Kampe, G. & Kampe T. (2021) beyond forgetting: persecution / exile / memory, 2021
This book explores the intersection between Performance Practices, Critical & Expanded Design, an... more This book explores the intersection between Performance Practices, Critical & Expanded Design, and Memorial Culture, exploring cross-disciplinary working modes and educational models in response to contemporary and historical persecution and exile. It aims to contribute to the field of Experimental and Expanded Design by probing embodied practices as socially pertinent process-oriented modalities of problem-solving and education. The collection of essays and student projects in this publication gives an insight into the possibility of responding to hidden and reluctant histories of persecution and exile through visual, performative, conceptual and interactive means.
Workshop and presentation at German Tanzkongress, Hanover. (June 18th 2016) by Thomas Kampe in co... more Workshop and presentation at German Tanzkongress, Hanover. (June 18th 2016) by Thomas Kampe in collaboration with Dr. Carol Brown, University of Auckland. The presentation and workshop interrogated the re-activiting of the marginalised and diasporic choreographic practices of Jewish Austrian Modernist Choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser ( Vienna 1890 - Sydney 1959) through somatic informed dance processes.
This essay discusses possibilities and workings of critical somatic arts research from a practiti... more This essay discusses possibilities and workings of critical somatic arts research from a practitioner perspective. The author debates questions, processes and problems concerning his research towards the integration of somatic processes within performance-making and training contexts. The chapter gives an insight into issues arising from the application of Feldenkrais Method®, a key twentieth century somatic modality, as preparatory, enactive tuning and emancipatory ethical process within performing arts research.
This paper discusses relevant issues emerging in relation to the field of Community Dance Practic... more This paper discusses relevant issues emerging in relation to the field of Community Dance Practice in the UK from a cross-, and trans-disciplinary perspective. It evaluates projects the author has particpated in over the last 25 years which have involved dance - , music -, visual arts- and theatre-practitioners and tactics in collaborative settings. Most of these collaborative projects shared concerns and ethics which go beyond traditional artistic domains of aesthetic experience and production, towards concerns of social integration and empowerment of contemporary citizenship. All of the projects and histories discussed share a societal ethos of what social theorist Cornelius Castoriadis’ called a quest to re-invigorate ‘the project of autonomy’ (2005: 99) which lies at the heart of global democracy.
Somatics – an emancipatory Education for the Future? Throughout much of the 20th century, somatic... more Somatics – an emancipatory Education for the Future? Throughout much of the 20th century, somatic education (Somatics) was a powerful force that slowly changed the face of dance training. The change took time – approximately seven decades - for Somatics to shift from merely being a curricular ‘adjunct’ of dance conditioning, to emerging sui generis as a powerful medium for training reflective and autonomous dancers. As a non-doing, non-corrective, dismembering of Cartesian dualism, Somatics spawned several generations of process-based movement learning whose hallmarks were self-reflection and embodied empathy. To date, the founding principles and processes of somatic embodiment remain powerful agents of change, potentially transformative not only for the individual (as dancer), but for the larger scope of our collective humanness. With the 21st century well underway, Somatics has re-surfaced as an emancipatory pedagogy responding to complex problems within the larger sphere of biopo...
This workshop tested the application of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons in improvi... more This workshop tested the application of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons in improvisational somatic-informed dance contexts.
The chapter discusses resonances emerging from the extension of a somatic-informed creative pract... more The chapter discusses resonances emerging from the extension of a somatic-informed creative practice into an arts-activist context concerned with social inclusion and cultural transformation. It reflects upon arts activist projects undertaken in collaboration with biologist/arts-activist Stefania Milazzo in Sicily and Dresden, Germany between 2008 and 2015. The author discusses how a Feldenkrais-informed socially engaged arts practice can serve as a vessel to construct a shared dignified experience between participants, where trust, imagination and empathy are challenged and schooled, through awared and playful interaction. What sort of cultural capital and social learning do we need in our contemporary world of increasing global crises? How do we construct global citizenship through spirited experiential learning situations? Can a shared embodied practice allow us to move beyond being cultural bystanders towards being creative and empathetic activists? Can we still imagine and design a better future world and develop compassionate ways of interaction with an-other
In this talk Dr Thomas Kampe discusses his research in the UK into the uses of Feldenkrais method... more In this talk Dr Thomas Kampe discusses his research in the UK into the uses of Feldenkrais method as part of choreographic development and process as well as training with both dancers and actors.
This papers aims to retrace and re-connect the beginnings of early Modernist Dance and Body Cultu... more This papers aims to retrace and re-connect the beginnings of early Modernist Dance and Body Cultures to body-codes and creative emancipatory ethics found in the work of Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984). It draws on the author’s extensive Feldenkrais-informed teaching practice in the theatre and dance sector, on recent practice-led somatic-informed dance research undertaken by the presenter in collaboration with choreographer Carol Brown and The New Zealand Dance Company, and on dialogues about dance and migration with scholars in Australia, Germany and Israel. The author hypothesises that Feldenkrais’ emphasis on an embodied fostering of the curious mature adult as a creative and emancipated individual not only emerged from his studies in Judo and his scientific background, but also from the early modernist ‘Korperkultur’ (body culture) and dance beginnings that formed important part of the cultural milieu in the 1920’s Palestine that Feldenkrais encountered before he left for Paris. A...
This project report gives an insight into a choreographic research project, 'Weave', wh... more This project report gives an insight into a choreographic research project, 'Weave', which was run during May 2009 at London Metropolitan University. 'Weave' was funded by 'The Facility - Performance as Research Unit' of the Performing Arts section of London Metropolitan ...
Kampe, G. & Kampe T. (2021) beyond forgetting: persecution / exile / memory, 2021
This book explores the intersection between Performance Practices, Critical & Expanded Design, an... more This book explores the intersection between Performance Practices, Critical & Expanded Design, and Memorial Culture, exploring cross-disciplinary working modes and educational models in response to contemporary and historical persecution and exile. It aims to contribute to the field of Experimental and Expanded Design by probing embodied practices as socially pertinent process-oriented modalities of problem-solving and education. The collection of essays and student projects in this publication gives an insight into the possibility of responding to hidden and reluctant histories of persecution and exile through visual, performative, conceptual and interactive means.
Workshop and presentation at German Tanzkongress, Hanover. (June 18th 2016) by Thomas Kampe in co... more Workshop and presentation at German Tanzkongress, Hanover. (June 18th 2016) by Thomas Kampe in collaboration with Dr. Carol Brown, University of Auckland. The presentation and workshop interrogated the re-activiting of the marginalised and diasporic choreographic practices of Jewish Austrian Modernist Choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser ( Vienna 1890 - Sydney 1959) through somatic informed dance processes.
This essay discusses possibilities and workings of critical somatic arts research from a practiti... more This essay discusses possibilities and workings of critical somatic arts research from a practitioner perspective. The author debates questions, processes and problems concerning his research towards the integration of somatic processes within performance-making and training contexts. The chapter gives an insight into issues arising from the application of Feldenkrais Method®, a key twentieth century somatic modality, as preparatory, enactive tuning and emancipatory ethical process within performing arts research.
This paper discusses relevant issues emerging in relation to the field of Community Dance Practic... more This paper discusses relevant issues emerging in relation to the field of Community Dance Practice in the UK from a cross-, and trans-disciplinary perspective. It evaluates projects the author has particpated in over the last 25 years which have involved dance - , music -, visual arts- and theatre-practitioners and tactics in collaborative settings. Most of these collaborative projects shared concerns and ethics which go beyond traditional artistic domains of aesthetic experience and production, towards concerns of social integration and empowerment of contemporary citizenship. All of the projects and histories discussed share a societal ethos of what social theorist Cornelius Castoriadis’ called a quest to re-invigorate ‘the project of autonomy’ (2005: 99) which lies at the heart of global democracy.
Somatics – an emancipatory Education for the Future? Throughout much of the 20th century, somatic... more Somatics – an emancipatory Education for the Future? Throughout much of the 20th century, somatic education (Somatics) was a powerful force that slowly changed the face of dance training. The change took time – approximately seven decades - for Somatics to shift from merely being a curricular ‘adjunct’ of dance conditioning, to emerging sui generis as a powerful medium for training reflective and autonomous dancers. As a non-doing, non-corrective, dismembering of Cartesian dualism, Somatics spawned several generations of process-based movement learning whose hallmarks were self-reflection and embodied empathy. To date, the founding principles and processes of somatic embodiment remain powerful agents of change, potentially transformative not only for the individual (as dancer), but for the larger scope of our collective humanness. With the 21st century well underway, Somatics has re-surfaced as an emancipatory pedagogy responding to complex problems within the larger sphere of biopo...
This workshop tested the application of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons in improvi... more This workshop tested the application of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons in improvisational somatic-informed dance contexts.
The chapter discusses resonances emerging from the extension of a somatic-informed creative pract... more The chapter discusses resonances emerging from the extension of a somatic-informed creative practice into an arts-activist context concerned with social inclusion and cultural transformation. It reflects upon arts activist projects undertaken in collaboration with biologist/arts-activist Stefania Milazzo in Sicily and Dresden, Germany between 2008 and 2015. The author discusses how a Feldenkrais-informed socially engaged arts practice can serve as a vessel to construct a shared dignified experience between participants, where trust, imagination and empathy are challenged and schooled, through awared and playful interaction. What sort of cultural capital and social learning do we need in our contemporary world of increasing global crises? How do we construct global citizenship through spirited experiential learning situations? Can a shared embodied practice allow us to move beyond being cultural bystanders towards being creative and empathetic activists? Can we still imagine and design a better future world and develop compassionate ways of interaction with an-other
In this talk Dr Thomas Kampe discusses his research in the UK into the uses of Feldenkrais method... more In this talk Dr Thomas Kampe discusses his research in the UK into the uses of Feldenkrais method as part of choreographic development and process as well as training with both dancers and actors.
This papers aims to retrace and re-connect the beginnings of early Modernist Dance and Body Cultu... more This papers aims to retrace and re-connect the beginnings of early Modernist Dance and Body Cultures to body-codes and creative emancipatory ethics found in the work of Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984). It draws on the author’s extensive Feldenkrais-informed teaching practice in the theatre and dance sector, on recent practice-led somatic-informed dance research undertaken by the presenter in collaboration with choreographer Carol Brown and The New Zealand Dance Company, and on dialogues about dance and migration with scholars in Australia, Germany and Israel. The author hypothesises that Feldenkrais’ emphasis on an embodied fostering of the curious mature adult as a creative and emancipated individual not only emerged from his studies in Judo and his scientific background, but also from the early modernist ‘Korperkultur’ (body culture) and dance beginnings that formed important part of the cultural milieu in the 1920’s Palestine that Feldenkrais encountered before he left for Paris. A...
This project report gives an insight into a choreographic research project, 'Weave', wh... more This project report gives an insight into a choreographic research project, 'Weave', which was run during May 2009 at London Metropolitan University. 'Weave' was funded by 'The Facility - Performance as Research Unit' of the Performing Arts section of London Metropolitan ...
The practice-led project ‘Releasing the Archive’, undertaken in collaboration with dance-scholar ... more The practice-led project ‘Releasing the Archive’, undertaken in collaboration with dance-scholar Carol Brown (NZ/AUS), aims to re-articulate marginalised modernist exile-dance practices and histories, with reference to the work of Austrian Jewish choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser (1890-1959) who pioneered Modern Dance in New Zealand and Australia after 1939. It embraces trends towards somatic-informed dance practices, performance-as-archive, and the revisioning of modernist dance legacies. This collection documents a multi-component output with contextualising information. The items provide evidence of the projects 300-Word Statement, Research Questions & Research Timeline, The installation 'Displaced/Displayed: Re-enacting dances of migration', The Film 'Releasing her Archive' & the Interactive Installation 'I Travel With You', The Performance 'Lost & Found' (which together form the research output for this project), Contextualising Information (a Book Chapter & a Powerpoint Presentation), Research Process Documentation (in the form of Videos & Images from workshops) & Historical Resource Images
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Books by Thomas Kampe
Papers by Thomas Kampe