Gabi Tropia

Biography

I am Course Leader for the MA Performance: Screen and am dedicated to nurturing a new generation of screen-based artists.

I am committed to fostering a community of learning in the classroom, where every voice is recognised as valuable. I like to encourage students to take risks and experiment, whilst supporting the development of their own unique authorial voice. I am particularly interested in Critical Pedagogy’s progressive approach to teaching and empowering students. I have published articles in Terpsichore in Zeros and Ones(ed. Szperling) and Art in Motion (ed. Hayes and Boulègue).

I am a dance filmmaker - my practice lies in the intersections between film, performance, choreography and emerging technologies.

I directed Under the Cobblestones, a 20-minute film about freedom of speech and protest, in collaboration with choreographers Igor & Moreno and musician Bellatrix. The film was screened at the Cinedans Festival Amsterdam and awarded at Passion for Freedom Arts Festival London.

I have also created the short Units of Action, which has been screened in film festivals in more than 10 countries and was included in the Videodance Mercosul Compilation. Tableleg, a film I directed and performed in, has been shown at Sadlers Wells Theatre. I have been commissioned twice by T.H.E Company and the National Museum of Singapore.

In the Jam Series I made use of practice-as-research methodologies to investigate what an improvised filmmaking practice could look like. For this, I took part in dance improvisation sessions, and shot and edited improvised films within a strict and limited timeframe of 2 hours. This resulted in a 13 short films.

My latest project, Organising Principles of Experience is an experimental short in which I collaborate with an AI model, tuned to the writings and sensibilities of Maya Deren, to imagine new films. The film explores memory, possession, and the digital afterlife, questioning what remains when the past becomes data and how an artist might lay claim to her absent idol.