Research Catalogue

Elien Hanselaer  works as an actor and theatre-maker in United Kingdom and Belgium. She studied acting at School of Arts/KASK (Belgium) and East 15 acting school. In September 2018, Elien was awarded the Northern Bridge award to fund her practise-based research on co-performer empathy in performance arts. Hanselaer is also a butoh, contact improvisation and Argentine Tango dancer. The dance forms have a strong influence on her work.

This presentation documents the practical enquiry of this research. I also presents the conclusive project that the research generated, titled The Tale of the Last Thought, a social-artistic project with 120 performers from a variety of backgrounds. Other recent theatre projects, of which some are mentioned in this presentation, include Afropean (KVS); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (KVS); Ashes to Ashes (TAZ); Europe in Autumn (Malpertuis). Hanselaer is also part of Hobo Theatre, a British performance collective founded in 2012 that sets up participatory projects that reflect on ecologies in an increasingly interconnected world.