Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Hana van der Kolk

Hana van der Kolk makes body-centric performances, events, videos, drawings, and writing that investigate community/collaboration and how thought shapes somatic life, how the body shapes thinking, and how being thoughtfully engaged bodies might destabilize our notions of gender, race, sex, work, nature, and politics.

Based in Los Angeles from 2005-10 Hana is currently based in Troy, NY. Hana is a contributing facilitator of communityLAB, an initiative that empowers individuals to step into roles as change agents, coalition build, and make positive change within their communities, and co-hosts the bi-monthly queer dance party/community fundraiser, Polly. Hana also maintains a private practice in sexual healing that draws from elements of massage, BDSM, meditation, and The Internal Family Systems. 

Her performance projects have been presented in a variety of places including Kule (Berlin), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Cariddi Mills (North Adams, MA), The Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, MA), BCA (Boston, MA), Space Gallery (Portland, ME), PAM (Los Angeles, CA), 51 3rd (Troy), and n/a (Oakland, CA). She has taught dance/performance internationally including at Williams College (MA), The School for New Dance Development (Amsterdam), Torteaturn (Stockholm), The University of Tallinn (Estonia), Colgate University (Hamilton, NY), and Marlboro College (VT). Hana has collaborated with numerous artists and activists including Asher Woodworth, Coral Short, Layard Thompson, Jesse Aron Green, Emily Mast, Hana Lee Erdman, Tove Sahlin, Jane Pickett, Joy Mariama Smith, Winnie Ho, Jason Martin, Jack Magai, Senem Pirler, Margit Galanter, Shanna Goldman, and Ellen Foster, and is currently involved in an ongoing collaboration with Tomislav Feller. She holds an MFA in Dance from UCLA and is greatly influenced by her work with Deborah Hay, Guillermo Gomez Pena, and the Body Weather Laboratory. 

Learn more about her work in the following links; Somewhere, as well as deepbodyglitter, and The Apprenticeship Project and Between Us (a project with students of Colgate University)

The books e mentioned in the interview were; Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, Bluets by Maggie Nelson, Urban Tantra by Barbara Carrellas and Object Oriented Feminism edited by Katherine Behar

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1 COMMENT

  1. […] Hana van der Kolk creates moving pieces that explore the interaction of body and mind. She draws influence from Deborah Hay whose work focuses on how the body perceives. Through collaborative movement and dance, van der Kolk investigates gender, work, sex, nature, and politics. She seeks to destabilize our notions of these themes. Living in Troy, New York removes van der kolk from a larger community of artists but this has not deterred her from continuing her work. Art has remained an important part of her life while she pursues her position as useful member of her small community incorporating sustainable living practices into her life. The piece Somewhere feels steeped in this theme. […]

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