Elli started to develop her "Body Camera" methodology as a means of immersive documentation in the
context of her collaboration with theatre maker and performer:
Anna Tzakou for the
Geopoetics group (
The body is the ground above which we Walk, Nissiros 2013 -
Topophilia Athens 2015).
The practice is a response to how to document live performance in a caring, embodied way. It is a body that performs alongside the performers in the real space but also documents their action in real time.
She further developed her practice by responding to different practices, research and performances
Anouk Lleurens (
The Breathing Archive 2016-2018). Anouk's choreographic practice invites people to collectively edit a poetic and ephemeral document.
How can a dancer approach documentation from her embodied perspective? How does an archive look like when processed by the skills of the dancer, usually more concerned with the fleeting, the evanescent, the impermanent than with conservation?
Elli and Anouk developed the filming the practice of The breathing archive. One camera is recording "from within". It is placed on the table at the same level as the pages and the manual activity thus breaking down the hierarchy between the visual and the tactile and establishing a common ground for their interaction. This camera can be moved unintentionally by the practice or activated by players. A second camera is activated by Elli from the periphery of the table. Video recordings stays as a trace of the different sessions of the practice in various contexts, developing yet another type of documentation.
The Breathing Archive with Mila, Bains Connective, April 2016
The Breathing Archive, Contredanse Documentation Center, Brussels, March 2018
-Maya Dalinsky (Parallel Perceptions 2014-2022) Elli entered Maya's choregraphic practice of video walking in 2014. They developed it further together as a duo. The format has been utilized in exhibitions, as a counter experience of the expo space (Athens VideoDance Festival 2014, La zone du Dehors, ERG, Brussels, 2018), community centres as a tool of collective design (Salon_Public, Parc De Liedekerke, Brussels 2019), dance workshops for students and professional dancers (erg, arba-esa, tiktak art centre, worskpacebrussels 2018-19) community healing tool in the borderlands of Nicosia divided city (dance house Nicosia 2017) and as a tool of collective composition in filmmaking (the post (film) collective, Aria, Netwek Aalst 2022). Their work is also presented in the conference "Participative Video Festival", lecture in De Koer, Ghent 2018.
- Hanna Madeleine Kölbel (
Space Trip 2016): In collaboration with musician Hanna Kölbel. Hana and Elli created together the performance Spacetrip, a concert for a cello, a go-pro camera and a whammy pedal.
-Julian Weber (Constructing Ruins 2016):
video documentation of the live performance with 2 body camera players (in collaboration with Maxime Jean Baptiste), Working Title Situation #4 (Workspace Brussels) Beursschouwburg Brussels, June 2016
Marialena Marouda (
The Oceanographic Institute 2021).
Video documentation of the live performance, festival Dansand, Ostend, June 2021
Caroline Daish, Justine Maxelon (
Oracle 2020),
Oracle is an improvisation practice where body, voice, identity and participation meet: a public, emancipative and sharable act that involves individuality in a communal setting.
Interspecies (4' 16'', 2021) is a video creation - response to the Oracle Practice for the
Telepathic Traces Exhibition, Nadine, January 2021