The city is a tree : the oldest forest of a new town. Urban forests as platform for somatic experiences in the city

In this presentation, Beatrice will explore her process of working and exploring the foundations of MK through a series of research questions: How does the body become a living archive of the experience of landscape, and how such experience can be documented to reflect the process of the body immersing itself into landscape to construct a meta-narrative of terrain. Can choreographic work emerging from the experience of landscape create an archive of a place? How is the experience of the landscape translated into the actions of the body? How can a choreographer create a process, which enables dancers and non- dancers to actively deconstruct their experience of their environment? Will the outcome reflect the landscape in which the body is submerged as a stimulus for the process; or will the product, which emerges, become a personal narrative? How can cite specific performance become a social medium for the study of the political and cultural shifts of embodied terrain? She will explore how her project in MK places specific emphasis on the role of personal memory in the construction of the larger collective narratives of the city of MK. Her choreographic process and project has been designed to explore the city from the perspective of individual and often fragmented narratives, which then through collective dissemination and sharing seeks to enable the formation of a wider sense of the unique urban geography to form through the workshop process. Working closely with original planners, architects and designers of the city and relying on their narratives to guide her and travel through the city, this project explores how choreography and urban planning might truly collaborate to develop and expand our experience of place