In this GPS Chats, Ogemdi Ude will share a “Report from the Field” with reflections on her participation in the GPS project “Whose Body is My Body? and Whose Dance is My Dance?” in Slovakia from March 6-13, 2026 hosted by PLAST in Bratislava and REZI.DANCE in Komařice, in partnership with Live Performance Bazaar in Prague, Czech Republic. Ogemdi will also provide an overview of the arts and culture scene in Slovakia. A description of the GPS project is below.
“Whose Body is My Body? and Whose Dance is My Dance?”
Czech Republic based Live Performance Bazaar (Prague) with Slovak partners PLAST (Bratislava) and REZI.DANCE (Komařice), invited US-based artists Ogemdi Ude and Thomas F. DeFrantz to participate in a GPS project in March 2026. The project offers perspectives for shared reflection between East / Central European and Black American dance makers and researchers.
In the light of growing nationalism, and the vicinity of a devastating war conflict, many post-soviet societies are again gravitating towards autocracy and populism. In these countries, dance and its practices have frequently found themselves under the pressure of state control and its tendency to pre-define the “right” forms of artistic and community dance and to introduce concepts of ideologically acceptable art. Dance had to serve its role in the creation of local myths of Slavic identity during communist times, mainly via aestheticization of folk dances and strict control over all avantgarde tendencies.
In the Central European context there are examples of the Body as the National Body – Creating the Myth of the National Body or more specifically the “Local Folkloric Body”, and the current political situation in Slovak Ministry of Culture shows very recent political attempts to defund contemporary dance and fund “folklore” instead. We can “re-read” the ideas of post-colonial thought in the Central and Eastern European (post-soviet) context with Black dance specialists from the US, and gather inspiration from the communities that have been created around the Black dance movements and genres.
The partners and hosts assert that this is not a project for experiencing “the other” dance or art or artist as exoticism. The acute situation around us on both sides of the Atlantic where bodies are in danger of falling victim to hegemonic narratives and merciless systems of violence, may open the door to a different kind of understanding. This is about researching and sharing different good practices on how to, through the combination of innovation and tradition, turn towards dance movements that are open and inclusive yet specific to their context, and reinforce a proud yet generous sense of identity and community.
*This event is part of a yearlong celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the GPS program at Movement Research! Please join us for more events TBA in the upcoming year!
For event-related questions, please email programs@movementresearch.org.
Accessibility Notes
- This event includes auditive guidance.
- This event includes text/images/video shared on a large screen tv.
- This event includes printed or digital readings.
To request ASL interpretation or Audio Description, please email accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “ASL/Audio Description Request, “GPS Chats” at least three (3) weeks prior to the event date.
For access-related questions and requests, please contact accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “GPS Chats.”
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