about

Antoinette Helbing (DE) is dance artist, member of the artist-run platform Dance CooperativE based in Copenhagen (DK) and Feldenkrais practitioner. She divides her time between creating choreographic works, guest performing in dance works by others, a wide teaching practice, her practice within the Feldenkrais method and motherhood (two kids 12 & 9).

Her choreographic works are driven by her wish to create art that evokes the viewer’s sense of belonging, of togetherness and of empathy – something the world needs now from her point of view. In her work towards celebrating human connection, she’s researching ways of addressing the empathic through creating multi-sensory experiences. The human sensory apparatus is fundamental for understanding oneself and one’s surroundings. We are dependent on input from our senses to understand how to interact and to appropriately adapt our actions. The stimulation of the sensory system is crucial for her strive towards increasing the ability to feel for who and what surrounds us – as our senses are the portal into empathy.

She strives to illuminate the physicality of human interactions that foster empathy, connection and mutual respect. To tickle the audience’s fantasy – imagining a society where loving, attentive, patient and caring practices rule. This leads her to explore themes of social emotional relations, such as laughter, crying and the process of creating a self image in social interaction with others.Her works can often be placed in borderline situations: They fluctuate betweens dance, installation, concert and film. Often they also unfold in several versions that use her artistic research in different formats which circulate around the same subject. Manifesting as live performance, installation, film, long-durational and/or site specific works. Her works are easy to tour and flexible to perform in theatres, museums as well as site specific, in nature or in urban spaces. All of this allows for a continuous expansion of her artistic research, this aligns with Antoinettes’ fundamental wish to make her art production sustainable.

Artistic Statement
In my works I wish to create a strong connection between the audience and the performer(s). I am dedicated to creating dance works that offer an intimate and immediate meeting space – a deep collectively shared physical experience. Striving for an experience that bridges bodies – bypassing human intellect – where humanity can be met in a different or new way. Alongside with the performer(s) I wish the audience to embarque on an exploration of the connection within and between people.

I modulate and amplify my choreographers’ privilege of communicating with the audience’s bodies directly by incorporating the somatic learning method Feldenkrais. A Feldenkrais-informed somatic practice serves as my kinaesthetic-tuning process in order to create a choreographic vocabulary that allows for corporeal modes of interaction with the social world. Inviting the audiences to look at the present as an ocean of possibilities – with the option to consciously choose how to treat oneself, others, and equally our planet.