THE ARTISTS & ACTIVISTS IN RESIDENCE
program at the Berkeley Finnish Hall

A&AIR is grants artists and activists space, time and modest stipends to create performance or art work, events, workshops, and/or gatherings that support the community. It is program of Sense Object, supported by the Berkeley Finnish Hall and funding from the City of Berkeley.

Sense Object extends a warm welcome to 2024 Artist in Residence

TERESA SALAS
PRACTICING DISORIENTATION AS DECOLONIAL ACT

Open Practice Sessions!
SHAKE, FALL, SOUND, DECOLONIZE —
July 24 & Aug 28, 10:30AM - 12:30PM

Meeting Room of the Berkeley Finnish Hall
1970 Chestnut St.
Berkeley CA 94702

Free / By Donation * Pre-registration not required

Performance Showings will be held in the Fall of 2024, dates TBD

“Practicing Disorientation as Decolonial Act” is born of an interest in of crossing stage languages ​​and linking worlds that are too often divided, specifically those of traditional folkloric research on Afro-Latin American dances, and the field of contemporary dance research. The project puts into play various scenographic, theoretical and research strategies to join Afro Caribbean dance and singing with contemporary dance through performance. As we aim to explore the limitations of modalities, we also come to explore the borders and limitations of our being, imposed on us through cultural, social, geographical, racial and sexual definitions, and, concurrently, the symbolic possibilities of being outside of pigeonholes, stereotypes and roles. Disorientation practices reconfigure hegemonic embodiments of verticality, decolonize by re-sensitizing, and posit an open way of being that blurs and merges with the environment. This creative process summons us to expose the intimate questions of identity that we embody, to consider the contingent and particular problem of immigrant women, and to review what it is to be a Latin American in the world. This is a multidisciplinary work that assumes the body as dramaturgical frame; we work with the idea of ​​the border as a corporeal and geographical definition, differentiating us and separating us physically, socially and culturally.

In creating new performance work, we are building on years of previous process, including field investigations with Afro-Colombian female singers in Palenque, on the Colombian Caribbean coast.  We imagine performative interventions that unfold what body and song can tell through dreamlike performative language. Sharing our process is a key element of the work, which is why we will work with participatory experiences which disturb spectator/participant divisions. These will include shared practices and performative dinners in which performance material is put in conversation with participants.”

Teresa Salas, Lead
Teresa Salas (she/her) is a performance practitioner, teacher and mother from Chile. She has worked in physical theater, dance and movement-based performances since 2005. Teresa performed and directed for five years at the Grotowski Workcenter in Italy, culminating in the opus The Living Room. She is a member of the Chilean dance company Danza CIEC. Prior to pursuing an MFA in Dramatic Arts at UC Davis, Teresa worked as a movement teacher for undergraduate theater students at Universidad Mayor in Chile. Her work grapples with the study of movement, voice and singing both for stage productions and performance as research. Her work is feminist, collaborative, and focused on strategies for decolonizing experiences while enriching interconnectivity.

A&AIR 2023 Residents Olivia Trevino & Inertia Dewitt
present:

BI-MONTHLY CONTACT IMPROVISATION CLASSES & JAMS FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR

1st Friday
Class 6:00pm,-7:30pm
Auditorium
Jam 7:30pm-10:00pm 
Auditorium

3rd Friday

Jam 7:30pm-10:00pm
Meeting Room

* By Donation: no one turned away for lack of funds.

The POC Jam will provide a much-needed space for existing and future POC dancers to be centered within the larger CI community. Additionally, we hope the jam will support the evolution of the BayArea CI community into a more diverse, inclusive and equitable space.  Our hopes and guiding intentions for the jam are as follows:  

To create a safer/braver space for POC within the historically and predominantly white CI community.

We acknowledge that the systemic inequities and social marginalization of POC communities inherent in our society at large also reverberate into our dance spaces. Providing a consistent POC jam space helps to counteract these inequities by centering POC dancer’s experiences, needs and contributions. 

To create a more accessible entry point into CI  for POC who have yet to be introduced to the form.

Learning CI is, in and of itself, an unfamiliar and vulnerable experience. When layered over with the complex and challenging dynamics POC experience when entering and existing in predominantly white spaces, learning contact can feel alienating and inaccessible. By providing a consistent POC jam space we hope to reduce the social emotional barriers many POC people feel when entering and existing within  the CI community, allowing them to feel less inhibited as they build their practice.  

To provide quality and beginner friendly CI training existing and new POC dancers.

By providing classes designed with the beginner in mind, we aim to provide POC dancers with the skills and awareness needed to feel capable and comfortable engaging in CI. We will prioritize teachers of color and also will invite white teachers. While we intend to pay teachers, we will also provide the opportunity for white teachers to donate a class or classes as a demonstration of allyship and support for the cause of making CI more accessible, welcoming  and inclusive to POC people. 

To serve as a bridge for new POC dancers wishing to join the larger CI community. 

We hope that the POC Jam will provide an accessible pathway for POC dancers to feel more resourced, socially connected, comfortable and confident to enter the wider CI community. While this is the choice of each individual dancer, we as facilitators intend to encourage and support this aim because we believe in the power of bridge building to create social change and hope to see POC brought from the margins of CI to the diversified center. 

A&AIR residencies are awarded by invitation:

Don’t be shy to reach out to us at contactsenseobject@gmail.com to express interest or ask questions!
When expressing interest, it’s helpful to…

Describe your project in as straightforward and informative language as possible. 250-500 words is sufficient.
Make sure to include specifics on what kind of free offering(s) to the public you would make at the hall.
Tell us about the lead artists or activists. Include links to your websites whenever possible.
It’s helpful to have information about your scheduling options.
Supporting documentation is great: photos, text samples, videos, other. If you’re sending us samples, please provide clear credits for all aspects of your work samples, and briefly contextualize the documentation in relation to your proposal.

Here are some things that are good to know before applying:

• A&AIR rehearsals are "off calendar", meaning your times are not public on the hall calendar, and you may be bumped to another space or time if there is a rental conflict. We do our best to schedule residents such that this does not happen often, but it does happen at times.

• The A&AIR is a low-budget program. We welcome all kinds of experiments and projects, large and small, to apply. Just be aware that we are not a traditional production house, and will not be assisting you extensively with PR, tech, house management, etc.

• A&AIR residents are expected to make some free offering to the public here. We do not offer residencies to folks who are simply rehearsing for a show elsewhere.

• The Finnish Hall is not yet wheelchair accessible (we are working on it.) You can read more about the hall at finnishhall.org

PAST RESIDENCIES

2020-2021 Residents:

casaa
Tardeada

July 11, 2021 — Work in progress by casaa
[gizeh muñiz-vengel + Sebastián Santamaría Barajas]

An exploration around roots, pleasure and the essence of reconciliation. We question and embrace our Mexican bodies and we recognize the internalized expectations of gender identity.

Mara Poliak & Chani Bockwinkle, Drag Therapy

“…We find the practice of performing drag for ourselves and others to be a surprisingly actually therapeutic experience, sometimes even bordering on the sublime and cathartic. We practice drag for the joy of it; to honor the deep Bay Area history of queer, sloppy, genderfucking, alternate-universe-provoking performance; to find expansiveness and healing within our own gender expression; to be in alternate modes of relation and expression with ourselves and others.”

Gizeh Muniz & Jonah Kagan, Movement for the Movement

A laboratory ”…dedicated to movement, facilitated by dancers, with one hour dedicated to political education, facilitated by organizers. We will have a rotating responsibility for facilitation in order to bring into the room a broad variety of knowledge as well as give participants an opportunity to practice their facilitation and teaching skills. The sessions will be open to people of all levels of experience with movement or organizing, provided they have some interest in or connection to the subjects.”

Kristen Rulifson, Interim

“Interim provides a platform for improvisers & freestylers to connect, exchange, and alchemize. The heart of this project is in cultivation of meaningful connections between dance artists in the East Bay, and exposing this way of being and communicating with the public. We have an amazingly diverse group of improvisers in the bay including, but not limited to: House, Break, Vogue, Locking, Popping, Contact, Contemporary, Krump, and Turf, amongst others. I am fortunate to exist in many of these spaces and feel consistently nourished and inspired by the vast and extensive wisdom that comes out of these generous and sensitive bodies.”

A&AIR is a program of Sense Object, in residence at Berkeley Finnish Hall.
Sense Object is 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Donations to us are fully tax deductible!
Venmo @senseobject

More About the Residency

This residency is an offer of space and time for artists and/or activists to make use of the Berkeley Finnish Hall community center. We offer approximately 100 hours for rehearsals, meetings, or events, during times when the hall is not otherwise rented. We will offer 1 or 2 residencies a year, depending on space and admin capacity. The program is curated and administered by Sense Object.

We always receive a large number of applications for this program, and the selection process is always difficult. Big thanks and lots of encouragement go out to all those who have applied.  We recognize that our community is in need of increased space and resources, and we want to do more. May the Bay Area continue to thrive as an incubator of engaged and experimental art!  

We are flexible about the scope of the projects we host, and open to a variety of formats, intents, and stages of work.  We encourage innovative proposals that are interdisciplinary, community based, or DIY, and also welcome performance companies seeking to experiment or research new work.  We ask that at some point in the residency, residents share the fruits of their labor with the public in some way. This could take a variety of forms: a performance, a lecture, a publication, an open class, a community meal, workshop, or something else!  

Note that the hall has very limited technical resources, and the A&AIR is a small program with very little funding— so we ask residents to be flexible and cooperative.  While residents are welcome to use our audio equipment, rudimentary theatrical lighting, and video projector, it falls to you to procure any technical assistance you may need.  We will also ask that you be good stewards of the space. For more information about this awesome building, including availability calendars and rental information, visit finnishhall.org. 

We welcome donations, suggestions, and recommendations for how to expand this offering, and make art making more sustainable for everyone.

2019 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
BHUMI PATEL

Bhumi B. Patel creates queer, feminist movement art that holds the focus of creating movement at the intersection of embodied philosophy and dynamic sensation taking precedence over stagnant form.

Bhumi developed “Divisions the Empire Has Sown”, a new dance theater work taking the form of a decolonized tea party, exploring the relationship between borders, colonization, and equity within the arts to dig into acknowledging the uncompensated labor that is done on the part of folks of color just to move through the world.  http://www.bhumibpatel.co

*A&AIR went on maternity leave for 2018.

Fall 2017 Residents:
Creative Liberation Workshop Series! (CLAWS)

Jess Clarke/ Reimagine! will organize a creative laboratory for performance pieces integrating dance and movement with storytelling and Theater of the Oppressed, dealing with connection and separation of kindred peoples: Latino migrants with families across borders (Karina Muñiz), African Americans in a new diaspora (Jarrel Phillips), Japanese Sansei unwinding internment trauma (Angela Urata), and queer Catholics breaking with Irish patriarchy (Jess Clarke). Jiwon Chung will facilitate the open workshops and rehearsals using techniques from Theater of the Oppressed and Playback Theater. The public will be invited to the open rehearsals and to the final performance for this series, which we are callingCollaborative Liberation Arts Workshop Series (CLAWS).

Spring 2017 Residents
RANDY REYES & GABE CHRISTIAN

Randy & Gabe join forces to bring us Club* (*kiss my wrist / cross yr heart),  (formerly Pu$$y Pop for Jesus / Ballsacrilegious,)  a tongue-in-cheek spin-off on traditional Sunday Services that intends to queer the memory-space-time of “Sunday mornings” by disseminating spiritual and non-spiritual texts, building queer spiritual ecologies, warm-up/praise and Serwoman sermon/intention-setting, yoga, dance improvisation, and shaking our @$$es to celebrate our individual and collective resilience.  

*** SUNDAY JUNE 18  ***
Club* (*kiss my wrist / cross yr heart)
6PM Potluck
Invocations: 7:30pm
Performance-Sermon: 8pm

PAST RESIDENTS

2016- 2017 Miakoda Taylor/ Fierce Allies, www.fierceallies.com
2016 Sasha Petrenko/ New Urban Naturalists, www.sashapetrenko.org, www.thenewurbannaturalists.org
2015 Megan Lowe, Never Finished
2015 Tove & Dag Andersson, Miss U, www.shakeitlab.com
2014 - 15 Leslie Castellano & Kevin Dockery, Soft Reigns Feral Feral, www.feralferal.org
2014 - 15 Sam Stone in collaboration with Nuria Bowart, Rosemary Hannon, Sophia Chudacoff, Chani Bockwinkel, and Miriam Wolodarski,  ASIS.