Mehmet Sander's Uncomfort Zone..

Call for volunteer participants for a workshop and performance project:

Mehmet Sander's Uncomfort Zone

Workshop: 11th to 15th March 2011, 11am to 5pm
Performances: 15th and 16th March 2011

In his renowned 'Manifesto on Dance', Mehmet Sander writes that 'creating dance on an emotional basis is self-indulgent, since humans are already emotional.' As part of Outside AiR, Sander invites applications to participate in a five-day workshop followed by a live public performance. Uncomfort Zone will explore the key aspects of his manifesto and his practice: dance will be a premise to refuse comfort, emotion and music, in favour of collision, maximum velocity and gravity as enhancements of -- rather than inhibitions to -- performance. Using his vast experience as an iconic performer and choreographer of high-impact dance, Sander will lead tasks that challenge the participants physically, mentally, and intellectually, culminating in a new performance in the Great Hall, People's Palace at Queen Mary, University of London in March 2011.

The workshop is open to participants with all fitness levels, ability and experience. No training in dance is required.

For documentation of Sander's previous work, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8bWLdIvpmY

To apply, send a short statement of interest and biographical information to Dominic Johnson at: d.f.johnson@qmul.ac.uk before the deadline of 5pm Wed 23rd February 2011

Mehmet Sander was born in Germany in 1967. He started dancing with Geyvan Mcmillen in Istanbul in 1984. Sander continued his dance education at the London Contemporary Dance School, California State University (Long Beach), Harvard University and American Dance Festival. Sander founded the Mehmet Sander Dance Company in 1990. In the United States, Sander and his company have performed in Highways (Santa Monica), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Festival (1993), Japan-American Theater and Alaska Performing Arts Center (Anchorage) and elsewhere. The company has participated in numerous events and festivals such as the Holland Dance Festival, New Moves (Scotland), ICA's National Look at Live Arts (UK), Klapstuk Festival (Belgium), Munich Dance Festival (Germany), Szene Festival Salzburg (Austria), Belluard Bolwerk International Festival (Sweden), Transform Copenhagen (Denmark), Istanbul Music Festival (Turkey) and Festival International de Danza (Brazil). Sander′s Inner Space was presented by the Joffrey Ballet, one of the most important American dance companies to date, at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution. The Joffrey Ballet will present this piece again for its 50th year anniversary.

For more information about the AiR Project visit www.airproject.qmul.ac.uk