Movement mediation with Anastasia Dahl
Group warm up as part of the Anastasia Dahl’s movement session at Arnolfini.
On 14th August at very short notice I decided to jump on the offer of a movement session in the gallery at Arnolfini. It was described as an explorative session where we would ‘gently move among and with Adébayo Bolaji's artwork 'In Praise of Beauty'; we'll be exploring the space and connecting to our senses. No prior experience is necessary, all are welcome! The session was run by Anastasia Dahl, a Bristol-based performance artist who only moved to the city a short while ago but is already offering much needed spaces for movement as research. Anastasia’s current inspirations come from two very different sources: moss and its ability to find hospitable environment in urban landscapes and movement mediations in gallery spaces to facilitate visitors’ playful engagement with the artwork.
It was an intimate group of five people and we began with a gentle warm-up and introductions. Anastasia then offered different movement scores and prompts for discussion inspired by the artwork.
Moving with another participant using one of Bolaji's large-scale paintings as our score.
At one point we were invited to generate some automatic writing while absorbing the artwork in one of the smaller galleries. Then we randomly read aloud sections of our writings for others to move to creating our own scores:
Drone. Repeat. Drone. Repeat.
Melody, lilt, repeat.
Senses heightened,
body melodic.
Pleasing,
Sensing,
noticing, responding.
The group moving in response to one another’s automatic writing.
Through this session Anastasia was interested in ‘opening up a dialogue around artworks in a non-hierarchical manner, and offering alternative presence in an often highly codified space of the art gallery.’ This opportunity was a real gift. She held the space beautifully and gave thoughtful consideration to different movement based tasks in each of the gallery spaces. An imaginative workshop where we were given the confidence to dance boldly amongst visitors to the exhibition.
