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Dani Brown | Fingersix

Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire un-reserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

What do we need as material, as conditions, as humans for production, how do these requirements change in and out of production phases? How can our "home" be challenged so that it challenges us back, how can our home support growth?

A two week research/ module which explores the notion of home in relation to creative processes as (but not limited to): A place of intimacy and comfort/ a place of solidarity/ a place of power/ a sanctuary/ a collective cultural sphere/ a fantasy/ a nowhere – reality/ an everywhere/ a place to be our best/ a place to be our worst.

Musing over the notion of home isn't a wholly private, or individualistic activity or interest, but rather a critical endeavor of our times. As the foundations of social, political and economic constructs are exponentially disintegrating, the newspapers proclaiming a future of mass ncertainty, as people everywhere, not to mention freelance artists, search for something to hold onto: to collectively consider the notion of HOME - as sanctuary and a place of power and fantasy - is a proposition to reconsider the resources surrounding your practice.

In this research module we will propose a frame to explore, construct, and stage a concept of one's practice as a home, where one dwells. We will begin with a physical research regarding notions of HOME. For example what timing does HOME have in your body? What is your physical aesthetic of HOME? We will also take time to discuss the material elements of HOME. What is essential? What does it sound like? Taste like? Each participant will create a site-specific experiential performance where they will have to address issues of time, context, location, physicality, aesthetic, atmospheric sensation, and a notion of ejuvenation, intimacy, and comfort. A big part of the two weeks will be that each participant will have to articulate about his home / practice, and invite us in.

What music will be played? What's for dinner? Brunch? What language/s are spoken? What should we wear? Anything you're thinking to change inside? Anything you're questioning? How is trust developed, and fortified? Do you give us a tour? Or are we only allowed in the living room? Will we eat ice cream?

In the last week of the module each student will have the group for a day, in his or her home, and they will make the rules. By the staging of HOME as a metaphor for artistic practice, participants will not only have the experiential reflection of turning their personal artistic practice into an installative performance, but they will also have the concrete experience of translating concept into the tools and methods necessary for a practical and process-oriented approach to performance making.


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Dani Brown was born and raised in Rochester, NY, a small city on Lake Ontario, with a high rate of violent crime, and a huge gap between rich and poor. Upon completing high school Dani drove across the country to live in the desert above Albuquerque, NM, there she was an initiator of the sidewalk performance group known notoriously by the local police as Shhhhh! She completed her freshman and sophomore years at Virginia Commonwealth University dept. of Dance and Choreography. Bush was elected and she moved to the mountains of Virginia with a bunch of close friends where she was a guest artist with the Zen Monkey Project. After various, shall we say, cultural exchanges Dani finished her BDa, specialization Dance Maker at the ArtEZ, College of Art in Arnhem, NL (former European Dance Development Centre). Dani co-founded the Fingersix (creative collective) on a sunny day in 2005, www.fingersix.com. She received the Dance WEB scholarship in 2009. Dani is currently busy touring her first solo project "how do you imagine the devil?" and promoting her latest productions, "the invitation" and "It's gonna blow"
(co-directed with f6 partner Marta Navaridas | Kampnagel 2008 + 2010) and "body swap" (co-directed with Singaporean choreographer Joavien Ng | Kampnagel 2009). Dani is also busy teaching in various choreographic centres in EU, working as dramaturge (Unicorn (A), Eva Maria Kupfer (CH), Anat Eisenberg (IL)), and performing internationally for Magga Bjarnadottir (IS), Antje Pfundter (DE), Anat Eisenberg (IL), Ivo Dimchev (BG), and working as model for the Japanese clothing label Cosmic Wonder.

website
www.fingersix.com


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Photos:
Daniel Schmidt
Veronique Dupard Mandel