LACE #3, new format!
One of the most consistent feedbacks we’ve gotten through the years concerns the duration of the symposium. “The content is so rich, and so much of it is shared in such a short amount of time,” one of the participants of the 2024 symposium told me, “that you simply don’t get to talk to anyone in a meaningful way.” This was not the first time a symposium participant reported on there being too little time in our event for rest, integration, and making connections. We tried addressing this feedback by ensuring there’d always be a separate space for rest and mingling available to the participants of the symposium. Although welcome, our initiative didn’t amount to much. The space for rest was rarely used. “It’s really easy to think you’d enjoy resting and chatting to someone you just connected with for the first time,” another participant said, “but then you’re there, together alone in a separate space, both feeling like you’re missing out on something. Which is how you end up finding your way back to the main event. And then, three seconds later, the weekend's over. See what I mean?” “I do,” I said. And I really meant it.
It took us a while to recognise the error in our ways. In every previous experiment we’ve scheduled the time for rest, integration, and making connections parallel to the main event. Without intending it, we’ve made it so that rest was available at all times, but at a cost. The cost of missing out on whatever contribution was being made in the main event.
In the summer of 2025, LACE Symposium is going to take place during the week instead of the weekend. The basic organisational principles will remain unchanged, with Deep Dives continuing to be our primary format for practice-based exchange. By extending the duration of the symposium we can now afford more time for reflection and integration overall. With the main content of the symposium being presented in the afternoons, symposium participants will now be able to spend their mornings engaged in other activities, i.e., resting, mingling, exploring Vienna and its historical riches, or, indeed, partaking in any of the content provided by the ImPulsTanz Workshop Festival, without having to do so at the cost of missing out on contributions being made at the main event.
But we didn’t only want to create the opportunity for symposium participants to experience themselves in the larger context of the ImPulsTanz Workshop Festival. We wanted those participating at the ImPulsTanz Workshop Festival to be able to experience what it’s like to be a part of our community (without necessarily having to commit to the duration of the whole symposium). Which is why we’ll be asking this year’s Deep Dive hosts to share their practices with the wider community in the format of Open Classes. This means that, during the mornings, the doors of our studio will be open to the public. The content shared in the afternoons will be accessible only to registered participants of the symposium.