2024 - 2025 Factory ~ Student Led: Nida-specific movement practice: dancing with the ghost

In East Asian animism, spirits that inhabit specific locations are referred to as “landlords” (Tudigong, 土地公). When individuals move into a new area, they often seek permission from the landlord to reside there. These landlords are the indigenous inhabitants; we are just passing through, sometimes leaving behind new layers of ghosts.

The cosmologies of Baltic animism, preserved in folklore, are fragmented and incomplete. We lack comprehensive knowledge of the hierarchies among local spirits, as written histories are primarily recorded by colonizers and monotheists. Nevertheless, a rich tapestry of ancestral voices and stories emerges from 700 years of diverse colonizers, wars and movements, contrasted with about 150 years of local tribes' literacy and self-determination efforts.

This workshop aims to connect with the land we traverse through non-intellectual forms of listening and exploration. Our bodies serve as powerful instruments for receiving and retrieving information and for interaction with the past. We will begin hands-on (bodywork) to sensitize our antennae, then transition into movement practice and finally venture outdoors to a deliberately chosen location for a whole-body listening practice—a dance with the ghost. This will culminate in a harvesting session, where we share the insights gained from our practice.

To attune and inspire us, we may start with a film, a song, or a poem in the Lithuanian language.

TW:

• Physical (mediated non-sexual) touch
• If you suffer from mental illness (such as PTSD or schizoaffective disorder), please chat with me first.
• This will be a trauma-informed space, with adjustments and options available on every step,