WAXING MOON CEREMONY: WEREWOLF RITUAL-WORKSHOP

JOIN OUR WEREWOLF TRANSFORMATION SERIES, AS WE CELEBRATE THE WAXING MOON THROUGH A POETIC-MEDITATIVE MOVEMENT JOURNEY!

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

As the light of the moon is growing, it’s a fertile time for self-reflection and gathering momentum for new beginnings. This first workshop will be the start of our reconnection to our wolf siblings through an anti-speciesist lens.

Using poetic visualization, breathwork and movement, we will travel back to our embryonic state, which in its early development shares the same stages as other mammals, including wolves.

We will go to our first meetings, thousands of years ago, tracing the root of our histories together, including our long term friendship with dogs and the widespread portrayal of wolves and their fusion with our species into one creature- as either magical helpers, curses from the gods, or frightening monsters with an impressive amount of space taken in the horror genre in the last 2 centuries or more.

FOR WHO:

The workshops are open to all levels – no movement or performance experience necessary . Participants can choose their own rhythm within the journey.

Unfortunately the space is not accessible by wheelchair.

MORE ABOUT THE OVERALL PROJECT:

These claws shine into belonging is a performance-ritual project created by Byuka (they/them) as part of the Intimate Animals Collective research.

Every Tuesday, for the entire month of July, Byuka will facilitate workshops at Ugly Duck in correspondence with the phases of the moon. Informed by these workshops, Byuka will present a performative work in progress piece on the 1st of September in collaboration with sound artist Nicole Bettencourt Coelho.

These claws shine into belonging is a series of experiments at creating mythologies informed by hybridity, queerness and magic. They are focused on werewolf transformations as a framework for expanding the self, questioning normativity and reconnecting our bodies’ rhythm to nature’s cyclicity. This is not a Hollywood trope glorification, but an animist reflection on identity and belonging.

These themes are tackled through a couple of theoretical and embodiment approaches, such as ritual, shapeshifting techniques, and embodied speculative fiction.

As our society changed, the meaning we assigned to the werewolf hybrid changed. A multispecies mythology is not (only) about reframing past narratives, but its most important role is in futuring.

What is the meaning of the werewolf’s archetype and spirit in our future? Can they become an empowered ally who inspires us due to their ability to transcend nature-culture binaries?

MORE ABOUT THE FACILITATOR:

Byuka (they/them) is a migrant witch and performance artist, working at the intersections of poetry, dance and film. Their work investigates animism, queerness and intimacy through ritual and speculative fiction.

They are the co-creator of the Intimate Animals collective, where they explore eco-somatics through experiments of multispecies mythology-making and hybridisation workshops. Their work is also focused towards community engagement and ancestral healing through the collaborative project Your pain is humming in my vertebrae.

Byuka holds a BA in Performance Art from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has performed and facilitated workshops internationally.

Recent residencies include ‘Transcendence’ with Kimatica Studio at the Watermans Art Centre (London, 2018) and “Beauty Kit female farm” with Isabel Burr Raty at Mediamatic (Amsterdam, 2019). Performances include ‘Water Temple’ at Heart Culture Festival (Austria, 2018), ‘Walking through porous soil’ at the Royal Albert Hall (London, 2018), ‘Wet’ at Camden People’s Theatre (London, 2019) and The Ghost Port (Iklektik, 2022).

DATES:

5, 12, 19, 26 July 2022 (7 – 9 pm)