Contemporary Movement Practices
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2017-present day
A series of works created through facilitating the creative process of semi-professionals & amatures
Supported by Leiden University (LAK)
Supported by Leiden University (LAK)
Portrait of 3 women
March 2017
Director: Natalie Heller
Dancers: Bettina Nauhaus, Maria Michailidou, Natalie Heller
Presented at the Butoh festival Leiden.
Dancers: Bettina Nauhaus, Maria Michailidou, Natalie Heller
Presented at the Butoh festival Leiden.
Dancing in the library
Winter 2016
A three month residency culminating in 8 participatory performances.
Following a designed map through the library, the audience experiences
books and the library space by means of dance and movement. During the
performance there are interactive moments between the dance artists
and the public where the public are invited to creatively contribute to the
performance.
Following a designed map through the library, the audience experiences
books and the library space by means of dance and movement. During the
performance there are interactive moments between the dance artists
and the public where the public are invited to creatively contribute to the
performance.
Trailer
March 10th- April 5th 2015
Photo: Irmak Altiner
Specially commissioned by SALT for the exhibition Century of Centuries, Trailer is a series of lecture performances conceived and performed by dance artists Erinç Aslanboğa, Natalie Heller and Bahar Temiz that look into notions of personal and collective memory by gathering elements from the past and reorganizing them in a performative frame.
The lectures investigate the possibility of creating a space where one can navigate between past, present and future, fiction and reality, and by extension experience their simultaneous occurrence.
How do we knit the stories we tell?
What elements from the past trail into the present?
How do we take hold of a memory?
Concept and choreography: Erinç Aslanboğa, Natalie Heller and Bahar Temiz
SALT Beyoglu Gallery, Istanbul
The lectures investigate the possibility of creating a space where one can navigate between past, present and future, fiction and reality, and by extension experience their simultaneous occurrence.
How do we knit the stories we tell?
What elements from the past trail into the present?
How do we take hold of a memory?
Concept and choreography: Erinç Aslanboğa, Natalie Heller and Bahar Temiz
SALT Beyoglu Gallery, Istanbul
The creative impulse of this work arises from my work with Rosemary Butcher combined with my first impressions of living in the city of Istanbul. I’ve been touched by the sensorial richness of the city, the images and sounds, the architecture old and new, the poverty and wealth… the gentrification… the instability…the beauty… the duality…. the stillness. This piece explores the magic and poetry of a city suspended somewhere in the in between.
Choreographer: Natalie Heller
Performers: Lerna Babikyan, Su Gunes Mihladiz, Esra Yurttut
Costume design: Yasemin Ozeri
Photography: Erisin Ercin, Murat Durum, Serdar Kurt
Videography: Can Eskinazi, Burak Cevik
Performed at: GarajIstanbul, Kast Tyatro, L'Institut Francais, Istanbul, Turkey
Choreographer: Natalie Heller
Performers: Lerna Babikyan, Su Gunes Mihladiz, Esra Yurttut
Costume design: Yasemin Ozeri
Photography: Erisin Ercin, Murat Durum, Serdar Kurt
Videography: Can Eskinazi, Burak Cevik
Performed at: GarajIstanbul, Kast Tyatro, L'Institut Francais, Istanbul, Turkey
Cycle of Memory
February 2014
From October 2013- February 2014 I facilitated a group of professional performers to explore body awareness and internal listening through somatic techniques.
This live movement installation was an opportunity to share the worlds the groups had been exploring.
Movement material and performance: Bella Haeger, Saziye Mese, Kaan Ertem, Ayse Ceren Sari, Gizem Akman and Irem Calikusu.
Curation: Natalie Heller
This live movement installation was an opportunity to share the worlds the groups had been exploring.
Movement material and performance: Bella Haeger, Saziye Mese, Kaan Ertem, Ayse Ceren Sari, Gizem Akman and Irem Calikusu.
Curation: Natalie Heller
Kazamias
June 2013
Twelve artists/art historians/art theorists were invited to select an art work from the collection of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Cyprus and to respond creatively to it. The responses were then collected and displayed next to the selected art works at the gallery space Point.
Starting point: How does a dance artist respond creatively to a visual artwork? This live performance piece has been created as a response to a painting of a dancer by Andros Kazamias. It is not a response to the physical movement of Kazamia's painted dancer but an interpretation of what I felt to be the artist’s intent. Reflected in the live moving body is a sense of internal conflict and duality.
Invitation to spectator: What if a dance work is perceived as a piece of live visual art?
Concept and performance: Natalie Heller
Funded by Point with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Education of Cyprus.
Performed at point Gallery Space, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Eternal Recurrence (re-visted)
April 2013
Using my influential period of study with Rosemary Butcher as a starting point I work with my first impressions of Istanbul to create a 20 minute participatory performance work.
Premiered at University of Surrey in the conference 'Performance philosophy- staging a new field' and performed in Görün festival, Çatı, Istanbul.
Music by Hajsch
Still Here
July 2012
A participatory live movement installation experimenting in the live on the relationship between self and other. How do we negotiate our relationships to other people? What modes of presence makes the other accessible? How do we navigate through aspects of our self before relating to another? This is an ongoing research project supported by Spiral and Horizontal Connections (a platform for the collaboration between dance and academia to meet).
Music by Hajsch
Part of the research project Experiential Phenomenology
Eternal Recurrence
May 2012
Part of a Collection curated by Rosemary Butcher on the theme of memory and the female.
Siobhan Davies Studios, London, U.K.
Other artists: Bettina Nauhaus, Donna Redlick, Margarita Zafrilla, Susan Sentler, Katy Coe
Music by Hadge
Part of the research project Experiential Phenomenology
Untitled
February 2012
A lecture demonstration using film, movement and the spoken word to explore how we read meaning into what we see. The 20 minute performance was followed by an answer/question session.
Siobhan Davies Studios- London, U.K.
Part of the research project Experiential Phenomenology
Here we are
November 2011
photo by Monika Kita
In this piece I explore the body as object. I'm interested in understanding the physical aspect of the body and how 'it is not that different to the things around us'.
Presented at Laban- London
Part of the research project Experiential Phenomenology
Experiential Phenomenology
-a research project-
Photo by Ludo des Cognets
Experiment 1: Body as Object
I am researching the relationship between Self and world. How do we experience and interact with physical entities? Is my body not simply a physical entity, like the 'things' I see and feel around me? I am hoping to embark on an exploration of the ontological place an individual holds within an environment made of inert 'things'. How do we integrate in and belong to the environment in which we live when we experience ourselves as primarily physical entities? What happens to our sense of self?
Studio based research led to a 15 minute performance work presented at Laban 22nd November 2012.
Experiment 2: Meaning Making
How do we read meaning into what we perceive? Merely by perceiving we are already creating meaning. We need to understand the world around us to be able to interact with it. We are constantly trying to understand what we perceive. In this project I explore how mirror neurons transfer sensation from performer to audience member, how abstract images leave space for the audience to participate in the creation of meaning, how our expectations and memories form the way we perceive.
Lecture-demonstration presented at Siobhan Davies Studios 10th February 2012
Experiment 3: Aspects of Self
In an investigation guided by Rosemary Butcher I explore the self through time: memories, traces of others, aspects of self, the present and the past folding into each other.
Presented as part of 'A collection', Siobhan Davies Studios 19th May 2012
Experiment 4: Self and Other
A participatory live movement installation experimenting with how we negotiate our relationship to others. I explore different methodologies for engaging an audience, as the work is created through their presence and actions.
This is a 20 minute complete work and is available for touring.
The creative process of this project was disclosed in a blog. Read more on www.join-the-journey.com
Premiered at Laban July 2012
For this project I started a blog disclosing my creative process. To find out more go to join-the-journey.com
I am researching the relationship between Self and world. How do we experience and interact with physical entities? Is my body not simply a physical entity, like the 'things' I see and feel around me? I am hoping to embark on an exploration of the ontological place an individual holds within an environment made of inert 'things'. How do we integrate in and belong to the environment in which we live when we experience ourselves as primarily physical entities? What happens to our sense of self?
Studio based research led to a 15 minute performance work presented at Laban 22nd November 2012.
Experiment 2: Meaning Making
How do we read meaning into what we perceive? Merely by perceiving we are already creating meaning. We need to understand the world around us to be able to interact with it. We are constantly trying to understand what we perceive. In this project I explore how mirror neurons transfer sensation from performer to audience member, how abstract images leave space for the audience to participate in the creation of meaning, how our expectations and memories form the way we perceive.
Lecture-demonstration presented at Siobhan Davies Studios 10th February 2012
Experiment 3: Aspects of Self
In an investigation guided by Rosemary Butcher I explore the self through time: memories, traces of others, aspects of self, the present and the past folding into each other.
Presented as part of 'A collection', Siobhan Davies Studios 19th May 2012
Experiment 4: Self and Other
A participatory live movement installation experimenting with how we negotiate our relationship to others. I explore different methodologies for engaging an audience, as the work is created through their presence and actions.
This is a 20 minute complete work and is available for touring.
The creative process of this project was disclosed in a blog. Read more on www.join-the-journey.com
Premiered at Laban July 2012
For this project I started a blog disclosing my creative process. To find out more go to join-the-journey.com
Presence in Absence
June 2011
An interdisciplinary performance exploring the absence of female presence in male dominated public spaces. It was first performed in a traditional male dominated coffee shop in Cyprus. The project was a result of a one month collaboration between an actress, a dancer, a visual artist and a sound installation artist. The sense of the female presence existing despite its physical absence is juxtaposed with the ridicule of its actual absence.
Performers: Antoni Antoniou, Evanthia Tselika, Natalie Heller and Nikoletta Verykiou
Performed in the traditional coffee shop 'Drosia' in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Cyprus
Me, Myself and I
May 2011
A solo piece delving deep into the dual effects of conceptual and emotional heritage. It is on the one hand the thread that holds together our identity; gently rocking us through life, keeping us safe and protected; holding us in a warm embrace; unifying the disconnected phenomena; providing a lens through which things make sense. On the other hand our heritage is a heavy condemnation forcing upon us an identity which doesn’t belong to us. Heavy and foreboding, it creates our destiny. We are puppets in its hands, our likes and dislikes engraved into us, our concepts and ideas fixated upon us by this external force, from which we cannot be free.
Concept/ Choreography/ Performance: Natalie Heller
Music composition: Frank Chouraqui
Performed as part of the festival 'Body and Heritage' 21 May 2011 and at the international conference/ arts exchange
`Body at the Cross roads of Culture' 19 June 2011, Cyprus
Funded by the International Theatre Institute Cyprus.
Ophelia Still Rewinds
April 2011
This is the second part of the work in progress Ophelia Rewinds which began in January 2011. The work in progress is based on Shakespeare's tragic heroine Ophelia from his play Hamlet. Her story is told in reverse and intermingled with elements from the lifestyle of a modern day woman. As this work develops, exploring the universality of the female condition has become central to the creation process.
Performers/ collaborators: Natalie Heller, Nikoletta Verykiou
Concept: Michalis Theodorou
Performed at 'To Praktorio no culture space' Cyprus
Funded by the Youth Board of Cyprus
Francophonie: Dance Poetry Performance
March 2011
Poetry from around the world is performed through an interdisciplinary collaboration of dance, theatre and live music. We explore the themes: path, identity and love within poetry from France, Belgium, Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Romania, Hungary, Switzerland and Canada all of which are read in French.
Dancer: Natalie Heller
Actress: Mady Mantelin (France)
Music: Lefteris Moumtzis (Double bass, piano), Antonis Antoniou ( Live electronics)
Performed in the cultural centre 'Kasteliotissa' Cyprus
Funded by the French Institute of Cyprus with the support of the Ministry and Culture and Education of Cyprus and the Embassies of the countries represented
Ophelia Rewinds
January 2011
The first showing of a work in progress based on Shakespeare's tragic heroine Ophelia from his play Hamlet. Her story is told in reverse and intermingled with elements from the lifestyle of a modern day woman.
Performers/ collaborators: Natalie Heller, Nikoletta Verykiou
Concept: Michalis Theodorou
Performed at Kasteliotissa Cultural Centre, Cyprus
Funded by the Youth Board of Cyprus
Trading Places
June 2010
A site-specific performance drawing inspiration from the lives of two young artists who live in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus. Delving into politically and emotionally charged themes, such as the sharing of living space, the acquisition of territory, the establishment and dissolving of identity, the performers take the spectators on a journey as they weave their way through the old market place.
Performers/ collaborators: Natalie Heller, Nikoletta Verykiou
Performed in the Municipal Market place of Old Nicosia, Cyprus
Performed as part of the cultural/academic event 'public space'
Arthur Rimbaud: Moi Partant
May 2010
The poetry of French poet Arthur Rimbaud is performed through the live arts of music, live poetry reading and movement. A collaboration between four artists on the themes of love and travel.
Dancer: Natalie Heller
Actress: Mady Mantelin (France)
Music: Lefteris Moumtzis (Double bass, piano), Antonis Antoniou ( Live electronics)
Performed in the gardens of the French Institute of Cyprus
Supported by the French Institute of Cyprus
Sacré
March 2010
A deeply human piece, about femininity, love, life and loss. Working through what three female performers take to be sacred this dance theatre piece is filled with tenderness, pain and light.
Performers/collaborators: Natalie heller, Machi Lindhal, Monia Panayiotou
Musicians: Lefteris Moumtzis, Antonis Antoniou
Performed at Kasteliotissa Cutural Centre, Cyprus
Altered States
February 2010
An ode to the celebration of the 50 years Independence of the Rebublic of Cyprus. With 4 performers and an original music score, we get a taste of the irony behind the term 'Independence' as, through movement, we wittness the emotional experience of 2 Cypriot women living in a divided country surrounded by foreign military bases.
Choreography: Natalie Heller
Performers: Natalie Heller, Rania Charalambous, Marios Constantinou, Antonis Onoufriou
Music: Aris Tsigaras
Performed at the Contemporary Dance Festival 'Platforma' at Rialto Theatre, Limassol, Cyprus
Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Cyprus
A Posteriori
November 2009
This piece speaks about the dual nature of the Self. The Self is split between the Confident, Yes-sayer and the Trapped, Unsatisfied Negator. The battle is set to determine who will prevail in interactions with the Other. Questions are asked, relationships are formed -between Self and Other aswell as between the two parts of the Self- intimacy and conflict persist....the conculsion is ongoing.
Performers/collaborators: Natalie Heller, Madelaine Blount, Karl Paquemar
Music Composition: Frank Chouraqui and Madelaine Blount
Performed at the Interdisciplinary Arts Festival 'No Body' at Pallas Theatre, Nicosia, Cyprus
Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Cyprus
Proximity
July & August 2007
A collaboration and research project between 9 performers and 1 musicians, under the direction of Karl Frost. The performers lived together in extreme conditions, by a river, 13 kilometer trek from civilization for one month, training in exercises of physical and emotional closeness. The result was a partially improvised participatory performance which went on tour around San francisco in the summer of 2007. Proximity is a very direct investigation of personal relationship, closeness, isolation, privacy, exposure, and the emotional sub-voices that speak inside of us when we are in relationship to the other.
Director: Karl Frost
Performers: Isabelle Fortier, Sasha Klapkin (Canada), Elska Zeidle (Germany), Natalie Heller (Cyprus), Munir Rashid, Cammie Kelly, Kevin Dockerty, Karl Frost, Collin Leach (US), and guests
Soundscape: Isabelle Kirouac
Performed in San Francisco (at 1800 Illinois) and Santa Cruz (at 418 Project), California
Review: http://www.sfweekly.com/2007-08-08/culture/proximity/
Solo
April 2007
A solo work created for and presented at the first Dancin' Oxford festival. Supported by Oxford City Council.
Choreography and performance: Natalie heller
Music: Nicole Renau
Performed at South Park, Oxford
