On GROOVING  

In its third session, RE-MIXING THE STAGE. CIRCULAR LISTENING SESSIONS asks: Who defines grooving? Is there a formula for creating it? Does it come from embodied memory? How do we find ourselves again – outside of Western parameters in music? How do we embrace chaos and the pluriversal ways of embodying and notating music?

In this session, Laura Robles and Dare Balogun will guide us through these questions, sharing their research and musical practice – both of which carry embodied answers and open new inquiries. Bring your open ears and your dancing shoes. 

Laura Robles is an improviser, composer, multi-instrumentalist and researcher born in Swaziland and raised in Lima-Peru. She studied traditional music of the central coast of Peru and Cuban music and shared a stage with legends such as Susana Baca, Juan Medrano Cotito, Jorge Roeder, Ernesto Hermosa, El Teatro del Milenio, Andres Chimango Lares, Laureano Rigol, Roberto Borrell, Los Hermanos Ballumbrosio, among others.

Considered one of the most accomplished Cajón players in the world, she has dedicated her career to the analysis of Folk rhythms with a strong focus on Afro-Peruvian folklore and the use of the cajon and its traditional rhythms in different musical genres. Now living and working in Germany, Robles has continued experimenting and exploring with what she calls “the anti-groove” and thus creates completely new possibilities of expression in modern jazz and improvised music.

In the last few years she has worked with artists and groups as diverse as American composer and Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider, Petros Klampanis, Bodek Janke, Lauer Large Orquestra, Pablo Held, Niels Klein, Ensemble Neue Musik Zürich, WDR Big Band, Wanja Slavin, Steffen Schorn among others.

Dare Balogun is a Nigerian DJ, curator, and writer based in London whose work spans radio, archives, and live cultural programming. His practice is rooted in traditional African music, particularly Highlife, Juju, Soukous, and Makossa, and how they echo through migration, memory, and contemporary sound. As the founder of Roots to Rhythm, he curates listening sessions, research projects, and archival initiatives that connect traditional African genres to global dance culture, framing records as vessels of both history and imagination.

On air, Dare is a monthly resident on NTS, where his shows move between deep archival storytelling and club-oriented selections, extending a curatorial approach that has also brought him to The Lot Radio, Rinse FM, and other global platforms. His live work includes appearances at The Barbican, Public Records, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Homecoming Festival ), where he has built intimate spaces for both listening and dance.