Artist talk - Steinunn Ketilsdóttir - POSTPONED

Due to unforseen situations we have to postpone this lecture. 

EXPRESSIONS: the power and politics of expectations in dance

Steinunn Ketilsdóttir – dance artist is our guest in Artist talk on Friday. She will share with us her practice.

Icelandic dance artist Steinunn Ketilsdóttir lives and works out of Reykjavík. She works multidisciplinary as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and organizer, both independently and collaboratively. Through the body she choreographically moves with – through - in and out of dance, text, and thought in her works. Steinunn is devoted to creating spaces through her practice to explore how expectations affect the way we choose to move through our artistic and personal lives. A space where we can envision and practice another tomorrow. Steinunn holds a BA in Dance from Hunter College NY and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.

Steinunn is currently mainly working on the research project EXPRESSIONS: the power and politics of expectations in dance in conversation and collaboration with a team of international artists and scholars. The project officially began in March 2017 and continues to develop through research residencies in collaboration Nordic partners. Throughout its duration, research findings manifest themselves through performances, presentations and publications. Piece no. 1, a commission for Iceland dance company premiered in November 2018, was the first piece in a series of pieces emerging out of EXPRESSIONS.

EXPRESSIONS aims to be a center for new knowledge in the field of dance, operating as a space maker, opening up territories where critical engagement with the structural expectations of dance can be encountered. A space of exploration and analysis. A space where we can envision and practice the dance of tomorrow. It is not a typical project. It is complex and abstract. Multilayered and multifaceted. The project can be seen as a soft resistance against repressive structures; a gentle push towards a change. This resistance begins on a micro-political level through critical engagement with the structures of our own bodies and minds. In this project, we propose a devoted practice of structured experimentation to free our bodies and desires from the stifling conformity of repressive power and expectations.

Alongside EXPRESSIONS Steinunn continues developing and presenting her ongoing solo project, OVERSTATEMENT/OVERSTEINUNN: Expressions of Expectations. In 2017 Steinunn received a research fellow position at the Performing Arts Department of the Iceland Academy of the Arts through which these projects are being developed through teaching, mentoring and sharing.

We welcome you all!

Photo by Jónatan Grétarsson