Basement Dances
Video episodes of ‘Basement Dances’, work in progress 2022 - 2024
Video 1: Interview. Hilde Holger interviewd by Liz Aggiss in her home in Camden Town, in 1993. Video footage by Liz Aggiss. Edit: Claudia Kappenberg (2022)
Video 2: Rehearsing ‘Image’. In 1993 Hilde Holger choreographed 'Image', based on music by Germaine Tailleferre. The dancers are Claudia Kappenberg and Anthony o'Flaherty, the filming of both the rehearsal and the performance to camera was directed by Liz Aggiss, also in 1993. Besides giving an insight into Holger's choreographic process, this episode acknowledges a technical fault of the original recording and seeks to work with the problem, being transparent about its own editorial process.
Video 3: Archiving I. This episode shows a few instances in the process of sorting through the archive of costumes of choreographer Hilde Holger. With Primavera Boman, Dr Marion Kant and Dr Claudia Kappenberg. Filmed and edited by Claudia Kappenberg (2024).
Video 4, The Basement. The basement is a space in which past and present converge, giving rise to questions about the relation between gesture and history, and between narrative and that which is left unsaid.
Basement Dances is the working title of a research project which aims to anarchive and convey traces of the creative practice of the choreographer, dancer and teacher Hilde Holger (Vienna 1905 - London 2001). The projects draws on 50 hours of video footage recorded by Holger's students in her basement studio during the 1990s as well as radio and video interviews, which provide insights into her pedagogy, choreographic practice and philosophy. The video tapes also document recollections of her students, including C. Kappenberg and T. Kampe, who worked with Holger over a 13-year period until her death in 2001.
Holger’s story is informed by a Viennese avantgarde, Nazi persecution, British India and Bombay’s Modernity as well as fifty years of pedagogy and inclusive dance in the UK, but the essence of her work is dance as a means of expression, education, resistance and survival, as well as evidence of our common ground and shared humanity.
The project is a collaborative research process with Dr Thomas Kampe and an act of remembrance.
Presentations of work in progress:
C. Kappenberg and T. Kampe, ‘'Basement Dances: un-archiving the creative practice of choreographer, dancer and teacher Hilde Holger’, Performance Lecture at [IN-]VISIBILITIES: MODERNER TANZ RE-VISITED, Symposium der Gesellschaft fur Tanzforschung e.V. {gtf), Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany 2024
C. Kappenberg, ‘The Basement Dances of Hilde Holger', Performance lecture at ASSEMBLE, PSi #29 (Performance Studies International), The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London UK 2024
C. Kappenberg, 'The Basement Dances of Hilde Holger', Research Residency at Q Space, Hastings UK 2024
Rehearsing ‘Image’, Video (C. Kappenberg 2022) screening as part of (Dis)playing Memory, Teatro Ca’ Foscari a Santa Maria, Venice IT 2023
T. Kampe, 'Basement Dances - retracing a fading heritage', Lecture at 'Experiences of the dance phenomenon: Materialities of practice & observation', Association of Social Anthropologists Greece, Athens 2022
C. Kappenberg, 'Vienna - Bombay - Camden Town', Residency at Electro Studios, St Leonards-on-Sea, UK 2022