Katja Vaghi – Dancer, Choreographer, Dramaturge
Katja Vaghi is a Swiss Italian choreographer, somatic teacher and dance researcher. Through her education in modern dance and ballet at Ballet Arts in NYC, Katja uses different modern dance techniques (in particular Horton and Limón) together with urban and traditional dances. She holds a MA in literature and linguistics from Zurich University and a PhD in dance philosophy at the University of Roehampton (UK) and has been lecturing in dance history, performance theory, improvisation and instant composition in several institutions in the UK and Germany. Her research interests are reference practices and intermediality, the comic in dance, screendance, and embodiment in spatial perception.
Choreographer statement:
“Starting point of the movement research is the skin. Our most extended organ — 2,5mm thick and up to 6 kg heavy — it is often overseen. Porous and at the same time the barrier protecting us from the outside, it is the site of our primary and first developed sense, touch. Protected by a second layer of skin, the performer enters into a meditative state exploring her body existing against the fabric cocoon. The mesmerising slow-motion movements promote kinesthetic empathy in the viewer, bringing to the fore what is generally blended out by everyday life (functional blending out). The viewer is thus brought back to one’s own being in the world.”