Eliza Trefas invites to her research workshop Grace at Agora, Cité Internationale de la Danse:

Within my residency at Agora, I will work with the somewhat complicated subject of grace. Grace seeks an encounter between its meaning in dance and a broader sense of grace as found, for example, in mysticism. In spiritual contexts, it refers to a mysterious state, received rather than produced; a blessing that comes upon you.

I'm interested in how working with grace could influence, inform, transform or support the way we are in our bodies, the way we move, perform and generally create. Throughout the days, I will guide minimal body practices, we will dance, try to find ways of moving with grace as well as notice it in others, simulate a Grace Contest, and discuss theoretical or empirical references on this matter.

Grace will be explored in its wide spectrum: from wilfully spiritual (forms of attention) to playfully formal (can we dance in graceful ways?), from grace as spirit that guides the dancer, to grace as beauty, charismatic trickery in the body.

The research has a soft spot for philosophy, intuition and a longing for expressivity, for a body with a possibility for spirit. It's open to anyone interested in working with forms like dance, performance, meditation, metaphor, dreams. While no professional dance experience or training is required, you're encouraged to bring a sustained presence and attention, as well as to be sensitive to, and careful with, your own process and that of others.

Ultimately we will see what it could mean for each of us to be and dance under grace. That, of course, if any of it will come upon us.

20–21 April 2026,
Agora, Cité Internationale de la Danse