Choreographing joy

Friday 22 October 2021, 15:00 – 16:30

Past

Free
Workshop
British Sign Language (online)

Photograph of a laptop on a desk. On the laptop screen are four vertical photographs placed side to side, each monotone, but with a bright yellow tone overlaid. Each image shows an individual in a performative pose. On the far left a woman facing the camera just appears into view holding her arm up bent at the elbow, fingers splayed, one hand almost touching the other. The image to right of this one shows a man facing away from the camera hands pushing against a plain wall, leaning hard against it. The image to the right of this shows a man lying on his back on the floor, neck arched back with one foot raised against a plain wall. The image on the far right show a woman just disappearing out of the frame, facing away from the camera. She is standing with her legs crossed and her left arm raised level with her shoulders and bent at the elbow. On the laptop screen are videocall icons, and a red telephone icon. Around the laptop is a houseplant, lamp and headphones.

Dance the Pain Away, Photo: Kathleen Arundell. Still on laptop screen: Joy Inside Our Tears, 2021. Harold Offeh. Performers: Veronica Cordova de la Rosa, Samara Mayanja, Harold Offeh and Ebun Sodipo. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

What you’ll do

Experience the power of dance in an online movement workshop with choreographer Vania Gala.

Following a warm-up, Gala will introduce you to the meditative and trance-like state that dancing can evoke as you move to music from Harold Offeh’s ‘The Joy Inside Our Tears’ installation.

No previous experience is required and you’ll be invited to move in whatever way is comfortable for you.

The workshop will be a live closed event with a small group of people, which will not be recorded. We encourage cameras to be on so you can dance with others and ask questions.

After booking a ticket, you will receive a confirmation email with joining instructions.

Dates

Friday 22 October 2021, 15:00 – 16:30

Past

Need to know

Guaranteed

Booking a ticket guarantees you entry to the online event. You will be given joining instructions in your confirmation email.

British Sign Language (online)

This event is British Sign Language interpreted. An interpreter will be embedded in the event livestream or visible on screen for online viewers.

For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 0 2 0. 7 6 1 1. 2 2 2 2

Our event terms and conditions

About your contributors

Black and white photograph of a young man with
a short beard wearing glasses and a white baseball hat. The background is black.

Harold Offeh

(he/him)

Curator

Harold Offeh is a UK-based artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by inhabiting or embodying histories, using humour to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects (London), Kettle’s Yard, Wysing Arts Centre Studio (Cambridge), Studio Museum Harlem (New York), MAC VAL (France) Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark) and Art Tower Mito (Japan). He recently completed a PhD exploring the activation of Black album covers through performance. He is a Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and a tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art.

Vânia Gala

(she/her)

Choreographer

Vânia Gala's researcher page at Kingston Unversity

Vânia Gala is a choreographer and researcher. Gala's choreographies and conversational performances explore the critical potential of (non)performance(s) and opacity in the present time. Her interests lie in critical dance studies, performance philosophy and experimental practices with an emphasis on notions of refusal, choreo-thinking, fugitivity, improvisation(s), negotiation, dissensus, hospitality and value.