoming engagements include co-editing a book, Gathering Sparks: Jewish Arts and Somatics, and contributing essays to the Embryo Book Project and the Neuroqueer Theory Handbook. https://www.nicolebindler.com

Jenny Döll: is a neurodivergent dancer and dance- and movement educator. Her practice and teaching is influenced by contemporary dance styles and various somatic methods (especially release based dance techniques, Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais Method, Contact Improvisation). She’s interested in the body as the field of experience of one’s liveliness. With it, in it, through it, AS it the world and the self is perceived and created – in a constant exchange with the environment. Her work seeks to make this liveliness tangible. She will contribute to the Neuroqueer Theory Handbook, published by Nick Walker next year. https://jennydoell.wordpress.com/