Somatic Sabbath Workshop with Carrie McILwain
This three hour workshop focuses on the portrayal of the Witches Sabbath (or circle dance). It will involve delving into the historical context of the witches sabbath and offer various interpretations and analysis of what this fantasy could mean - reclaimed or otherwise. Looking to scenes from films depicting this trope (Häxan 1922, Lords of Salem 2012, Suspiria 2018, Black Sunday 1960, La Visione del Sabba 1988, Akelarre 2020) will serve as inspiration for a somatic journey - with an open-ended experiment to create a dance/group choreography for a “witches sabbath”.
These exercises are accessible and adaptable to all bodies and do not require previous dance or movement experience.
Carrie McILwain is interested in the possibility of artistic performative research to enable other spaces of existence along-side normative structures of reality. Their work is based in somatic practice and is explored through collaborations and group research. With an aim towards the development of radical strategies for surviving the present and moving towards queer utopias, they investigate the historical construction of femininity, binary opposition and their entanglements within capitalism. Since 2020 Carrie has focused on archetypes of female power located in the European middle ages – specifically in the figures of the Witch and the Nun. Carrie has worked for/or in collaboration with Johanna Ackva, Susanne Schuda, Greta Granderath, Alisa Treatau, Stefanie Wenner, Magdalena Meindl and has published essays in the collections Kultur und Politik im prekären Leben: Solidarität unter Schneeflocken (2020 Neofelis Verlag) and Nicht Nur Mutter Waren Schwanger (2016 editions assemblage). Their working methods are influenced by their previous studies of Sculpture and Anthropology (California State University Fullerton, US) and their studies of Dance and Choreography at the Hochschulübergreifenden Zentrum Tanz Berlin.
