Otherskin

“Touch is a choreographer” is the main choreographic proposal of Otherskin.

Otherskin is based on a performance DISCOntact where initial proposition is to take the space of touch as a stage. Simply put: touch = stage. There we explore how to dance, choreograph and watch, observe, witness such dance and choreography.

In Otherskin we focus on the touch of the skin and the clothes. Clothes are the second & the other skin. It’s the outer (first) layer of social self, a skin of social self. In Otherskin we propose you to explore what are the clothes and what else can be worn / taken as a clothing, through the experience of touch=stage.

Otherskin is a practice and it is presented to public in a form of a fashion show. We treat performance as a clothing of the practice of Otherskin.

There are at least four materials we work with: bodies, clothes, gauze and paper. As all materials they come in an abundant amounts. All objects in abundant amounts become a material.

Choreographed by the touch, clothing and stage
Performed by DISCOllective & DISCOllaborators
Produced by International Dance Terrorist Organization
Supported by Principlay, World, Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia, City Ljubljana

In collaboration with organisations such as Bunker, Rareca, Škuc, Krog, L’Ex Asilo Filangieri, Performing Arts Research Centre Florence.


Reflections on Otherskin

Odpiranje taktilnih odrov, Metod Zupan

Tip! – ne bodi hlapec oči, Jaka Bombač

Al Museo Hangar di Albanella, Altrapelle di Discollective, Nunzia Giuliano


Here is the list of performances, performers and some reflections. Here are some reasons as well why we publish all the performances, performers, places where it happened and refelctions on it:

-each place, time, people, organization and circumstances shape Otherskin in the way that it is hardly recognizable as Otherskin. It is Otherskin still since it follows quite straighforeward choreographic proposal, yet the form, content, duration… differ big time

-each performance brought about new insights about Otherskin which crucially shaped further emanations of Otherskin

-it is rare to have many runs of the same performance in contemporary dance arts

15 | 16.11.2023 | Klub Tiffany, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Still. Touch. Explodes into a play. Sound, movement, breath, people, imagination. Touching all those heated up bodies, heated up by dancing to lucious music during nights for the last 25 years or more. All there, available in the touch. Always. Release.

Performed by DISCOllective

14 | 15.11.2023 | Klub Tiffany, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Otherskin thrives in any space. This time in a gayclub Tiffany. Twice. A black intimate space of a dancefloor was taken by touch, paper and the gauze. The sound of paper was paramount and helped get deeper in the play of a touch.

Performed by DISCOllective

13 | 5.11.2023 | Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The third day with a wonderful group of people from Škuc Gallery we started the cleaning-up, tidying up what we built in the last two days. This is by far the best choreographic proposal for DISCOllective: tidying up, what comes after the performance. And yet is still part of the performance. Actually really a part of Otherskin performance.

Otherskin is made of three parts: set-up, performance and tidying-up. All three parts are part of the fashion show of touch. And we split these three parts across three days. Fun!

Performed by Marjeta Kamnikar, Barbara Novak, Ksenija Demić, DISCOllective

12 | 4.11.2023 | Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia

We were joined by Ana Kravanja. Her presence, sound and music, knitted from a distance the closeness that was not there before. We were all a tiny winy little bit closer to the moment.

Performed by Ana Kravanja, Marjeta Kamnikar, Barbara Novak, Ksenija Demić, DISCOllective

11 | 3.11.2023 | Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia

When Otherskin starts it touches other Otherskins. At least that. 3 Otherskins in a row in Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana, were touching each other by always starting at the back room of the gallery, dressed in black. We would start there and let the touch take us on a journey through the gallery space.

Yes, it was three DNA members of the family as a part of the Otherskin this time. We have already collaborated extensively in M and Oracle. And here we wanted to see how Otherskin is not touching just three different version of Otherskin, but also M and Oracle.

It is not crucial to know of the history of the collaboration. What matters and what we are interested in is how and what is here now in the touch. This further takes us into choreography.

Performed by Marjeta Kamnikar, Barbara Novak, Ksenija Demić, DISCOllective

10 | 29.10.2023 | Performing Arts Research Centre, Firenze, Italy

In a short residency we had two sessions of Otherskin in a white studio at the top of P.A.R.C. building. The second day we were joined by Marta Bichisao from Opera Bianco that augmented the relation between voice and the touch, noted at the first session at P.A.R.C.

Performed by Marta Bichisao, Mathilde Vrignaud, Valerio Cassa, DISCOllective

9 | 28.10.2023 | Performing Arts Research Centre, Firenze, Italy

In a short residency we had two sessions of Otherskin in a white studio at the top of P.A.R.C. building. We became more aware of the closeness of the voice and the touch. The voice is a guide into the the touch being a choreographer, stage and a clothing. And a co-player.

Performed by Mathilde Vrignaud, Valerio Cassa, DISCOllective

8 | 19.10.2023 | L’Ex Asilo Filagieri, Napoli, Italy

We experiemented even more with how the Otherskin starts. It starts with guiding all the present into being more sensitive to how we experience touch. In Albanella we found an exciting new start, ie to propose right in the beginning that the touch in the choreographer. Yet another thing tried in Albanella that we tried here as well was that we invite everyone to cross the space from foyer to the backstage and there at the backstage propose to cross back the space only now with eyes as photocamera and with the proposal that touch is a choreographer.

Performed by Chiara Orefice, Danilo Blaquier, Tina Janežič, Nikolina Komljenović, DISCOllective

7 | 7.10.2023 | Museo Hangar, Albanella, Italy

Hangar is an astonishing place. Mainly for its story, then architecture, and last but not least for what a group of people there is doing in it and with it: Elena Dragonetti, Daniele Brenca and many collaborators.

The event happened in the frame of nifty program devised by Erratica – Laboratorio permenente d’arte

Performed by Elena Paola Dragonetti, Pietro Leccese, DISCOllective

6 | 23.6.2023 | Mestni špital s kapelo sv. Elizabete, Celje, Slovenia

In amazing place of small church in the centre of Celje, with an amazing people of Krog organization, we delved into yet another experiment at Otherskin. Yes, actually Otherskin is made of choreographic and performative experiments. And here we added another one.

As we were honored by the presence of an amazing performer Lana Hosni, we were inspired to propose to yet another amazing performer Marko Milić, to base the Otherskin on voice and sound. That a sound is the main clothing in the Otherskin, and as you might have learned already by now, clothing is a choreographer of Otherskin.

Performed by Lana Hosni, Marko Milić, DISKOlektiv

5 | 8.5.2023 | Jambor, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The same way that Otherskin touched Paesaggi sonori on 5th May 2023, Otherskin touched Savannah Session by Nhandan Chirco, Davide Farabegoli.

And both were part of Performing Arts Practice Festival

Performed by Nhandan Chirco, Davide Farabegoli

4 | 5.5.2023 | Jambor, Ljubljana, Slovenia

As any performance also Otherskin is a live thing. And as a living thing it soon shows other talents 🙂 One is to us the choreographic proposal of Othersking also on the performances. This means that Otherskin is touching other performances.

This is what happened this time. Othersking touched Paesaggi sonori by Elena Paola Dragonetti and Daniele Brenca.

And this touching took place in a new place for Otherskin, a new vibrating place of Jambor in Ljubljana. So the touching of Otherskin and Paesaggi sonori touched Jambor as well. An explosition of choreographic proposal beyond our understanding of dance, choreography, touch.

Performed by Elena Dragonetti and Daniele Brenca

3 | 23.3.2023 | Stara mestna elektrarna, Ljubljana, Slovenia

It was day of more complete immersion into the proposal that eyes be treated as a shutter in a photocamera. We did much less reversed blinking, as we call using eyes as a photocamera.

Performed by Maja Dekleva Lapajne, Dejan Srhoj, Radharani Pernarčič, Jana Jevtović, Nhandan Chirco, Jelena Oleami, DISKOlektiv

2 | 22.3.2023 | Stara mestna elektrarna, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Otherskin revealed the richness of visual output of the performance. The performance was choreographed also with the visual part in mind though priority was given to the touch aspect of the performance, as the touch is at the crux of the performance.

Performed by Silvia Marchig, Nikolina Komljenović, Loup Abramovici, Dragana Alfirević, Nenad Jelesijević, DISKOlektiv

1 | 21.3.2023 | Stara mestna elektrarna, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Where we learned, among other stuff, that placing paper and gauze in the space already at the beginning of the performance results in people starting to play with them. Experiments later showed that it works better if paper and gauze are intriduced later when we were already introduced to the practice of touch.

Performed by Jelena Oleami, Nenad Jelesijević, Špela Škulj (light design) and DISCOllective


A score for the performers