About this Event
Led by multidisciplinary artist and dancer Yon Natalie Mik, this workshop engages with her choreographic practice of collective movement and sculptural paper notations, which serve as abodes for spirits.
Mik will lead with her approach to tuning into our bodies and the environment, encouraging reflection on how we can document and nurture mutual care. Through moving together and translating kinetic thinking into tangible paper sculptures, participants will explore a new perspective on their physical self-awareness, their relation to space, and what it means to move together.
Image: 'Choreography of Care', courtesy of the artist.
Grounded in Muism (Korean shamanism), Yon crafts expanded choreographies that foster spiritual dialogues with ourselves and the bodies around us, such as the living, the chosang (ancestral spirits), and the shin (spirits of places, objects, and natural phenomena). Yon looks at dance from a pre-dualistic perspective in which aspects of our material and spiritual selves are not fragmented. The manifestation of physical thinking expands beyond a strict physicalization of dance through non-autonomous and disembodied compositions that resist choreographic discipline.
Yon’s expanded choreographies challenge the conventional understanding of choreography—largely influenced by the Western theatrical dance canon since the 16th century—which typically delineates a system for documenting or arranging bodily movement. This limited view has often skewed dancerly knowledge with biases such as ableism, racism, and sexism. Yon's approach promotes choreographic diversity, subverting the notion of dance as purely physical. This is expressed through improvisational movements, spoken poetry, and sculptural dance notations.
The workshop is inclusive and welcomes adults of all genders, races, abilities, and dance experience levels. All materials will be provided, as well as light refreshments.
About the Artist
Yon Natalie Mik is an artist and dancer who is working at the intersection of performance, poetry, and theory. Drawing from the knowledge of disobedient and marginalized bodies, Mik’s expanded choreographies are anchored on the subversive power of fragility. Her practice often manifests in in-depth studies that delve into various forms of kinetic thinking that range from individual gestures to larger social movements. Some of her latest studies exposed the body politics in the lives of Asian migrants and questioned the documentation of their movements shaped by ableism, racism, and classism. Research, practice, and the sharing of the findings with the public audience collectively form a choreographic approach to archiving overlooked or marginalized forms of kinetic knowledge. Her own body serves as a living archive, ever transforming, unreliable yet resilient, kinetically rewriting socio-cultural landscapes distorted by hate, greed, and fear.
She founded The Invisible Archive in 2019, a publication project that explores performance through writing and collaborative publishing with other artists, researchers, and activists. Her ongoing Ph.D. project titled ‘Choreography of the Ghost – Rearchiving Kinetic Knowledge in Contemporary Expanded Asia’ is funded by the German Research Foundation.
Some of her most recent works were shown at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2023); Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2022); Project Space Festival, Berlin (2022); Arts at Blue Roof, Los Angeles (2022); Ifa Gallerie, Berlin (2021); Slavs and Tartar Pickle Bar, Berlin (2021); Torrance Art Museum (2021); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); Performing Arts Festival Berlin (2019); 182 Art Space, Taipei (2019); Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA (2018); Corner Art Space, Seoul (2017).
Mik received fellowships from the Akademie Schloss Solitude, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Korea Foundation. She held guest professorships and delivered lectures at various institutions, including the Dutch Art Institute (2024); State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (2023); Korea National University of Arts, Seoul (2023), Oktoberdans International Dance Festival, Bergen (2022); Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaften (GTW) Kongress, Berlin (2022); Freie Universität Berlin (2021); Universität der Künste Berlin (2019); Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin (2019).
About esea contemporary
esea contemporary is the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds.
esea contemporary is situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, home to one of the largest East Asian populations in the UK. Since its inauguration as a community-oriented visual arts festival in 1986, esea contemporary – previously named Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art – has continuously evolved to establish itself as a dynamic and engaging space for cross-cultural exchanges in the British art scene, as well as in a global context.
esea contemporary aims to increase the visibility of contemporary art practices from the East and Southeast Asian communities and their diasporas. It is a site for forward-thinking art programmes that beyond exhibitions also include commissions, research, residencies, publishing, and a wide range of vibrant public events. esea contemporary values creativity, compassion, interconnectedness, and collectivity in implementing its mission.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
esea contemporary, 13 Thomas Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00