According to the Wikipedia, nigredo is an alchemical concept related to the first stage of the transmutation of matter. Being referred to putrefaction, it involves a dissolution into the raw matter in order to produce a higher one (gold). Nigredo has been related to the First Quarter, the first lunar phase. In this workshop we will deal with the concept of nigredo in order to discover in dance the potentiality to produce every possible beginning as well as every possible ending: being thus able to give birth to every dream but also to every nightmare, to every monster, to every ghost. It is about getting to know that which dances by itself without trying to transform it into something that dances for us.
Throughout these two sessions I will share several movement practices, improvisation protocols and experiments, while caring for a cosy environment that will allow for questions to be shared and for the research-learning project to be self-managed. Anyone interested in performing arts, dance and artistic research (regardless of previous dance experience) may join this workshop.
Paz Rojo: I carry out my practice on the intersection between practice-based artistic research and philosophy. I research on an understanding of dance that is open to impersonal and anonymous phenomena. I am interested in new ontologies and in the radical democratization that the speculative thinking brings to the forefront in order to find new potentialities for the artistic practice and for the creation of alternative ecologies in the field on performing arts, theatre and beyond.