Irina Demina
- Fellow 2021
- Dancer and choreographer, based in Berlin (Germany)
- Cooperating partner: Choy Ka Fai (Berlin, Germany)
Following her dance education in Moscow and Hamburg, Irina Demina received her Master’s degree in Choreography from Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz
Berlin (HZT) and since then has been based in Berlin, Germany. Since 2008, she has been developing her own choreographic projects and working as a dance artist worldwide. Her work references research on the possibilities and potential of a dialogue between traditional and digitally stimulated choreographies, using modern technologies (such as motion capturing, machine learning) to capture and reshape choreographical elements of, for example, folk dances. Her approach is inspired by experimentation with body fictions and creation of a performative dialogue between analogue and digital, tradition and technology, fiction and reality, while dancing on the edges between history and modernity, sense and non-sense, seduction and repulsion, (unknown) past and (uncertain) future.
Irina’s cooperating partner is the Singapore born choreographer and video artist Choy Ka Fai. Today, based in Berlin (Germany) he explores questions about the future that move him in his performances. Through their cooperation, Irina aspires to gain insights into Choy Ka Fai’s multidisciplinary approach to his choreographic work. In August 2021, Irina is going to accompany Choy Ka Fai during the final development process for his project CosmicWander, which combines the power of ancient shamanic wisdom and traditions with VR technologies. Between October 2021 and January 2022, they will enter a series of virtual exchanges on the topic of “hybrid” choreographic practices.
Irina's reports
„We were inspired by her enthusiasm for this digital brief and her ambition to work with her chosen partner - Cho Kai Fai – a choreographer and video artist, working cross cultures, cross art forms, exploring “Cosmic Wander” (how suitable a subject for a digital project) but combining with joint passions for folk cultures and the ways shamanism can infuse the physical and digital. There were encouraging signs of her curiosity and digital talent in her film, accomplished, witty, wide ranging and in her choice of partner and areas of study.“
- Jury-Statement