khalas fest // workshops

khalas fest is a terrain where:

subversive and defiant embodied performance confronts ripples of violence spilling from rupturing systems

artists wielding performance as weapon towards creating cracks in illusions of empire, settler colonialism, and whatever else is in the way

generating echoes rebounding into dreams of future world

( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( PALESTINE IS FREE ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

a curation born out of a group of artists who decide to put their work in conversation — rather than waiting for someone to do it for us.

Hosted by Body Watani Dance Project in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce, khalas fest will consist of 7 works, featuring both local and visiting artists. The performances range from defiant stances, to subversive dark comedy, to deeply sacred spells / prayers / visions of healing.

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More info and tickets for performances, click link!

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WORKSHOP: Sumud, Tarab, Tarweeda · Leila Awadallah

Tuesday, September 29 · 5:30–7PM

This workshop engages in research that is seeded by 3 concepts of embodiment. Sumud صمود | an unyielding, enduring, ongoing, sustained and steadfast rootedness. Tarab طرب | an ecstatic enchantment, or trance brought on by feelings invoked by music. Tarweeda ترويدة | a type of Palestinian resistance song that involves inserting secret codes into songs while confusing the occupier with a repetition of vowels.

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WORKSHOP: Objects as Storytellers · Mette Loulou

Wednesday, September 30 · 5:30–7PM @ Threads Dance Studio (across the hallway from Red Eye Theater)

This workshop will explore storytelling with objects. Objects in theater are usually seen as props or scenery, however what if we also saw them as performers? Objects hold unaccountable stories within them waiting to be told. Through writing, collaborative-storytelling, and image-theater the workshop will invite participants to engage with objects as co-authors of their stories.

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WORKSHOP: Drop In, Spiral Out · Zaquia Luisa Salinas

Saturday, October 3 · 12–2PM

This workshop is aimed at supporting the development of dynamic and functional physicality through explorations of weight, momentum, attention, anatomy, and play. We'll use technical exercises, improvisation, phrase-work, and partnered feedback to explore space and dance fully in community with others.

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WORKSHOP: How We Move Together: Fortifying our Contact Improvisation practice with Feldenkrais and Body-Mind Centering Methods · Nicole Bindler and Chelsea Thaler

Sunday, October 4 · 12–2PM

In this workshop Nicole Bindler and Chelsea Thaler will offer foundational Body-Mind Centering and Feldenkrais practices as scaffolds for our contact improvisation improvisation (CI) dances. We will look at a few common challenges in our CI dances and break down the mechanics of these sticky moments. We will use these somatic methods as roadmaps for moving in and out of the floor, through levels of weight sharing, and into more meaningful connection with each other.

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WORKSHOP: Improvisation Research with Noelle Awadallah and Anniessa Antar

Sunday, October 4 · 2:30–4:30PM
A durational, lightly led improvisational journey (featuring music by Anniessa aka bousayha) that invites participants into personal research on questions of homeland in the body, while in a collective space. This workshop is an invitation into the Body Watani philosophy of researching dance with specific ideas and questions from Anniessa Antar and Noelle Awadallah’s performance research: in the face of ongoing destruction, war, genocide, , what does it feel like to resensitize yourself to wonder, awe, bewilderment? How can you practice failing as you seek to build new worlds as spaces of refuge from the current one?

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ADDITIONAL OFFERINGS:

Dog hours

Saturday, Oct. 3 4-5:00PM

The dog is a droning instrument that plays itself by reacting to the room. A feedback loop of vibration input and output. Come LAY on the floor, or MOVE your body in the space with this visceral sound. DRAW. WRITE. ABSORB. LISTEN. CONSPIRE.

FREE