BAU Lab: Revolve/Unfold 
Masterclass for dancers, choreographers, architects and artists 
04.12 - 08.12, 2023 Amsterdam  
Daily 11.00 - 17.00h, NDSM Loods, NDSM Plein 85 Amsterdam 
Under the guidance of Ropes Aligned and Isabel Cordeiro 
 
Participation fee € 100,-  
Please sign up with a short motivation (100 words) and CV before November 20, 2023 via air@bau.amsterdam.  
 
Explore what it is like to float weightlessly high up in the air and the fun and freedom it brings! In this five-day workshop you play with gravity as you explore the four elements: water, fire, air and earth.
 
You'll learn to dance in the air, sometimes up to 10 metres high. Against a vertical plane (wall dance) and freely in space. You climb and descend and make jumps that make you float and spend more time in the air than when you jump from the ground.
Vertical dance reinvigorates your artistic practice. It influences the way you look at space and architecture. And when you can move 360 degrees, you play with space and your audience differently than when you are on the ground.
 
Experienced vertical dancers, Ropes Aligned will give you the techniques and tools to move freely in the air. It is a great workout for your abs, but no dance technique or climbing experience is required. We will teach you the basics and then you will discover for yourself the possibilities of being harnessed and attached to a rope. Above all, you will experience what it is like to float weightlessly and the fun and freedom it brings!
 
As well as vertical dancing, you will explore the four elements with visual artist Isabel Cordeiro and read texts such as Amnesty by Octavia Butler, a science fiction short story about the element of earth. And extracts from Bodies of Water by cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis, about water.

Aristoteles, Ropes Aligned and Isabel Cordeiro 
The focus of this year's masterclass is gravity, both as a subject and as a physical experience. By interweaving reading sessions on the subject and movement sessions in suspension, we aim to create the conditions for participants to establish their personal and bodily relationship to gravity.    
 
Our starting point will be the first attempts to understand gravity by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Aristotle claimed that the four elements - earth, water, air and fire - gravitate towards the centre of the universe according to their weight. The centre of the universe, conveniently located beneath his feet.   
Moving away from Aristotle's geocentric view of the universe, we ask participants to venture into an unknown space. To redefine and construct a new space by subjecting it to their own interpretation.   
 
BAU Lab '23 takes place under the guidance of vertical dancers Ropes Aligned (Suzanne de Bekker and Natasja Bode) and visual artist Isabel Cordeiro.   

BAU Lab runs with a minimum of 16 participants. 
 
08.12, 17.00h Public sharing 
On Friday 8 December, you're invited to a public session where participants will share some of the insights and outcomes of the past week. 

Entrance is free, please sign up via this link. 

BAU Lab focuses on expanding artistic practice through interdisciplinary collaborations. It explores at the highest level the collaboration between the independent performing arts and other disciplines such as music, technology, visual arts or architecture. Using a structured working process, professionals engage in intensive discussions, share their expertise and experiment. All of this under the supervision of experts.  

Photos Reinout Bos