Aurora Westfelt is a Swedish dance artist, activist and teacher. She was born in Stockholm in 1985 and currently lives in Järna, just south of Stockholm. She studied dance at North Karelia College in Outokumpu, Finland, and trained as a fritidspedagog (after-school teacher) at Södertörn University. Contact improvisation has been an important part of her life since she started practicing it in 2005.
In 2016 she co-organized the Radical Contact Spring Gathering, together with Diana Thielen and Daniel Mang, with whom she is currently working on a new gathering on the topic of body politics and contact improvisation. In her own explorations she focuses on the (power) relationship between audience and performer, and on the site and time specific nature of dances. Writing and reading are an important part of her creative process.
Re-evaluating co-counseling, a peer-based counseling procedure, which she has been practicing for many years, has had a strong influence on her. More recently she has begun exploring and found inspiration in Non Violent Communication, a process of communication designed to improve compassionate connection to others.
Aurora identifies as queer, able-bodied, cis-gender, “white” and middle class
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read Aurora's articles:
"Contact improvisation – self-indulgent or subversive?"
"From oppressive structures on the dance floor to a world of dance"