welcoming
September 2023
WELCOMING was both a performance and a workshop with young dancers in Moss. The project explored ways of entering an unfamiliar territory - and what happens to us at the threshold of change. The work focused on developing a choreography of repetitive gestures with young co-creating dancers aged 15-19.
The project was rooted in Moss and the surrounding area, and took place at Galleri F15, during the MOMENTUM 12 art biennial that took place in the summer of 2023.
The work explored the fundamentals of building a relationship with a new place, facilitated by a host. During the production process, we explored with young participants a series of repeated gestures of the act of being welcomed and the act of using a new space are performed throughout the work. The gestures could assume a semi-spontaneous play of different approaches to humor, seriousness, friendliness, reciprocity and alienation, among others. The purpose of the work is to observe and raise awareness of vulnerability in change and in getting to know new life situations, a process that reinforces our connection to what we know, and at the same time meets us with the vulnerable by exploring an embodied process of trial and repetition. A process of becoming.
Concept and direction : Laura Perrot and Valentina Martinez
Dancers : 1st year high school dance-program Kirkeparken vgs, Moss
Supported by : Kulturdirektoratet - Fri Scenekunst prosjektstøtte
Galleri F 15, Tenthaus, MOMENTUM 12 : together as to gather
Photos : Roy Nilsen





