Bang Bang Bodies | Xenia Koghilaki

“Bang Bang Bodies” focuses on embodied “discharge” (or physical release) associated with various kinds of groups – from the metal and punk scenes to meditative rituals and instances of mass protests. The work resituates the practice of headbanging, placing it on stage as an endless chain of reciprocity and exchange – of time and affects, of sweat and breathing, of historical, cultural, and political particles between bodies – that is never static. On the contrary, it is ever in motion: a fluid and turbulent moving.

Two female performers invite audiences to a choreographic journey into the collective imaginary, investigating notions of collectivity and embodied memory. They explore the effects of exhaustion through repetition bringing to spotlight familiar and unexpected states as they appropriate a brutal masculine practice.

Taking into consideration the overestimated position of the head in relation to the rest of the body, Xenia Koghilaki proposes a reformulation of relationships and hierarchies. A natural consequence of the work is the sense of dizziness and disorientation. Things become fragile and vulnerable laying claim to those blurred spaces of absurdity that lie between bodies and the world.

• The shake of the head is a common reflex reaction among infants and toddlers. It is also encountered in the Sufi tradition. First use of the term “headbanging” has been variously attributed. One of the more pervasive explanations of the term’s origins suggests that it was invented to describe an audience reaction during the first Led Zeppelin US tour, in 1969, at the Boston Tea Party venue: during this concert, audience members in the front row started rhythmically shaking their heads in time with the music.
• “Bang Bang Bodies” is coming to Onassis Stegi shortly after its official premiere in January 2023 as part of the TANZTAGE BERLIN 2023 festival in Germany.
• The work was first presented in June 2021 within the framework of the MA Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA) program at the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT).
• Xenia Koghilaki has appeared at Onassis Stegi before as part of the Onassis New Choreographers Festival – ONC8 (now known as Onassis Dance Days – ODD), as a co-creator and performer of the digital work besuch in 2021, which is also where she first experimented with the practice of headbanging.