HomeClasses and EventsClasses and WorkshopsWorkshopsPlanting (Disabled) Futures
  • Monday-Friday, July 22 - 26, 2024 | 12-1PM EDT
A desert plant in bloom: tender but tough green leaves hold multiple elongated flowers: yellow, orange, red, pointing outward like parrot beaks, openings at the end, fleshy, thick. Some of the flowers are stripped of their petals, and the thin bundle of stamen are all that remain. Is this a wound? Is this how the flower prepares its seed? Photo by Petra Kuppers.
ID: A desert plant in bloom: tender but tough green leaves hold multiple elongated flowers: yellow, orange, red, pointing outward like parrot beaks, openings at the end, fleshy, thick. Some of the flowers are stripped of their petals, and the thin bundle of stamen are all that remain. Is this a wound? Is this how the flower prepares its seed? Photo by Petra Kuppers.

Let’s dance with plants – lying down, sitting up, taking space or creeping/jumping off the walls. In this week, we’ll go on dancerly dream journeys and visit with houseplants, street plants, trees we touch and faraway trees, plants on other planets. Who are you, plant being? What wisdom might you care to share? What dances happen where we meet? Going slow, spreading wide and deep, balancing light and dark, sharing resources, and water, water, water. Using movement, writing, a bit of drawing, maybe some sounding, we will explore environmental queer narratives, dance with/as unnatural plants, find resiliencies and healing pleasure.
This work emerges out of my ongoing Starship Somatics series, but will go beyond that series’ auditory focus and play with ambient sound. We will align modalities with who is in the room, in experimental access. If you require ASL, please inform Movement Research.

What to expect:
There will be no set steps or sequences, and people can engage the material in inner or outer dance. I’d love for at least a third of participants to have their cameras on, so that there is a community feel in the room (and something to watch for those who use predominately visual access). We’ll have a few breakout sessions, too, for people to get to know one another.

Accessibility Notes

  • This workshop includes auditive guidance.
  • Automated closed captioning through Zoom is available.

To request ASL interpretation or Audio Description, please email accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “ASL/Audio Description Request, Petra Kuppers” at least three (3) weeks prior to the class start date.

For access-related questions and requests, please contact accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “Petra Kuppers.”

Past workshop

Artists

Petra Kuppers

Petra Kuppers

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a community performance artist, a disability culture activist, and a wheelchair dancer. She uses social somatics, performance, and speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures.

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