Coming Together | Assemblies

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Research Workshops

Tanzfabrik Berlin Half-Residency | March–April 2026

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Assemblies was the initial research phase of what later became Coming Together. The project emerged as a continuation of my dance performance Moody Drifts: Affective Resistance, developed with Romanian dancers in Bucharest and later presented at Theater Rampe in Stuttgart. While Moody Drifts explored embodied resistance in a post-socialist context, this new research asked how similar questions of collectivity, migration, and resistance could be approached through the diverse artistic and cultural experiences of dancers living in Berlin.

The workshops brought together collaborators from former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Latin America, and Brazil to explore collective movement practices rooted in their respective cultural contexts. Beginning with Yugoslav Slet mass choreographies and traditional kolo dances, we investigated how these historical forms could enter into dialogue with Latin American social dance practices. Through improvisation, rhythmic stepping, circular formations, synchronized breathing, touch, and embodied experimentation, we searched for choreographic languages capable of generating solidarity, care, pleasure, and resistance.

Rather than reconstructing historical dances, the workshops treated them as living material—something to inhabit, transform, and reimagine through contemporary bodies shaped by migration. The research laid the foundation for the ongoing development of Coming Together.

Dancers in the workshops: Pamela Moraga, Giuliana Corsi, Andrii Romanenko, Aleks Zain

Yuri Shimaoka​ and Neda Kovinic