Technology and myself – it’s complicated. I have a dance background and experience in organising and communicating cultural/artistic projects. In 2024 I participated as a mentor in the context of Oulu Dance Hack and in 2025, during Bucharest Dance Hack, I also experienced the residency program from a producer’s point of view.
Very simplified, Dance Hack is an artistic residency where international dance artists and creative technologists gather and spend a week together, working on potential intersections between dance and tech. The more detailed description of EU Dance Hack can be found on https://dancehack.eu/
Jussi Alaraasakka (Dance Hack mentor) with whom I have been talking in several occasions told me about the spirit of a Dance Hack residency (playful, experimental, respectful, safe), about the exploratory aspect of it, about the profile of the participants in the event (open minded, creative and proactive individuals).
So, I entered the project thinking about what mentorship could be. A fluid position I imagined. Being available for artists, offering balanced guidance, facilitating conversations, articulating ideas. All the customary things. But, in Oulu, I understood that there are much more nuances.
In the space where different personalities and perspectives met for the first time, where body/movement and digital systems fused, I found myself challenged and striving for some sort of immediate interdisciplinary literacy and for a synthetic / hybrid way of thinking. Let me just say I heroically struggled.
I observed the expressive potential of the body interacting with sensors, motion capture devices, a pole bar, Isadora, etc and mentorship became less about all the “right things and right answers” and more about witnessing, accompanying, being present, offering inspiration and feedback.
As I left Oulu I wrote down the following:
- The core of the project is exchange, embracing the process over product, experimentation, technical limitations and creative explorations.
- What appears (not only in terms of artistic experience) when technology is placed in dialogue with the moving body?
- Mentorship is an act of continuous discovery
Bucharest Dance Hack was even more challenging. It started with going through 180 applications from all over the world, in order to select 5 artists. It was really a mental workout. And then, as the artists and partners arrived in Bucharest and the Dance Hack residency started, the entire process became about curating and keeping a shared space for dialogue, creativity and explorations. I struggled between being inside the experience, providing precision and clarity from the outside, negotiating and keeping time, working through the unexpected, remaining adaptable, building trust, fostering qualitative relationships and having a good laugh from time to time.
After the Dance Hack finished I found myself missing the people that I have spent five intense days with. And with this came the realization that underneath the visible, beyond cables, lights, screens, video projectors, soundspeakers, mixers, presentations, movements and technologies, the ethos of the Dance Hack also resides in creating a temporary community, that brings together ideas, stories, experiences and expressions, shaped by shared interests and care.
And deeply rewarding.
