We are extremely honoured to be working with the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam on a new temporary MA programme beginning in September 2026. Entitled 'Phantom Scores', the programme offers an and indisciplinary exploration of the field of performance and performativity, building on the work done by If I Can’t Dance over the past twenty years.

The MA is led by curator and writer Eva Posas and further elaborates her concept of ‘Phantom Languages’ to address the persistance of knowledges, languages and ways of being within contexts of colonial erasure and particularly in relation to the struggles of Nations Without State. Posas describes 'Phantom Languages' as "languages that exist beyond words, holding a secret collective agreement, embodying knowledge. They represent the part of a mother tongue that is learned through sensual encounters, moving from body to body as political gestures of resistance that connect us within communities." 
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Employing performance as a research methodology, the MA programme expands and deepens this field of inquiry, equipping participants with tools to engage with the unseen, unacknowledged, and erased, yet still here, addressing the impalpable and yet present set of actions, scores and knowledge inscribed within bodies, their genealogies, behaviours and relations.⁠ In doing so, the students will be supported by an outstanding group of artists, thinkers, and practitioners, working at the undisciplined, de-genred intersections of performance studies, heart epistemologies, anti-colonial, and anti-racist thinking, lived experience, situated knowledge, critical theories, and DIY technologies.

Next to Eva Posas and If I Can’t Dance curators Anik Fournier & Sara Giannini, we are thrilled to announce that Noor Abed, Lynnée Denise, Venuri Perera, Yin Yin Wong, and Amy Suo Wu have joined the programme and will guide the students in the first semester.
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Applications to 'Phantom Scores' are open until April 1 via the Sandberg Instituut website

Online info sessions on Zoom with Eva Posas will take place on Monday 23 March 8PM [link] and Wednesday 25 March 11 AM [link]

Should you have questions about the course, please contact: phantom.scores@sandberg.nl
 

Image: Yin Yin Wong, Psalm for a Hungry Ghost, ph. Bart Treuren, 2025

Image description: Performance documentation of the artist sitting on a staircase-like prop while covering their head with the black bomber jacket they are wearing. Two black Nikes are left on the floor next to them.