PREMIERE I Atrás

In this choreographic work, Aleksandar furthers the work he started in 2018, actively exploring the polarization of the bodies hidden treasures and the practices of “reading from behind” and along the way has created a couple of artistic proposals in this line, such as: “The Power of S”, “Echoes of S” and in collaboration with the researcher Slavcho Dimitrov, he created a lecture performance on the topic. This Premiere will be consisted of lecture performance of 1 h and after a break of 30 min, solo choreographic work of 40 min.

However, ATRÁS explores the back of the body, still, Aleksandar’s approach within the choreographic work activates and furthers the concept of the hidden/privatised body. The back of the body would be the body that many identities could co-exist in. Another point of departure for initiating the topics of togetherness, solidarity, society, empathy, and relationality.

The lecture performance has the potential to defend the political implications of the body from another standpoint than the already functioning ones such as the frontal body, reproductive body, liberal body, and so on. Instead, the body offers something more vital to the body itself, without reinforcing a capitalistic lance of reproduction. This work proposes that the body can make sense and take an active stance in society without its purpose to reproduce but rather to maintain, to keep a certain balance, to caress, without representing a certain identity or generality, and to legalise and emancipate pleasure as a very crucial problematic aspect to our normative and religiously influenced sociopolitical environments.

Synopsis:

“If I were to do it, I would rather do it bareback... no protection, from the back, from behind, until it brings out the narratives from the back—the back archive, the back histories, the desires from the back, the back frontality, the back kinetics, the aesthetics from the back, until it dismantles the dogmas and constructs of shame, blame, and censorship, so we can smooth out, emancipate, and fall in love with the back, all over again”.

This choreographic solo focuses on the back of the body from a decolonial and anti-capitalist perspective, both artistically and narratively. It is a choreographic work that begins by observing the body and its phenomenology from its "back side," exploring how it relates to this not-so-prominent body perspective. Within the Western European choreographic and dance context, historically, the back of the body, while being one of the fundamental parts of the corpus, has, however, been little explored and little exposed since, (apparently), it is not as expressive due to not containing identity marks such as a face. The back is usually left without prominence, drawing a parallel between this artistic and movement reality and the behind areas of our history and society.

Dominant thought and narratives also shape aesthetic and artistic languages. In this sense, "Atrás" highlights the rear perspective in contrast to the dominant front vision, where hegemonic narratives reside—such as those of reproductive logic and the perpetual forward-looking gaze. This work challenges the avoidance of looking back at the past and acknowledges what sustains or has sustained us.

Aleksandar's work in “Atrás” continues the themes from his previous projects, "The Power of S" and "Echoes of S," which explored another body and politics and their potentiality. Now, he expands this exploration to the back of the body.

Choreographer and performer: Aleksandar Georgiev
Music and sound design: Tsvetan Momchilov
Light design: Pete Ayres
Graphic design: Asiria Álvarez
Image adaptation: Fernando Montiel
Production: Beatriz Bello

Thanks to Dario Barreto Damas for backing up the work.

This work was realized with the support of LAV (Laboratorio de Artes Vivas y Ciudadanía), ICC (Imaginative Choreographic Center), Garage Collective, Cultural-Social Space Jadro, Konstnärsnämnden (Swedish Arts Grants Committee), Gobierno de Canarias (ICDC), Funds European Union Next Generation EU (Support for Cultural Accelerators), Cabildo de Tenerife, Teatro Victoria, Central Eletrican, Culture Moves Europe, Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and Toplocentrala.

TRAILER ATRÁS
TRAILER LECTURE PERFORMANCE

BIO
Aleksandar Georgiev, also known as Ace, works with/around choreography and dance engaged in exploring ideas of co-existence, hyper, and holography through his imaginative PhD program for the choreographic research CO-series. His latest works deal with notions and phenomena such as the politicization of the anus, "reading from behind," "nostalgia as poetic archiving," "radical tenderness,” “cheating as a social endeavor,” “imaginative structures as support system” etc.

Since 2008, Aleksandar has been active in the contexts of the dance and choreography field, fostering partnerships and engaging in collaborative thinking with fellow practitioners. He initiated and co-founded the artistsic team STEAM ROOM, and the project institution ICC (Imaginative Choreographic Center), with artists Darío Barreto Damas and Zhana Pencheva. He is affiliated with the Nomad Dance Academy Network, and legal structures such as Garage Collective, LAV, Lokomotiva - Center for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture, Interimkultur, and PiedeBase. His artistic and cultural work is marked by a commitment to co-thinking, co-imagining, and co-dreaming possible and necessary futures and structures.

Aleksandar's working dynamics are defined by a nomadic approach, considering Tenerife, Sofia, Skopje, and Stockholm as his four key bases. This approach contrasts with the nationalistic tendencies often found in cultural dance spheres and reflects his focus on parallel/holographic existence and co-existing practices.

His educational background includes a Bachelor's degree in Dance Theatre from New Bulgarian University (2008) and a Master's in Choreography from DOCH in Stockholm (2014). Aleksandar has also participated in various formal and informal educational programs, including NOMAD, DanceWeb, SPAZIO, and the Critical Practice made in YU program, all of which have significantly influenced his artistic development.

For more information on Aleksandar’s work, visit aleksandargeorgiev.com