Organizing Ideas Physically: choreographic thinking in participatory events

In this interactive lecture, conflict mediator/ author/ choreographer/ performer Dana Caspersen will talk about her work integrating traditional conflict resolution strategies with choreographic methodologies to access possibility inside spaces of societal conflict- such as racism, immigration or violence. Through introducing her action dialogue projects that are being created in collaboration with communities around the world and use simple physical action to enable connection, reflection and exchange, Caspersen will illuminate the idea of art as a highly developed human technology for creating new frameworks of perception and action. Drawing on her 40 years of practice as an innovator in dance, a decade of work in conflict engagement, and ideas from her book, Changing the Conversation: 17 principles of conflict resolution, Caspersen will explore how artistic practice and its adaptive technologies engender a useful mindset for situational transformation, problem-solving, and communication in circumstances of conflict. She will discuss ways that artistic practice can create a persistent, contagious mobility of perspective that assumes, and so provokes, the presence of new possibilities. Free and open to the public.