In my current research I am confronting myself with the mythological figuration of the nymph Echo. Her story, conceived and told by men, has been worked on for thousands of years with a focus on Narcissus. Experiences like „speechlessness“, „dissolving“ and „retreat“ (isolation) are quite similar. So, when I see it through the lens of Echo it allows me to shift her narrative a bit – what would happen if Echo is transforming, is becoming a landscape itself as an act of resilience and strength? For me, Echo is not only a female figure and a historical body, but also a reference point for the current question of how we can cope with experiences and crises that have been physically inscribed in us?
The focus in this practical research lies on «practicing» all the potential movement and sound material and bodily states that can be generated through the idea of «echo».
Read it out loud to another person, telling the other person to repeat only the last words or sounds:
Sophia Hörmann is a performer and dance maker based in Vienna. She studied Dance Pedagogy at the MUK Vienna and Contemporary Dance at the Escola Superior de Danca in Lisbon. 2017 she joined a mentoring program with choreographer Doris Uhlich. 2019 she premiered her first solo performance GLOWING current moods at the imagetanz Festival Brut Vienna. 2020 she was part of the tour through thoughts program organized by Uferstudios Berlin and Life Long Burning. Since 2019 she started to collaborate with her sister Johanna (HÖRFRAU Kollektiv). The „echoing“ practice which is a tool to listen to the body in a nurturing way, will lead her to her new solo piece ECHO which will have its premiere in April 2021. Collaborations with El Conde de Torrefiel, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Doris Uhlich, Saint Genet, Steirischer Herbst, Brigitte Wilfing and more.