Moshing is a furious form of crowd dancing usually associated with punk and rock culture. It happens during live music concerts, in the center of the crowd, in the space called the „mosh pit“. It is energetic and full of body contact and some of its variations include pogoing, stage diving, headbanging and floorpunching. Xenia Koghilaki uses the practice of moshing as her starting point to explore the corporeal impact of sound on highly energized collective motion. She aims to move the discussion beyond moshing as a reflection of musical appreciation to moshing as a site of collective struggle and a ritualized form of social cooperation. She reflects on how music spaces can generate sites for collective rituals of trust and mechanisms of space negotiation, while considering the social and political significance of crowd dancing as a physical resistant practice.
Part of Episode XXVI: “Impacts of Sound – Sounds of Impact”
With Fabio Cervi, Atiyyah Khan, Brandon LaBelle, Xenia Koghilaki & Florian Malzacher
30. November 2023 – Black Box Teater Oslo / Norway
In partnership with Black Box Teater, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Onassis Stegi and Astrup Fearnley Museum
Biography
Xenia Koghilaki works in the field of performing arts as a dancer and choreographer. She holds an MA in “Solo/Dance/Authorship” from Berlin University of the Arts (HZT-Berlin/UDK) and she has previously studied dance (Greek National School of Dance) and architecture (Technical University of Patras) in Greece. Xenia puts the body in the center of her research interest, exploring concepts of collectivity and embodiment in relation to dance and choreography, while her practice focuses on challenging the triptych: power – knowledge – body. She lives and works between Athens and Berlin.
