Following Bang Bang Bodies, which premiered as part of Tanztage Berlin 2023, and Slamming produced by Onassis Stegi, KOPANIMA is the third part of an ongoing performance series in which Xenia Koghilaki uses dance and choreography to explore the relationship between the subcultural practices of moshing and those of collective discharge in the crowd.

In her new group work Xenia Koghilaki focuses on the forces, physical dynamics and embodied energies between collectively moving bodies. KOPANIMA transforms the movements and gestures from the mosh-pit into a staged echo, raising questions about physicality, vulnerability, and resistance – and at the same time reveals gestures of trust and solidarity. In this performance the concert crowd stands for a place of collective struggle and a ritualized form of social cooperation. The audience is immersed in an ambivalent feeling of togetherness and sensory stimulation.

Premiere: 8 May 2024, Sophiensaele Berlin

Bang Bang Bodies embarks on a choreographic journey into the collective imaginary. What brings bodies together? Where can the experience of togetherness be situated? Xenia Koghilaki focuses on embodied “discharge” (or physical release) associated with different types of crowds – from the metal and punk scene to meditative rituals and instances of mass protests. The work resituates the practice of headbanging, placing it on stage as an endless chain of reciprocity and exchange of space and time but also of sweat and breathings, of historical, cultural, and political particles between bodies, that is never static. On the contrary, it is always in a fluid and turbulent moving. Two female performers explore the effects of exhaustion through repetition bringing to spotlight how movement can bring out personal and cultural memories but also ideas of how we perceive our bodies in relation to others and how we imagine ourselves in relation to the world.

Official Premiere: 5 & 6 January 2023, Tanztage Berlin 2023 at Sophiensaele