Valasia Simeon
Saturday 23rd of November 2024
Folds of Matter and Movement
Τhe lecture focuses on the activation of the senses through our interaction with the artifacts of our civilization and the spaces that we inhabit as means for stimulating the body’s movement and memory.
Blending artistic research with the author’s personal experience in disability, the lecture presents the retrieval of the movement of the author’s body through the awakening of sensory perception and the use of kinaesthetic practices. In addition it proposes the design of artifacts as tools for investigating creatively the body and its movement, engaging in that way people with diverge identities in art education and particularly in dance.
Bio
Valasia Simeon is a dance artist, choreographer, and movement educator who works with people of all abilities. Her practice bridges her background as a professional dancer-choreographer (trained at the National School of Dance and Artez University of Arts) with her recent experiences as a person with kinetic disability. For over a decade she researched on the symbiotic relation between dance and visual arts and she created dance performances through the intersection and fusion of performing arts with other spatial practices (such as design, crafting, architecture, visual arts)
Today her practice is focused on the interaction of the body with space through the senses as means for stimulating expression, movement and memory. Through this research she develops a range of sensorial practices that aim to unfold and articulate movement possibilities in relation to her own physicality and experience in disability, as well as to conjoin her double experience.
In the framework of this research, her solo work “Ephemeral Body” (2023) was created in collaboration with Onassis Stegi, and she collaborates to create sensory objects that foster movement exploration for diverse audiences. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Artez University of the Arts, Ernst Busch Academy and the Greek Choreographers Festival.
Photo credits: Pinelopi Gerasimou
