DIY: 2016 – immigrants and animals ‘unprofessional class’

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS DIY HAS NOW PASSED

immigrants and animals' unprofessional class for the self-proclaimed dancer who doesn’t give a fuck about being professional and just wants to keep dancing. this is a class for anybody who is interested

Project summary

consider dancing as a social/formal/spiritual/technical/procrastinatory/anti-commodifiable human event and engage with unprofessional class as you wish, as hobby, a conversation, a workshop, an indulgence, a tool to reflect on your own practice with. as some dancing. some dancing that is a gleeful waste of time, a resistance to capitalism and the development of cultural capital (or capital of any kind) or function or product; non-practical bodies dancing towards no particular purpose or end, not getting better at anything, being present.

we don’t believe that we have anything to teach, we learn by keeping going. ultimately, we want to share our practice which is basically fucking about for ages in a room, getting tired and calling it work. we think that dancing on a stage need not look different to dancing in a club, kitchen or bus stop. we still don’t even know if we care about stages. most likely there’ll be some karaoke.

Participants

this is a class for anyone who is interested.

Dates, times and location

there will be five unprofessional classes between the thirteenth and twentieth of october twothousandsixteen with two days off (as some kind of fake weekend, because this is work). each class will happen at a different time of day. we do not want to build a temporary group or community and so no-one is expected to come to all of the sessions (apart from us we guess).

unprofessional class will happen at the tate in london. we are currently trying to think about how to engage with such an institution – as an independent conceptual dance outfit we don’t want our critical context to be shaped or determined by anyone else.

this DIY is supported by Tate (Families and Early Years).

The artists

we remain dancers for hobby not only dancers for money. unprofessional class is an activity that seeks to undo illusions and sketchy internalised systems of value in relation to what and how a ‘professional artist’ is, or should be, or should do. we are trying to fabricate various strategies to do our job, be well, have fun, resist all the bullshit and still survive in a neoliberal capitalist system. unprofessional class is one such strategy. www.immigrantsandanimals.com