Kathinka adds energy, creativity and drive to any project she works on and is keen to co-operate on collaborative artistic projects. Her CV demonstrates clearly her growing body of academic and professional work while her motivational, organizational and research skills are obvious to anyone who has worked with her.

(Dr. George Rodosthenous, PhD supervisor, University of Leeds)

 

 

Kathinka was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2017 from the University of Leeds (School of Performance and Cultural Industries). As part of her practice-led research Kathinka has completed four case studies (2009-2013). Her research explores issues of identity and interaction within choreographic practices, challenging the politics of choreography and re-framing established views. Kathinka, as the ‘visible choreographer’, plays an active part in the performance event itself, which involves organization, adaptability and responsiveness, giving the performers verbal and non-verbal instructions that inform the overall structure and content of the performance. Having the choreographer as part of the performance event irritates the traditional hierarchical relationship between choreographer and dancer and provokes shifts of dynamics within the group of performers. The choreographer, familiar with the use of planned structures, sets out tasks with a possible outcome in mind. However, due to the use of improvisation the dancers might react differently, thereby generating alternate responses and material outcomes.

 

Effectively it empowers the dancers, ultimately allowing shifts of control and power to be observed. It provokes the thinking/decision making processes on both sides (choreographer and dancers) and by having to constantly adapt to changes the social dynamics between the performers become visible. Interlinking ideas from different artists/theorists (Thomas Lehmen, William Forsythe, Michael Klien, Jerome Bel, Niklas Luhmann, Gregory Bateson), Kathinka investigates into exploring these social dynamics inside and around her work, aspects of vulnerability, trust and power (Foucault) as well as authorship and choreographic signature as explored by Susan Melrose (2009).

 

 

I am fascinated by these challenges I face within my practice, the vulnerability of ownership and responsibility and how it offers me new ways for performance. It is a very personal process and helps me to take greater ownership of my role as a choreographer, but it also offers an exciting perspective of challenging convention. How can it change our view of choreography and performance, how can sociological and philosophical discourses give us a greater insight in its operations, allowing a more fallible human aspect to the work and focusing on the interrelationships between all participants?

 

 

Since 2015 Kathinka is working as the research assistant for the company Silke Z (Cologne) as part of their choreographic laboratory.

 

Kathinka is in the process of publishing a chapter for a publication through the University Coventry – Centre for Dance Research. Here she writes about aspects of trust and power as part of the work of the ‘visible choreographer’, reviewing choreography as a social practice. The book will be published in 2018.

 

In July 2013 Kathinka got invited to work with dancers in New York as part of the Brooklyn International Performance Festival. Working with dancers from a different cultural context proved to be more enriching and exciting than expected. The work got pushed in new directions, raised new questions/challenges, fully enriching her research/practice.  For more information please see the blog posts about this project (May-November 2013) and the trailer below.

 

 

In June 2012 Kathinka developed her ideas of her performance installation from 2011, Before I decide, further, exploring her role as the ‘visible choreographer’, drawing out more possibilities to make the ‘human side’ visible. Referring to Terlingo, this prevents a state of ‘structural looping’ or ‘unresponsive stasis’ and provides

 

 

a new form of applied choreography that reveals the continuity between thoughts, our actions and the world around us: a choreography of changes. (Terlingo, 2008)

 

Please see the trailer below:

 

Publications:

 

• In Process: Chapter for Performing Process: Sharing Practice (Coventry University und Palgrave Macmillan)

 

• In process: Walter, K. and McDowall, L. 2015. Kitchen Conversations: Between Researcher and Research. Choreographic Practices.

 

• Bannon, F., Walter, K., Beswick, K., Holt, D., Laycock, P., Preece, K. 2010. Architects of the invisible.  Proximity. 13 (3), p. 10-15

 

• Walter, K. 2009. Keine AufregungInterdisziplinäres Arbeiten in neuen Räumen. TanzRaumBerlin, 3/4, p. 3

 

• Walter, K. 2008. Frühjahrsputz für den Community Dance. TanzRaumBerlin, 7/8, p. 2

 

• Walter, K. 2006. Berliner Künstler im Ausland. TanzRaumBerlin, 9/10, p. 7

 

 

Conference papers:

 

• 2014: ‘Kitchen Conversation, between Researcher and Research’ at Questioning the Contemporary, Leeds Metropolitan University

 

• 2014: ‘The visible choreographer’ at Performing Process: Sharing Practice Symposium, Coventry University

 

• 2014: ‘Kitchen Conversations: Between Researcher and Research at Postgraduate Research Presentation, University of Leeds (PCI)

 

• 2012: ‘Re-viewing the choreographer’s identity and its implication on professional dance training’ at PSi #18 conference: Performance, Culture, Industry, University of Leeds

 

• 2010: FIRT/IFTR (Munich), Performance as Research Working Group

 

• 2010: Poster presentation, Postgraduate conference at the University of Leeds

 

 

Conversations with choreographers (2010):

Please see below an interview as part of Kathinka’s work with Verve10, Physical chain (2010).