Moshing is a hardcore dance practice in which bodies push and slam into each other. In her new group work Xenia Koghilaki focuses on the forces, physical dynamics and embodied energies between collectively moving bodies. KOPANIMA transforms the movements and gestures from the mosh-pit into a staged echo, raising questions about physicality, vulnerability, and resistance – and at the same time reveals gestures of trust and solidarity. In this performance the concert crowd stands for a place of collective struggle and a ritualized form of social cooperation. The audience is immersed in an ambivalent feeling of togetherness and sensory stimulation.

Following Bang Bang Bodies, which premiered as part of Tanztage Berlin 2023, and Slamming (produced by Onassis Stegi), KOPANIMA is the third part of an ongoing performance series in which Xenia Koghilaki uses dance and choreography to explore the relationship between the subcultural practices of moshing and those of collective discharge in the crowd.

Xenia Koghilaki is originally from Athens and lives and works in Berlin in the field of performing arts as a dancer and choreographer. She is a graduate of the National School of Dance of Greece, the Architecture Department of the University of Patras and holds an MA in “Solo/Dance/Authorship” from HZT Berlin. Koghilaki puts the body in the center of her interest, while her practice engages with issues of re-examining the moving body’s aesthetic, political and social aspects. Her work has been presented at Tanztage Berlin, Onassis Dance Days, Onassis New Choreographers Festival, Arc for Dance Festival and K-Gold Temporary Gallery, among others. As a dancer, she has worked with Kat Válastur, the Chto Delat Collective and the Hellenic Dance Company among others. Koghilaki is a Danceweb scholarship holder and she has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS in 2022.
xeniakoghilaki.com/

[Source: sophiensaele.com]

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