LAVINIA VAGO
IN RESIDENCE WITH FKK
MADE IN SEATTLE 2024
FKK is a long and intentional multilayered journey of research rooted in dance.
From underground raves, queer clubs, durational performance spaces, punk mosh pits, noise pressure, cathartic dancefloors, rituals of release, and empathetic relationships rooted in love, a performance is birthed. A portal for kinesthetic empathy, where time dilates and each moment extends to eternity in a collective journey of healing.
Dance is the place where we can encounter our demons and chase them, confront them, and ground with them. Make them our bitch, so we can dominate them; we find our freedom there. Music is the gateway to reconnect with joy, unconditional love, to each other, and the rhythm of the universe sitting inside us.
Using the solo form as a multitude of experiences on top of each other we ask : how much can one body do alone? How far can it be pushed? What else can you discover there? What is the tender space between pain and pleasure? The choreographic codes attack the vulnerability of the flesh using technologies of the body memory.
FKK is a place to celebrate the resilience of the body, the boundlessness of the soul, and to honor the immense power of dance.
ARTIST BIO
Lavinia Vago (she/her) is an Italian dance artist, performer, educator, maker, collaborator, and director based in Seattle, with roots in NYC and Berlin.
Lavinia experiments and creates dance works as a solo artist, with strong collaborative processes. Her work researches and attacks themes of disobedience, kinesthetic empathy, queerness, and transcendence through exhaustion, duration, endurance, and rigor. She uses intuitive improvisational choreographies and scores to explore altered cerebral and emotional headspaces within experimental soundscapes. Her life work aims to research and demonstrate the importance of dance as a gathering force with the power to reverberate change into the world.
Recent premieres include “NOESIS X, a solo for two” in collaboration with Berlin artist Harald Stojan (Velocity Dance Center, 2019), “FLAMES AND BABES” (Seattle Art Museum, 2020) as part of the Flesh and Blood Exhibition of Italian Masterpieces from Capodimonte, “ENXORE” at SIFD (2021). Her work has been supported by Velocity Dance Center, the Henry Art Gallery, and she has been commissioned a new work as part of the Made In Seattle program season 2023 / 2024.
As a dance artist Lavinia collaborated, performed, created works and toured the world with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Loni Landon Projects, Vim Vigor Dance Theater (NYC), Tom Weinberger, Corrie Befort, David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen, and most extensively with Montréal based Rubberband. She created works with Vienna based theater company Saint Genet, performing at Weiner Festwochen and Holland Festival.
Since 2019, Lavinia creates and tours with artist Tainzhuo Chen (Asian Dope Boys) and the incredible cast of collaborators in Physis and TRANCE (Mwoods / Beijing, Trauma Bar Und Kino / Berlin, Kampnagel / Hamburg, Norberg Festival / Sweden, Kindl / Berlin, Dark Mofo/ Tasmania).
Lavinia has been Associate Artistic Director of the non-profit Studio Kate Wallich (2017-2020), has been the rehearsal director of YC2 (a platform for emerging dance artists), and co-founded and co-directed dance company “The YC” with Kate Wallich (2010 – 2020). Recently they toured with band Perfume Genius at The Moore Theater, The Joyce, The Walker, ICA Boston, and MASS Moca.
She is now the Artistic Director of Programming, a core member of the Creative Leadership Team and a Lead Instructor for Dance Church®, developing programming for online and in person classes, leading all partnerships, and leading all bodies inclusivity initiatives (most recently in partnership with Harborview Medical Institute for SCI patients).
As an educator, Lavinia also teaches Dance for Parkinson’s, Rubberband Method, and masterclass series, intensives and workshops aimed to subvert, decolonize and rethink dance contemporary technique, floor work, and improvisation. She taught at Strictly Seattle, Springboard Danse Montreal, l’Ecole Supérieure de Ballet du Quebec, L’ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montreal, Domaine Forget, Lines Ballet Training Program, Tanzquartier Vienna, Tanz Platform Rhein Main (Frankfurt), and Staatstheater TanzMainz, among others.
Magna Cum Laude from Cornish College of The Arts ‘10.
@laviniavago
www.laviniavago.com
#laviniavago
HOW TO SUPPORT
To join the community of support for Lavinia Vago and her Made in Seattle project, please contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org, or make a gift at the link below.