Debating Dance – New Forum Launch @ South East Dance


i am too big for this town – installation view. CiCi Blumstein 2008. Photo: © Bip Mistry
 

South East Dance are launching a new quarterly forum for artists, practitioners and anyone who loves dance: Debating Dance

Debating Dance provides a platform for debate around dance and dance practice. Each quarter a new host will lead an evening with a subject of their choosing, South East Dance will provide the venue and support. This first event is hosted by CiCi Blumstein. Fusing urban planning, architectural and choreographic principles, CiCi seeks to reveal the powerful impact that individual awareness of creative space can bring to the public realm.

“I work with the moving body as the smallest architectural unit within the built environment. I feel that every surface has the potential for movement and creative change: a pavement, a page, a wall, another body … Once danced, a space cannot be un-danced, it remains in my imagination and in the body as a space of infinite possibilities.”

Historically, movement forms such as Contact Improvisation, Butoh, and more recently Free Running / Parkour, have been opening up urban and rural space to direct creative exploration. As Brighton is moving towards a dedicated Dance Space for the city in 2012, how could we, both as individuals and as a community, further extend dance and movement into the public and personal architecture of the city right now? CiCi will focus on her most recent work for architecture08 festival, i am too big for this town which poses the questions: how is art shaped by where it is produced? How is creative and personal space determined, and can it be individually calculated? i am too big for this town revisits her earlier large-scale work Feature Creature, first shown in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.

CiCi will open Debating Dance with an introduction to the ideas behind i am too big for this town, followed after a short break by a discussion and playful ‘speed measuring’ exploration of urban and personal creative space. There will be plenty of opportunity to mingle and network over a glass of wine throughout the evening.

Wednesday 24 September 2008
Lighthouse Digital Lounge
28 Kensington Street, Brighton
18.00-21.00
Free Event
To reserve your place please email Emily James or call 01273 645261.