spiegel-zentrum.de

Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum / TANZTAGE BERLIN 2016

WITH A BACKGROUND in Bharata Natyam, Sara Mikolai develops experi-mental work. For the Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum she conceived a hidden ritual – inspired by the photography of devadasi dancers from the Box Nr. 942n Exotischer Tanz – that combines elements of the devadasi tradition, different trance practices, objects from the archive room as well as sound.

In her archive work, Mikolai investigates the gaze in colonial photography and plays with the tension of visibility and invisibility as well as knowledge and ignorance. She dives into the prehistory of Bharata Natyam, a south Indian dance that was developed out of the devadasi tradition after the abolishment of the British colonialists in the wake of the Indian nationalist movement.

SARA MIKOLAI is a performer, dancer and choreographer born in Berlin. In her work she investigates social-political issues such as the visibility of the diaspora, trauma and gender. She is currently studying in the BA Dance, Context and Choreography at the HZT Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin.

The JULIUS-HANS-SPIEGEL-ZENTRUM is an itinerant research center, which investigates the interweaving of dance cultures since modernity. In residencies of four weeks, five choreographers from Berlin and Frankfurt have developed critical perspectives on the exoticisms of modern dance. First results of their research are now being shown in short archive works during Tanztage Berlin. Starting point of their investigation was an archive box from the photo collection of the Lipperheidesche Kostümbibliothek in Berlin: Kasten Nr. 942n Exotischer Tanz. The classification logic of this archive box, which strongly discriminates between modern and traditional, foreign and familiar, makes the mechanisms of exclusion in modern dance visible that still are at work in contemporary dance.