Within Practice – Manuel Rodríguez + Thomas Hauert – ZOO

Practice presentation: Manuel Rodriguez + Thomas Hauert 10 October 2026 As part of Within Practice, Manuel Rodriguez and Thomas Hauert give a practice presentation.

Manuel Rodriguez: This practice presentation continues the process of sabotage that began in "Otra cosa que no es una conferencia / Something Else That Is Not a Conference" (2026).

The format emerges as a structure held in tension: sometimes it cracks, sometimes it solidifies, sometimes it barely manages to stay upright.

Through voice, dance and non-verbal forms of expression, I am interested in inhabiting that oscillation where language trembles, spills over or suddenly solidifies, as if it wants to control what it names.

On stage, remnants, intensities and excess accumulate without seeking closure, without instead persisting in their instability.

The performance unfolds as a field of tension between exposure, erosion and opacity.

Thomas Hauert: The work of the dance company ZOO/Thomas Hauert is primarily based on movement research.

One of its central methods is improvisation, seen as a means of freeing the body's potential from the constraints of the analytical mind.

This is not entirely free improvisation, but a guided form in which specific tasks, rules and frameworks are used to disrupt the dancers' learned behaviours.

Improvisation enables the creation of complex movements involving so many factors that they would be impossible to repeat or notate.

ZOO moves beyond the individual, developing work around the group, around the "body" formed by all the dancers, or what might be called the "social body".

While the exploration of the individual body emphasises diversity, the work with the group strives towards cohesion, communication and connection.

The dancers' bodies are coordinated through flexible and responsive organisational principles, fostering an order based on mutual trust between the dancers rather than individual authority.

Within Practice is Stockholm's dance festival for choreographic practices.

It is a festival that shines a light on dance artists' daily work and artistic practices.

Here you have the chance to enter the heart of choreography, hear and see how the artists think and work, what drives them and how their art takes shape.

Welcome to five days of workshops, practice presentations, lectures and gatherings with friends and colleagues in contemporary dance.

The festival runs from 5–10 October in Stockholm at MDT Moderna Dansteatern, Dansens Hus and Stockholms Konstnärliga Högskola (SKH).

Full programme at https://withinpractice.se/sv/within-practice-2026-2-2