Perform (D)ance space/ Educational Center/ Experiential Space

Abstract

The program of the studio was developed through 3 subsequent years. Originally the students were asked to design a performance/ dance space (with all necessary associated elements) and a dance studio and finally to design an experiential educational space for people with corporeal or sensory impairments.The investigation begins with the exploration of the human body - skeletal and muscular, and the sensory mechanisms. The analysis, study and reinterpretation of the human body were both directly and indirectly linked to spatial conditions.For students to fully understand their bodies and the way they could move and sense the space, we created a series of workshops with choreographers in order to better explore body movements and our ability to create and define space through that movement. The students were asked to investigate thresholds, dualities of public-private, in-out, and movement-pause. All the exercises/workshops were recorded through a series of photographic stills and films spliced with drawings, 3d models, graphics, diagrams, and sketching.Students were asked to make a 1:1 scale body apparatus or 'attachment' pushing them to deal with construction issues and materiality. This apparatus had to be used by the students to script or create new forms or creations of movement and sensory spatial conditions. By 'wearing' and 'performing' their apparatus they had to define a new relationship between their bodies and space - these could either be accidental and/or predetermined.These investigations and the results and analysis then had to be drawn/translated into the design of their performance/dance space or the experiential educational space. The students dealt with water related sites in Cyprus and other countries.