The Bodies We Are (Not): A Choreographic Research on Practicing Self-Distancing

In Western neo-liberal society, the human body is increasingly used as an identity project and designable object . Antje Velsinger investigates these specific roles of the body and develops choreographic strategies for becoming unfamiliar to the own self and play as two means for emancipating the body from the neo-liberal imperative of optimization and control. Theoretical and practical artistic perspectives are in constant dialogue throughout this study. It uses the choreographic field as a gray area between theory and practice to imagine, propose, and rehearse an alternative approach to the body.

Antje Velsinger, born in 1980, works as a choreographer, performer and researcher in the field of contemporary performing arts. She studied choreography and performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at Universität Gießen and completed her doctorate within the artistic-scientific graduate program »Performing Citizenship« on the topic of choreographic practices of self-distancing. She is the artistic director of »New Trouble«. Her specific approach to work involves a collaborative and interdisciplinary artistic practice.