Edan Gorlicki

The Nederlands

Beth Krensky

USA

Johannes Deimling

Denmark

Ilinca Bernea

United Kingdom

Aylet Cohen

Israel

Mehdi Farajpour

United Kingdom / Spain

The philosophy and beliefs surrounding Edan’ s artistic approach are based on searching the self within its surroundings. Inspired yet confronted by the world around him, Edan finds artistic comfort within the search for belonging and connecting. What better way to explore life then through movement and researching the body within the space around it? Every work of Edan has been a personal and touching transparency of what we all as humans go through on a daily basis. Through his work he has dared to approach these difficult issues and expose them respectfully yet courageously to his audience.

Beth Krensky is an associate professor of art education and the Area Head of Art Teaching at the University of Utah. She is an artist, activist and educator. She received her formal art training from the Boston Museum School. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally. She is a founding member of the international artist collective, the Artnauts. Her work is intended to provoke reflection about what is happening in our world as well as to create a vision of what is possible. She is also a scholar in the area of youth-created art and social change. She received a master’ s degree with a focus on critical pedagogy and art education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Ph. D. in Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I feel that the result is much more honest and accessible compared to an arbitrary choice of music to accompany the dance from the sidelines.

In a way, the agri-food industry has become a new godfrom which citizens must proclaim their autonomy. Eating is thus a deliberate act. It is no longer a mere reflex linked to bodily survival, but an action prompted by more or less conscious emotional, economic and political choices. While tastes may not be open to discussion, they entail consumer decisions that have repercussions on our environment. The provenance of foodstuffs and their methods of production( intensive or organic) and management( exploitation or fair trade) are political and nutritional options by which people manifest their social commitment and express their individuality. On the art scene, food is a subject / object that has fascinated and“ nourished” numerous performers. In many cases, their work goes far beyond the simple aesthetic event to address the eating behaviours of our society. Obviously, not all artists who use edibles as materialare political or environmental activists, but most have eating related experience or habits or attitudes that influence their every action. Food aversions, allergies, diets, special treats and childhood memories thus become food for thought in developing their art practices.

I conceive humor as being situated at the contact surface with the sublime. I practice all arts but music. I have released several performances in the last three years, created with students in choreography and philosophy. The two aesthetic coordinates of my creations are humor and melancholy. I put myself in the position of the Shakespearean jester, whose sense of humor is meant to dislocate an equal amount of sadness, bitterness and longing. I am addicted to cats and music. I am a big fan of the feline temperament, which has many contrasts, such as: the fast transition from a state of calm and quietness to the attack position or from a sleepy mood to extreme vigilance etc. I believe in beauty as necessity and as a spectacle of existence. I am an urban spirit. I am drawn into the blend between old and new, between chaos and order, between eccentricity and conformity, from big metropolises, which are quite eclectic, culturally speaking. The cross-features that are apparently not meant to be compatible are very appealing to me.

For several years now, I have been an independent choreographer, while I also serve as a dancer in some of my work. In 2012, I have founded MakesounD Music & Dance Projects, a troupe that focuses on connection between music and dance, turning them into one united language. I work in collaboration with composers, creating a combined form of art as dance and music merge into each other. We are conducting a collaborative process of defining and implementing the idea in two different fields and the final result presents a very unique and authentic artistic statement. The actual process of creation always starts with a specific idea or a particular topic I want to research. Collaboration with the composer is essential prior to implementing the physical elements in the studio. Knowing that I’ m able to work with original compositions, which are created to help express my ideas.

Improvisation is the territory of Performers( actors, dancers, musicians) and it gives them a freedom to exist in a show( performance). It lets them to be part of the creation process not only a moving object on the stage for the sake of choreographer or director. I like to offer my performers( including myself) the freedom of living in the moment although I have to admit that I believe only in conditional improvisation not a wild improvisation. By saying « conditional improvisation » I mean a « structured sort of improvisation ». To work on this, when I work with a group of dancers, first of all I explain the situation( dramatic moment) to them, then I clarify the type of movement I would need to see. At the end, I explain to them « what I do not want to see ». This very last remark can take a lot of time because here is the moment when I start trimming my dancer’ s movement. After these three steps, the conclusion, does not look like an improvisation anymore and maybe only me( as the choreographer) and my dancer will know about it.