Research Affiliate
Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, Ph.D., born in Cologne, Germany, is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Concordia University (Canada), where she teaches acting, directing, history, and dramaturgy. With a strong background in performing and directing, her research centers on the performance of extreme emotion. After a decade of independent theatre work in Berlin, she co-founded Richard Schechner’s East Coast Artist in NY. She is a certified rasabox instructor, and volunteers regularly at the Bread & Puppet Theatre. In recent years she has investigated Indigenous performance and the role of the settler ally. Neuerburg-Denzer has published several book chapters and journal articles. Her article “High Emotion- Rasaboxes in the Emo Lab: Emotion Training for Actors in the Twenty First Century,” was published in Theatres of Affect. An essay on the collaborative project with Floyd Favel on the housing crisis on Northern reserves, “Attawapiskat is no Exception” will be published in a collection called Dream Houses. Her chapter on the staging of S. Tretyakov’s constructivist play, I Want a Child, is forthcoming at Rowohlt in Germany.
Dwellings
Part One of this two-year SSHRC-funded research project, cumulated in an immersive, multi-location performance – a response to the complex Indigenous-Canadian relationship that addressed the history, realities and dreams of the Indigenous house and home, and its effect on the land and on our bodies. In small groups audiences “migrated” through a series of unconventional performance spaces s to experience themes ranging from the sacred to the abject. Led by Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, in collaboration with Indigenous visiting artists Emilie Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) and Floyd Favel (Cree) the project also included works by Kanien:keha’ka media artist Skawennati, and Kanien:keha’ka scholar and storyteller Kahente Horn-Miller, Bear Clan. Dwellings connects Concordia students, faculty, researchers and artists across disciplines and communities including Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Matralab, Indigenous Futures Cluster + Obx Labs for Experimental Media, Topological Media Lab, and SenseLab. In year two the results of this performative intervention will be analysed, disseminated and further developed.
