Moving Radical Identities: Entirely aware of my abilities…
Thomas Kampe
Sunday
11:30 - 12:00
Aquarium
Short Presentation
This presentation explores alternative proto-somatic dance histories exemplified through the radical practices of Jewish exiled Modern Dance pioneer Tile Rössler (1907 – 1959). It draws on archive materials – costume drawings, photographs, letters and visionary essays written by Rössler and her young students in German at the height of the tragedy of the Shoah in 1944 – to honour the emancipatory dimensions within the nearly forgotten somatic legacies. Rössler was born in Tarnov, Poland, in 1907, grew up in Berlin, studied with Mary Wigman and Gret Palucca in Dresden. She directed the Palucca School between 1930 and 1933. Rössler emigrated to Tel Aviv in 1933 where she opened her studio to teach and create solo works which she performed in Palestine, later Israel and in Switzerland and the US. She died in Tel Aviv in 1959.
Thomas Kampe (PhD) has worked with somatic processes for over 35 years, often in Holocaust reconciliation arts contexts. He works as Professor of Somatic Performance and Education at Bath Spa University. Thomas is a teacher of the Feldenkrais Method ®, which forms a foundation for his teaching and research which focuses on legacies of critical somatic practices. Thomas co-edited JDSP Vol. 9 (2017): ‘Bodily undoing: Somatics as practices of critique’, and edited the IFF Journal Vol. 6 (2019): ‘Practices of Freedom: The Feldenkrais Method and Creativity’. In 2021 he co-edited the book ’beyond forgetting: persecution / exile / memory’ with his brother Gerhard Kampe. Thomas co-directed Body IQ Festival 2019, together with Kai Ehrhardt.