Celia Hext

can we drown ourselves from the inside out

The artist sees light in all eyes and has skin like paper, dissolvable to transparency. She loves herself like plants love water, undeniably. She believes in her goodness and her ability to converse, somehow with what our bones are always whispering. She’s in your tears, beautiful and loud, giggling.

But her frown, the one that walks a thinner line of adulthood, is cloaked in calculation, doubt and fear. It sees a body in the mirror where the artist sees shimmering light and wind. She feels defined by her edges, stuck in her temperature-ed identity, trying to hold the unholdable. I am soft and giving and good, but I am rude and selfish and stuck. We don’t live together. Days pass and I wonder when these two will collide. If I split my body in two, I could still dance lopsided.

This workshop will be based in improvisation and will explore our bodies, the land, and where their boundaries blur. We will delve into our emotional beings, our memories, our fantasies, our ‘what ifs’ and our sensations that both hold us and warp our sense of self; all as a means to be completely in the now. We each have oceans inside of us, when they meet we have the capacity to flood each other. Can we drown ourselves from the inside out? In this workshop we will often return to notions and patterns of nature, the yearnings of ‘what if’s’ and the sensations of memory; through which will create a collective language to explore. We will sweat, we will soften, we will laugh. I wish to share my practices, and hopefully you can share yours too.

Celia Hext’s biography:

Celia Hext is from Aotearoa (New Zealand). Her emotional capacity, to love, and thrash, and giggle, and bleed is what distinguishes her as an artist and as a human. Celia makes work about us, our tomfoolery, our joy and our relationships to the land we are caretakers of. She is curious about life and our dance with it.

Celia was 1 of 24 artists from around the world invited to perform in David Zambrano’s project Silo Solo Solamente 2, following a 5 month improvisation residency at Tictac Art Centre in Brussels, Belgium. Celia has collaborated with various renowned artists, choreographers and companies including Tino Sehgal, Jennifer Monson, Alexa Wilson, Footnote Dance Company, Foster Group, Dance Plant Collective and Identity Dance company. Celia was selected for Impulstanz’s 2023 ATLAS choreographic residency in Austria and her co-choreographed work with Jawline Dance Co. Puffy Sob Pt.2, won Best Overall Dance Work in Auckland Fringe 2022. Celia’s choreographic and performance career has led her across the globe, performing and presenting works in Belgium, Austria, Canada, USA and New Zealand, with digital works spanning across Germany, Australia, United Kingdom, Russia and Korea.

Celia is committed to the art of transmitting and sharing her joy for dance and movement research with others. She is a passionate teacher and consistently teaches across New Zealand.

November 10 – 14
Monday to Friday
10:00 – 13:00

Price:
50 € registration fee
180 € total