SHIFT: Intro to Unfixed Choreographies

Come participate in a dynamic dance experiment— where movement disrupts, subverts, and liberates, reflecting the fluidity of the queer experience.

Texas and Niki invite you to collaboratively contribute to the creation of a choreographed performance through dance - exploring how to interrupt, subvert, and liberate from a set movement score, reflecting the queer experience that embraces ambiguity and rejects rigid definitions.

This workshop is an invitation to acknowledge and experience how dance and movement can physicalise a concept. Texas and Niki will explore alternative ways of engaging with the body, with a particular focus on temporality, ambiguity, deconstruction, and multiplicity within the context of queer theory. They will lead participants through choreographed sequences and scores which may be intentionally fragmented, delayed, or reinterpreted in unpredictable ways, resisting progress and embracing moments of digression.

Participants will collaboratively contribute to the creation of the choreographed performance, exploring ways to interrupt, subvert, and liberate the set movement score - reflecting the queer experience of embracing ambiguity and rejecting rigid definitions.

We will document the performance through a guerrilla-style DIY music video, celebrating queer visibility and reflecting on the power of documentation to preserve queer histories and serve as our rebellion. Viewing party after!

You don't need dance or movement experience, just an inclination to join ;)

Workshop Details:

• Date: Saturday 15 February, 2025
• Time: 2 - 4pm 
• Venue: Seventh Gallery, indoor and outdoor usage
• Accessibility: please note any accessibility requirements when booking ticket. Faciliators can accommodate movement prompts and choreographies to meet access needs.

Do I need to bring anything?

Please wear comfortable clothing that you can move in and a water bottle.

About your facilitators, Texas Nixon-Kain & Niki Verrall

Texas Nixon-Kain and Niki Verrall are queer, emerging artists working collaboratively with dance and choreography in Naarm. Through reconfigurations of their bodies, objectives, and presence, they research the multiplicity of physicalities, materials and experiences. Texas and Niki have worked collaboratively since 2021 and have each contributed to the work of other artists. Texas and Niki are recent recipients of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust scholarship and will undertake artistic residencies in Japan in 2025.

꩜ ꩜ ꩜ 

This project is part of SHIFT: A Queer Symposia, a series of events at Seventh Gallery across January and February, to create a space for discourse, exchange, & solidarity within the LGBTIQA+ community. SHIFT is supported by the Victorian Government.

Please visit our website for the full SHIFT program.