The series “UNEXPECTED LESSONS – Knowledges of Body and Sound” takes place from May 2026 to February 2027 at Radialsystem and explores the plural knowledge of dance, body, and sound. The series kicks off with an opening program from May 24 to 27, 2026, centred around the solo performance “Somewhere At The Beginning” by Germaine Acogny, an icon of African contemporary dance, with workshops, talks, and the Berlin premiere of the documentary film “Germaine Acogny – Die Essenz des Tanzes.”

Programme

Sun, 24 May 2026
12 – 14 h: „Contemporary African Dance“ – Workshop with Patrick Acogny
15 – 17 h: „Contemporary African Dance“ – Workshop with Patrick Acogny
17 – 19 h: „LA PALABRE Space“ – Tea, Reading & Resting Room with artistic interventions*

Mon, 25 May 2026
18 – 20.30 h: „LA PALABRE Space“ – Tea, Reading & Resting Room with artistic interventions
19 h: „Somewhere at the Beginning“ – Performance by Germaine Acogny
20.30 h:„Germaine Acogny. Die Essenz des Tanzes" – Film by Greta-Marie Becker

Tue, 26 May 2026
18 – 20.30 h: „LA PALABRE Space“– Tea, Reading & Resting Room with artistic interventions
19 h: „Somewhere at the Beginning“ – Performance by Germaine Acogny 
Artist Talk afterwards

Wed, 27 May 2026
14 – 16 h: „Technique Acogny – Contemporary African Dance“ – Workshop with Germaine Acogny (at Tanzfabrik Berlin)

The second part of the series “UNEXPECTED LESSONS 2: Music as Resistance” is dedicated to music and dance practices as forms of resistance. Alongside the Dabke workshop with Nancy Naser Al Deen, DJ DumTak and Homaira will host a listening session called “Meshwar Mixtapes – Intro to Afghanistan”.

Programme

Sat, 01 August 2026
17 – 19 h: „LA PALABRE Space“ – Tea, Reading & Resting Room with artistic interventions
17 h: „Meshwar Mixtapes – Intro to Afghanistan“ – Listening-Session with DJ DumTak & Homaira

Sun, 02 August 2026
17 – 19 h: „LA PALABRE Space“ – Tea, Reading & Resting Room with artistic interventions
17 h: „Dabke-Workshop“ – Nancy Naser Al Deen

Instead of simply exploring how we research dance, we ask how dance changes our view of what we call “research”? In the “UNEXPECTED LESSONS - Knowledges of Body and Sound” series, Sandra Noeth and Mariama Diagne (who are both professors in dance and performance research in German universities) explore how dance has shaped an academic area of research over time: as a practice, an art form and a field of discourse. We present “Rethinking Dance in Academia” as part of “20 Jahre Radialsystem”.

Programme

Fri, 11 September 2026
14 – 21 h: „LA PALABRE Space – Tea, Reading & Resting Room” mit jee chan und Cheng-jung Tsai

18 – 19.30 h: „Beyond Academia? How Dance Rewrites Research” Performativer Talk mit Prof. Dr. Mariama Diagne, Dr. Sandra Noeth und Interventionen der Künstlerin Isabel Kwarteng-Acheampong

As part of the “UNEXPECTED LESSONS – Knowledges of Body and Sound” series at Radialsystem, Dr. Rajyashree Ramesh, Martha Hincapié Charry and Sage Ni‘Ja Whitson portray the body as a living archive in workshops and lecture performances, in which history, knowledge, and environment meet. In “Decolonizing the Body in Dance”, which we are presenting as part of “20 Jahre Radialsystem”, movement becomes a practice of reconnection, and an act of resistance and resilience.

Programme 11 September 2026

13 –15 h: „Cuerpos de Tierra - Earth Bodies“ Workshop mit Martha Hincapié Charry in deutscher und englischer Sprache

15.30 – 17.30 h: „The Cosmic Body“ Workshop mit Dr. Rajyashree Ramesh in deutscher und englischer Sprache

Programme 12 September 2026

14 – 21 h: LA PALABRE Space – Tea, Reading & Resting Room mit dem Tanzprojekt Coole Kinder

16 – 18 h: „Amazonia 2040“ Lecture-Performance von Martha Hincapié Charry
„The Cosmic Body“ Lecture-Performance von Dr. Ra-jyashree Ramesh

18.30 – 19.15 h: „On Unarriving“ Performance von Sage Ni‘Ja Whitson

Der „LA PALABRE Space“ begleitet das Programm von UNEXPECTED LESSONS – Knowledges of the Body and Sound. „LA PALABRE“ ist ein erfolgreiches Format des künstlerischen Forschungsprojekts TALKING OBJECTS LAB. „La palabre“ bezeichnet die soziale Praxis des öffentlichen Diskurses, des Zusammenkommens und der kollektiven Konfliktlösung, wie sie in vielen Ländern des afrikanischen Kontinents anzutreffen ist. Die Themen jeder Ausgabe von „UNEXPECTED LESSONS“ werden durch Gespräche, künstlerische Interventionen und Lesungen vertieft und diskutiert. Gäste sind eingeladen, Zeit im „LA PALABRE Space“ zu verbringen, innezuhalten, zuzuhören, sich zu beteiligen, in der Bibliothek zu stöbern, Tee zu trinken oder einfach nur zu verweilen.