Poet CAConrad writes “We are time machines/ of water and flesh/ patterned for destruction/ if we do not release the trauma”.

Trauma always happens in the body. It is a wordless story our body tells us about what is safe and what is unsafe. It is not a flaw or weakness, but a highly effective tool of continuity of life. We are bodies born out of other bodies feeding other bodies. Fear in one generation leads to sensitivity and even anxiety in the next. Body remembers and ensures the possibility of memorization. Body is not only a site of memory but also a gate to access the past.

We ask ourselves, can we be held accountable for carrying transgenerational trauma with unconscious compulsion to repeat, instead of releasing it? What somatic practices and forms of togetherness can do for the sake of collective and individual post-traumatic growth? How body-oriented approaches can mend holistic wounds, shielded with shame and dissociation, that fragments our visceral truth of experience?

What?

A workshop tackling how unresolved history manifests in the body. We invite you to listen to what the body holds and tells, while the mind might not yet be aware. Paying attention to what is communicated through the body, can be a powerful tool for unlocking and changing one’s relationship to past events.

There is a perspective we share as a collective beyond nation states, something we roughly define as post-soviet identity, and the discomfort of addressing what it entails. It seems that for a long time numbing, withdrawal and silence have been the habitual coping-with strategies passed from one generation to another. We want to investigate the relationship between the body and the narrative and the emancipatory power of commemorating our cellular stories. With respect to the past and our roots, we invite you to re-plant the body into the present looking at the body-brain connection through holistic approaches and story sharing.

The workshop is divided into four days, exploring bodily memory, wisdom and knowledge through somatic exercises and artistic practices. It is led by Lithuanian born artists Liza Baliasnaja and Rūta Junevičiūte whose artistic researches deal with themes of memory, emotions, intergenerationality and political subjectivity.

What to expect?

Temporary community for conversation and sharing
Collective processing of “stigmatized” and complex themes of regional legacies
Memory work and meaning-making in the context of Eastern Europe
Introduction to organ work: exploring specific emotion and an organ connection
Durational somatic sensing
Learning through voicing and touch (if consented)
Creative methods and games from performing arts
Tools for grounding and relaxing the body through breath
Empathy and respect for your own tempo

For who?

We try to accommodate participants of all ages and backgrounds. We encourage participants of different movement abilities to join. No prior dance experience is necessary. The workshop is in English, but for more delicate language nuances we can try to assist with Russian/Estonian.

When?

March 20-23, 15-18 PM.
Participation in the full duration of the workshop is not required, but it is recommended.

Liza Baliasnaja (b. Kaunas, 1994) is a choreographer and performer active between Cologne and Vilnius. Her work is informed by ongoing research into themes of power, subjectivity, language and violence. Her recent performances have been presented at the festivals like Radiant Nights, Bâtard, New Baltic Dance, Almost Summer/ Feminist Futures, FAVORITEN and Tanz.Tausch. As a performer and outside eye, she collaborated with artists like Eszter Salamon, Christine De Smedt, Lenio Kaklea, Mårten Spångberg, Ula Sickle, and Lina Lapelytė among others. She completed her dance training at P.A.R.T.S and holds a BA in philosophy from the university of KU Leuven.

Rūta Junevičiūtė is from Vilnius with a partial base in Amsterdam. With a training in art history and theory, fine arts and choreography, she holds degrees from Vilnius Academy of Arts and Amsterdam University of Arts (School for New Dance Development). For the past seven years she has been researching the body as a sentient archive, intergenerationality, the affects of censorship and holistic processes of healing. She works in performance, text, drawing, video and installation mediums. Her recent work has been showcased at Veem House of Performance, Frascati Theatre, de Brakke Grond Theatre in Amsterdam, Vilnius Performance Art Biennial, Contemporary Art Center, the Lithuanian National Gallery of Art, and Rupert in Vilnius. In 2023 she published a bilingual book on the aesthetics of conspiracy and the phenomena of the Aesopian language in Lithuania and Eastern Europe: https://artbooks.lt/en/product/aesopica/