Photo: Levin Sottru
The German-Israeli research project “STÖRUNG / הפרעה” brought dancers, scientists, and patients with Parkinson’s disease together for one year in order to explore these questions in collaborative experiments. After many lively hours of dancing, open trainings, and scientific discussions, the project came to an end in December 2015. Two concluding conferences (one in Tel Aviv and one in Freiburg) invited the public to exchange ideas with the collaborating groups.
The concluding conferences tied all participants’ experiences together. Workshops, talks, discussions, exhibitions, and stage productions conveyed creatively what “STÖRUNG / הפרעה“ was about. A workshop on the Israeli dance “Hora,” for example, offered insights into leading groups and into being led as part of a group. A workshop on Capoeira portrayed how an apparently complicated combination of movements can be pared down and simplified to make it easily teachable for inexperienced participants. Leaving their normal work environment and life experiences behind, participants enjoyed a connective and horizon-extending experience.
The project offered dancers with Parkinson’s disease, but also other participants, opportunities for re-discovering their body, and after one year of training participants agreed: regular dancing increases flexibility, inner awakeness, and general bodily well-being. Many participants reported that they have developed a better attitude towards their disease and that they have gained confidence in their social life. Dancers, on the other hand, through working with scientists and patients, learned new ways of mediation that they had not before experienced in artistic expression. Moreover, new chorographical perspectives developed in terms of synchronicity and accord. From a scientific perspective it was stressed that it is fruitful to allow the openness towards new sensations and realizations experienced in dancing also in research. Although the artistic project leaders were skeptical about the project’s potential for healing, participation constituted a form of therapy for all.
“STÖRUNG / הפרעה” is a cooperation between the Theater Freiburg and BrainLinksBrainTools together with Yasmeen Godder Company, Ben-Gurion University Be'er Scheva, Technion Haifa, University of Haifa, Weizmann Institute of Science, Bar-Ullan University Ramat-Gan as well as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The project was founded by the Kulturstiftung and the German-Israeli Zukunftsforum.