Chisenhale Dance Space, London , UK
performers: Luke Birch, Molly Wright
March, 2009
The piece is drawing from real circumstances in order to explore the everyday, individuality, social encounters and behavior, to capture the raw and live moments, the natural experience which is subject to chance and spontaneity and contain it within performance time and space.
Performers and audience are on the same level as they are sharing the same space and gradually, the action evokes the sense of familiarity and comfort that will set free the audience’s sensory channels and will help them engage with the present situation.
In this situation of social encounters, behavior is questioned. The audience are witnessing and participating into a play with what is expected or what is considered normal behavior in the context of social interactions and privacy. The piece is seeking excitement in the simple everyday, domestic activities and even more excitement in twisting them. Through movement, text and manipulation of simple activities, the performers celebrate and challenge the everyday and the social, by gradually giving in to surreal and explosive behavior.
There is a particular manner here in which movement, or dance is employed: it discards its spectacular nature while it complies with the experiential nature of the piece: it comes across as another means of questioning normality and manipulating reality and at the same time it serves the purpose of transporting the audience into a situation and creating intimacy via the proximity and interaction with the audience.
photos: Katja Demidova
