JOY IS NOT A METAPHOR
ANA PI / NA MATA LAB

The three-hour workshop invites participants to discover the creative practice of Ana Pi, who uses joy as a somatic tool to develop new dances and alternative imaginative worlds. The starting point is the choreographer's latest group piece, Atomic Joy, which is also presented at the Tanzfestival Rhein-Main. Workshop participants will engage with the poetic choreographic principles, attitude, and physical vocabulary of the work.

Through playful yet precise exercises exploring rhythm, presence, tension, and listening, dancers are guided to create and connect new, unseen imagery. Positioned between radical autonomy and collective choreography, the workshop focuses on the power of memory and disobedience to strengthen and expand the repertoire of freedom in and through movement. The workshop also offers insights into Ana Pi's ongoing research project "CORPO FIRME: peripheral dances, sacred gesture," which centers on transatlantic Afro-diasporic traditions of movement and meaning.