According to the motto ” dance meets sign language”, this workshop explores and investigates this particular language as an artistic movement material.
In its clarity, its rhythm and its physicality, sign language is the starting point to discover one’s own body and one’ s self in contact with others in improvisations. Signs are used as language ( that’ s obvious), taken into motion, positioned as the start of a choreography or, in repetitions, exaggerations and alterations, completely stripped of its original meaning and filled with new one. Visual contact is just as important as listening to one’s inner voice. Communication in dance occurs through sight and touch, as well as through direct physical contact.
The workshop will be taught by a deaf and a hearing dancer. Prior knowledge of sign language is not required, but an interest towards the language is essential. However, for those who know sign language, the curiosity to give new forms to familiar words or to use them in a new context is obligatory.