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Backslash Festival

«KOPANIMA»
Xenia Koghilaki

Dance

Four dancers headbang, mosh and let their bodies continually collide. In doing so, they ignite a rousing energy found somewhere between togetherness and individual trance.

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  • Sat 23/1121:30–22:20

    Halle Ost, Halle West

Concertgoers can immerse themselves in an ambivalent feeling of togetherness and sensory stimulation while moshing. Copyright: Mayra Wallraff / image manipulation: Bodara GmbH

The crowd at a concert represents a place of communal struggle and ritualised togetherness. At the same time, it can be a place for moshing, a dance style in which concertgoers’ bodies bang and bump against each other, immersing themselves in an ambivalent feeling of togetherness and sensory stimulation. The performance ‘KOPANIMA’ takes up the movement practice of moshing and transforms it into an echo of the moshpit*. The movements of the four dancers focus on the dynamics and energies between bodies moving together in the crowd. A space is created that raises questions about physicality, vulnerability and resistance - and at the same time enables gestures of trust and solidarity.

‘KOPANIMA’ is the third part of an ongoing performance series, following “Bang Bang Bodies”, which premiered as part of Tanztage Berlin 2023, and “Slamming” (produced by Onassis Stegi), in which artist Xenia Koghilaki explores the relationship between the subcultural practices of moshing and collective letting go through dance and choreography.

*A mosh pit is a circle that often forms in front of the stage at metal, hardcore or punk concerts, in which the audience dances.

Access means

The performance contains abrupt lighting changes and stroboscopic effects. There is loud music that sometimes comes as a surprise.

Tickets

The performance can be attended with a Backslash festival pass.

Daypass Friday

Daypass Saturday

  • Xenia Koghilaki is originally from Athens and lives and works in Berlin in the field of performing arts as a dancer and choreographer. She puts the body in the centre of her research interest, while her practice engages with issues of re-examining the moving body’s aesthetic, political and social aspects. She is a graduate of the Greek National School of Dance, the Architecture Department of the University of Patras and she holds an MA in “Solo/Dance/Authorship” from the University of the Arts Berlin (HZT Berlin). Xenia’s work has been presented in Onassis Dance Days (“Slamming” / 2024, “Bang Bang Bodies” / 2023), Sophiensaele (“KOPANIMA” / 2024) and Tanztage Berlin (“Bang Bang Bodies / 2023), ImpulsTanz 8:tension series 2024, Kommuna Warsawa, Studio ALTA (collaborative piece “Nudes and Conspiracies”), Onassis NewChoreographers Festival (collaborative work “Besuch”), the Arc for Dance Festival among others. As a dancer, she has collaborated with Kat Válastur for the works“Strong-Born,” “Diana, Even,” “The FarNear”, André Uerba, the Hellenic Dance Company, among others. Xenia has been a danceWEB scholarship recipient at the ImPulsTanz Vienna in 2021, she was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS in 2022 and she is an Onassis AiR Fellow for 2023/24.

  • Concept, Choreography:
    Xenia Koghilaki
    Performance:
    Noumissa Sidibé, Irini Georgiou, Julia Plawgo, Xenia Koghilaki
    Live Music and composition:
    Ernesto Cárcamo Cavazos
    Lighting Design:
    Vito Walter
    Choreographic Assistance and Dramaturgical Support:
    André Uerba
    Costume Design:
    antistatic_studio
    Outside Eye:
    Nondas Damopoulos
    Production:
    Marina Agathangelidou
    Production coordination:
    Olga Tsatsouli / howtomakeyourlifeharder

  • A production by Xenia Koghilaki in co-production with Sophiensæle and Onassis Stegi. Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin.

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