Gerko Egert: Psycho-Choreographies

Neurodiversity and the Politics of Movement

This lecture analyzes the relationship between choreographic politics and neurodiversity. The argument will be that movement is not purely a physical phenomenon, neither in dance nor in our daily lives, and cannot be thought of as independent of our perception, imagination and mental images. Using historic and current movement scenarios, their regulation and artistic practices, this lecture will show that psychological factors play as much part in the movement production as in choreographic politics of and beyond dance. Standardized movement techniques will be addressed and a choreographic practice with neurodiverse dancers will be presented, which internalizes the psychological diversity of movement production, visualizes alternative visions of movement and challenges existing normative processes of mental movement production.