Out of Context for Pina Alain Platel (cropped) © Chris van der Burght
Body of Work podcast - Doing dance heritage
A podcast about the joy and the challenges of repertory work – from the dancers' perspective.
The transmission of dance from body to body, audience to audience, is what keeps dance alive. Repertory, choreographies from the past, revived, and performed in the present, is a way of connecting us to our dance heritage. The Body of Work podcast explores the puzzle of ‘doing’ dance heritage through multiple interviews with dancers and dance practitioners in the Flemish and international contemporary dance scene. Through their lively stories, vast experiences and deep insight, the series dives into the world of dance repertory from within the realities of the dance studio and the stage.
What does it mean to make an existing piece ‘your own’? How do you balance the search for its original essence with making space for your own artistry to give it shape? As something that is never fixed yet growing with every performance, how do you transmit a piece of dance? What kind of ‘archeology’ does it take to consider all the different versions through time? Which tangible tools are useful in an intangible process? What does it mean to grow old with a piece? Can a piece still be the same after 15 years, when the dancers are 15 years older, and the audience sitting in the theatre is different from the one at the premiere? Who decides that a work can be revived, knowing that it was created with a group of dancers and other collaborators… whose piece is it anyway? How can a piece continue to be written as it passes to the next generation? What can we learn from the past and apply to the next revival?
In this podcast, you’ll hear from the dancers from Out of Context - for Pina, the revival of THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER 2.0 and Rosas dancers involved in Rosas repertory work. The final episode dives into the exciting questions and challenges of ‘doing dance heritage’.
CREDITS
concept Delphine Hesters researcher & narrator Tessa Hall interviews Tessa Hall, Katharina Smets, Delphine Hesters podcast maker Katharina Smets intern podcast maker Teresa Van Eycken sound/music Inne Eysermans mix Inne Eysermans & Yves De Mey voices Mélanie Lomoff, Ross McCormack, Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Laura Maria Poletti, Clinton Stringer, Jacob Storer, Jan Martens, Steven Michel, Naomi Gibson, Elisha Mercelina, Dan Mussett, Jim Buskens, Stijn Vandenbroucke, Loes Meulemans, Michèle Anne De Mey, Yuika Hashimoto, Tale Dolven, Soa Ratsifandrihana, Madison Vomastek, Jonathan Burrows, Franz Anton Cramer, Timmy De Laet, Madeline Ritter and Delphine Hesters thanks to laGeste, Rosas, GRIP The Body of Work podcast and the oral research project from which it draws its source material, are part of DanceMap, funded by the European Union (Horizon Europe).
Practical
➤ Listen to the podcast from April 10 onward on this webpage or on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
➤ During Body of Work, you can listen to the podcast in the STUK Vitrine (continuously during the opening hours of the STUKcafe) and in the exhibition in STUK Studio.
Tessa Hall is currently a dance heritage researcher at STUK, specifically focused on projects within the European network, DanceMap. Originally from New Zealand, Tessa graduated from the P.A.R.T.S. Training Cycle in 2019 and the STUDIOS MA program in 2021. Her versatile practice spans performing, researching, and writing, which she views as the interconnected motors of her artistic work. Since 2020, she has been involved with Rosas as a researcher, writer and dancer. She performed in productions such as Drumming (2021-2022) and Forêt (2022), researched for museum projects including Y (2024) and Dark Red – Beyeler (2021), and wrote various texts for both on and off-stage. She collaborates closely with artists such as Julia Rubies Subrios, Jacob Storer, Maaike Neuville, and Némo Flouret, with whom she currently appears in works 900 Something Days Spent in XXth Century and Derniers Feux.
Katharina Smets is an artist and researcher. She models documentary material into audio stories for both performances and podcasts. Katharina holds a PhD in arts and teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. Together with ensemble Revue Blanche she made the musical performance Misia in 2019, which was also broadcast on Klara (VRT) as a podcast. The podcast was nominated for Prix Marulic and won bronze at the Prix Europa. With her own collective The Space Between with Ingrid Leonard (image) and Inne Eysermans (sound/music) Katharina made the documentary performance Fotograf. In 2020-2021 she worked on the narrative podcast The Voices (De stemmen) commissioned by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, with personal stories around timeless themes connecting the arts and our life. In the fall of 2021, the second performance of The Space Between premiered: the documentary performance LAND, which takes place in a small Belgian community in Detroit. Katharina is currently touring with the performance Nenia, in a new collaboration with ensemble Revue Blanche, with music composed by Frederik Neyrinck.
Inne Eysermans is a musician who founded the band Amatorski in 2007. Her practice explores ecological strategies, hearing - shaped in part by her partial deafness - along with (critical) listening, songwriting, and storytelling through field recording, interactive applications, and scripting as scoring, which she also enjoys exploring in educational contexts. She has created sound and music for film, theater, radio/podcasts, and installations, and collaborated with Katharina Smets, Maika Garnica, Ode de Kort, and Kato Six, among others. Under the persona Velma Spell, she collaborates with Liew Niyomkarn on experimental sound performances and audio walks.
