CRA’P Resident April to December 2025
COREOMANIA
COREOMANIA unfolds in three interconnected dimensions: research, the activation of participatory practices and the creation of a small-format hybrid piece. The current research stems from the desire to deepen the work carried out in Epidemia de Baile (2022-2024), a project that explores the genealogy of choreomania from the European medieval dance epidemics that has generated multiple scenic and performative formats through participatory methodologies, receiving the support of several residencies, creation centres, associations, entities, festivals and the research grant from the Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia (2023).
COREOMANIA is based on the analysis of the intersection between dance, madness and body control, focusing on choreomania as a historical phenomena and its reverberations in the present. To do so, I will articulate research, creation and documentation from a transdisciplinary perspective to transcribe, archive, recover and critically reinterpret narratives and aesthetics that have associated dance with madness and lack of control and that, when the decolonial view is incorporated, transcend to a dimension of political agitation.
In this research I intend to analyse the alterkinetic dances – chorea, hysteria and tarantella – using historical research, visual materials from cinema and various iconographic materials that I will complement with participatory practices based on the notion of the body archive to address the translation of bodily experiences into writing and shared critical thinking about bodies, movement and the structures of power that permeate them without losing their performative dimension.
Zoe Balasch, based in Igualada, is a Perfotming Arts maker and performer with a multidisciplinary background. She holds a degree in Psychology (UAB) specialising in psychosocial research and community intervention with an interdisciplinary background in dance, somatic techniques and meditation. Accredited Hatha yoga training (AEPY) and Postgraduate in Live Arts and Contexts, Institut del Teatre in Vic. Her work has spanned different fields and projects in search of artistic practices where the body is the main axis for developing new narratives, perspectives and aesthetics, addressing social, environmental and political issues capable of questioning and transforming our present.
As a researcher she explores how bodies are influenced by various forces, visible and invisible, focusing on the representation of the human body from a cultural, social and symbolic perspective. Her work explores the creation of context through participatory methodologies and the choreography of the invisible, resulting in dance and live -art pieces that adopt diverse formats in a language that fluctuates across a wide spectrum of creative forms. She has been involved in creative work for art galleries, contemporary creation centres and universities, and has worked in national and international festivals, presenting in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia, Thailand, Denmark, France, Portugal and in the city of Berlin, where she lived temporarily: MAC Mercè Arts de Carrer, Dansa Metropolitana, Escena Poblenou, 15m2 Festival Internacional de micordansa itinerant, Cyprus Embodied Sites, NU_Dance Fest, Sound Walk Sunday London, among others.
Since 2022, as a creator, her line of work has focused on the mediaeval dance epidemics phenomena via the project Epidemia de baile, winner of the 2024 ‘En mi barrio hacen performances’ (In my neighbourhood they do performances) of the Centre Cívic Can Felipa and Escena Poblenou. Within the framework of Epidemia de baile she directed the following group and participative creations: “Epidemia de ball -site-specific-” (itinerant street format) Festival Escena Poblenou 2024, “1518/840 Transitar lo Invisible” (8h performance) at the Night of Museums, Centre de arts Santa Mònica 2024, and “Corpografias Inclasificables” Centre de arts Santa Mònica, 2023.
Works as a performer in the multidisciplinary companies, Colectivo Free’t and Cia.David Ymbernon. As an improvising dancer, she collaborates with different artists of the dance and improvisational music scene and is a member of the association laBastida de la Reguera in Igualada where she promotes improvisational dance meetings and jams. Since 2022 she participates in the programme “’Wednesdays of Sound and Body”’ at the Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica.