eleni vasilonikolou

Embodying Systems: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Choreography | Workshops



Part of the artistic research Embodying Systems: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Choreography involved sharing the knowledge and tools I acquired with others, allowing for different interpretations and applications of the process. The tools utilized in this study were shared for both pedagogical and ethical reasons. Firmly rooted in the relational ontology of systems theory, this approach acknowledges that knowledge is co-constructed and emerges from interactions. By making the research available to others in workshops, I attempted to decentralize authorship and incorporate multiple forms of knowledge. This raises a deeper issue: all systems, including choreographic structures, coexist in being sensed and acted upon together. The ethical commitment was about contesting the enclosure of knowledge and affirming spaces in which we could experiment together and share uncertainties and ambiguities. By bringing the tools into the light, I was passing them forward and carrying a responsibility to make it possible for others not just to understand, but to challenge, reorganize, and transform the system from their unique perspectives, contexts, and desires.
Workshop in Athens [2024]

The first workshop, titled PLAYING WITH THE SYSTEM (2024), focused on introducing and integrating the fundamental principles of systems thinking, as articulated by systems theorist Donella Meadows, into performance practice. Participants explored the idea of the system as a complex whole – a network of interconnections – and engaged with practical tools to identify and analyse these systems in embodied ways. Through simple, structured tasks, we created small, temporary performative structures and then reflected on them collectively using Meadows’ principles. The workshop offered a space to play with the mechanics of systems thinking while opening up new ways to sense, compose, and understand relational dynamics within choreography and performance.Photos by: Fotoula Gerakianaki

                                                               

Workshop in Arnhem [2025]

Photos by: Diamanto Hadjizacharia
In the second workshop, titled SYSTEM JOY  | THE WORKSHOP (2025), we focused on exploring system components through embodied practice, with a particular emphasis on the concept of the cloud within systems theory. The workshop invited participants to investigate how systems deal with unpredictability and the unknown, using the cloud as a central metaphor and tool. In systems thinking, clouds represent the unmodelled and open-ended – much like the unpredictable, shifting nature of human presence within any structure. Throughout the workshop, we treated clouds as spaces of potential, where emergence is not only possible but inevitable. Participants explored the affective, the unconscious, and the bodily – all those aspects that systems cannot fully predict or represent. Together, we created fields of intensity and zones of becoming, spaces where subjectivity simmers, where performers can hesitate, exaggerate, forget, invent, and discover new relational possibilities through the process.



                                                             









































© 2025 Eleni Vasilonikolou  
Choreographer & Interdisciplinary Artistic Researcher


Contact: elenivasilonikolou@gmail.com  
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