ABOUT MELODANCE & ME:
My name is Annekatrin Kiesel, but I prefer to be called simply Anne (pronouns she/her). I live in Berlin and am a freelance dancer, performer and choreographer. I studied stage dance at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and at the Hooger Instituut Voor Dans of the Artesis Hogeschool/Koniklijk Conservatorium in Antwerp. As a dancer and performer I work in the fields of contemporary dance, performance, opera and contemporary music theatre. My own artistic research, choreographic works and video projects revolve around the exploration of psychosomatic states. Furthermore, the connection between dance and music, in the broadest sense musicality, is a large part of my artistic work.
Rhythm is commonly seen as the link between dance and music. But I have always wondered: what role does melody play? Through various points of contact with traditional Irish music, the idea developed to approach this question through Slow Airs.
Slow Airs are tunes in which melodies (divided into phrases) can be interpreted relatively freely and which are also characterised by an absence of strict rhythm or metre. Using Slow Airs, I would like to take a nuanced look at the effects of melody and phrasing on dance. What traces does melody leave behind and how does it influence and shape my dance, whether in improvised or choreographed form?
Based on active listening and the "dissection" of the melodic structural features of selected Slow Airs, research and improvisation tasks will be implemented that have as their subject a danced visualisation of melodies through imitation and/or abstraction. In addition, active listening should also be directed inwards, following inner and remembered melodies and making them visible. In dealing with melody, I want to go beneath the surface of what we hear, and thus deepen the exploration of psychosomatic states.
Another component of the project will be regular one-on-one sessions with musicians who play string or wind instruments and are involved in traditional Irish music.
Melodance is made possible by a scholarship from the GVL.
