It is mandatory to attend both days in order to participate in this workshop.
The workshop No Category Practice is an exploration of movement that resists boundaries. Drawing from diverse practices, we emphasise not their individual potential but how they interrelate—how their complementary and conflicting natures expand our spectrum of possibilities as movers, performers, dancers, and people. By confronting categories directly, we reveal their role in shaping identity and limiting our possibilities for connection, both with ourselves and with others.In this space, images, analogies, and metaphors become choreographic tools, opening pathways to escape the rigidities of classification. Dance unfolds as a language of symbols, freeing us to create meaning beyond prescribed definitions.
At the same time, we recognise how contemporary dance and pop culture have long been intertwined. From the early cabarets, nightclubs, and variety theatres that shaped modern dance, to the 90s and 2000s music videos that became global reference points, popular culture has continually blurred the line between the “artistic” and the “popular.” Here, participants are invited to access their personal dance archives—whether through folk traditions, Brazilian street dances, coordination exercises, or MTV-era icons—as a way to decolonize hierarchies within dance knowledge.
Pop culture, in this sense, is not a banal phenomenon but a transformative instrument: a unifying force, a source of nostalgia, and a catalyst for collective power. When brought into dialogue with contemporary dance, it becomes choreographic material in its own right—an invitation to rethink dance reception, challenge rigid categories, and rediscover movement as a tool for self-knowledge and connection.
Renan Martins is a Brazilian choreographer and performer based in Barcelona. He started his artistic path as a young actor in Rio de Janeiro and at the age of 17 moved to Europe to study contemporary dance. He graduated from both SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) and P.A.R.T.S (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) where he started developing his choreographic work. His very first full evening piece “Let Me Die In My Footsteps” was chosen by Aerowaves as one of the top 20 works of 2016. Since then he has been making work, performing and touring in various cities in Europe and Brazil. He is a member of Sekoia Artes Performativas, a Portuguese platform that has produced his work since 2018.
Parallel to his choreographic practice, he has been a performer for Iztok Kovac, Marysia Stoklosa, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Alexandra Waierstall, Ceren Oran, Daniel Linehan and Peter Savel. For 10 years he was a member of Damaged Goods/Meg Stuart performing and touring extensively with the pieces “Violet”, “Atelier III”, “Projecting [Space[“ and “CASCADE”.
Renan Martins is an active teacher sharing his work in various dance schools, festivals and companies such as Impulstanz, Ballet National de Marseille, Norwegian Theatre Academy, Theater Bremen, B12, Danish National School of Performing Arts, Dance Theatre Heidelberg, Danscentrum Stockholm, Tictac Art Center, Antwerp Royal Conservatory, Centro de Artes da Maré/Lia Rodrigues and P.A.R.T.S., to name a few. He is also a founding member of DDE (Diversity in Higher Dance Education in Europe), an academic research project on diversity and inclusion together with the faculty of P.A.R.T.S. (BE), Manufacture (CH) and SKH (SK).
He has also been commissioned by Dance Theatre Heidelberg, Unusual Symptoms/Theater Bremen, Danish Dance Theatre, Cullberg. And this season he is invited to make a new full length piece for Balé da Cidade de Sao Paulo, which will premiere in march 2026.
The classes are held at Dansehallerne, Franciska Clausens Plads 27 DK-1799 Copenhagen V in Studio 5.
Getting there
Studio 5 is located to the right on the ground floor with step-free access from the main entrance.
Dansehallerne has an elevator with step-free access to all floors. Accessible and gender-neutral toilets and wardrobes are available on the ground floor.
We kindly ask you to arrive 15 minutes prior to class in time for check-in with the QR code on your ticket.
All members can participate in Dansehallerne’s training activities – a year-round program with approximately 5 days of training per week and now also workshops every other week. This is for all professional members regardless of background in dance training, and it is also possible to participate in a drop-in class.
International guests can participate in training for free for up to 1 month. If you have comments or good tips for the training program, you can always send an email to the curators; trainingcurators@dansehallerne.dk
