CONTEXT
EXPERIENCE:
DANS MED DIN NABO / DANSEHALLERNE (2016)
Teaching BILINGUAL CLASSES (2018-2026)
ASSEMBLE THEATRE COLLECTIVE’S TEGNSPROGsPROJEKT (2023-2026)
THE FLYING SEAGULLS/ ASSITEJ NORWAy (2024)
RED NOSE EMERGENCY SMILES (2025-2026)
Empowering Collective Performing Arts: A Facilitator’s Collection of Voice and Dance Scores to Overcome Social Barriers
Alice Presencer
Red Nose Artist Lab Research 2025-26
Gibbs' Modes of Expression (2009)
MIMICRY
EMULATION
IMITATION
MIMESIS
(society exists in a cycle of affect and effect)
With these, facilitators can supplement or clarify instructions.
Empowering Collective Performing Arts: A Facilitator’s Collection of Voice and Dance Scores to Overcome Social Barriers' is a practice-led research project that explores the ways to encourage group connection through performing arts activities within diverse communities.
This project contains a growing body of open-source facilitation scores that draw upon work experience with immigrant children, refugees, and deaf/hearing collaborators- as well as recent research residencies with ASSITEJ Norway, The Flying Seagulls and an artist lab at Red Nose Emergency Smiles.
Rooted in my personal experience of linguistic/cultural displacement and background in voice and dance, this project prioritises emotional intuition and situational awareness. The project is underpinned by critical frameworks around embodied knowledge, power, and positionality, aiming to challenge exclusionary norms.
Ultimately, it seeks to empower facilitators and communities alike to trust in the expressive potential of the body and encourage inclusive, trust-based spaces for collective performing arts experiences.
Hatfield et Al's Emotional Contagion (2003)
"Synchrony of facial expressions, through vocalisations, postures and movements with those of another person"
"Encouraging a tendency to converge emotionally".
Looking at these outward displays of emotion, as they spread through the group helps the facilitator to guage how the experience is being recieved.
POINTS OF REFERENCE:
- Clough, Patricia Ticineto, and Jean Halley, eds. The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.
- Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies 14, no. 3 (1988): 575–599.
Power structures are present within groups, therefore it is vital to approach this process with an understanding of context, affect and situatedness. “The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social” conveys how power operates through affect, moving beyond the traditional linguistic frameworks and focuses on how feelings circulate beyond language (2007). Similarly, Haraway’s “Situated Knowledges” (1988) demonstrates how our positionality - shaped by lived experiences, identities, and environments - contributes to and produces our knowledge .
As a facilitator, it is extremely important that I remain attuned to the emotional dynamics, as well as the affect and situational factors influencing the individuals within the group. Having contextual knowledge and using emotional intuition helps me to navigate the group processes. By adopting an emotionally intuitive approach, prioritising consent and safety, I strive to create a space where participants feel comfortable and supported. This also includes the right to withdraw. These principles are foundational in creating a respectful and ethical environment that facilitate meaningful, trust-based collective experiences.
