CHOREOGRAPHY • On the relationship between the visionary and the erotic •
CPH. DENMARK • 6th 12th OF MAY, 2021
"Are we like Narcissus crawling through the black light of a forest and stumbling upon our silver face in a pool of water? Cursed to love a hope without a body, to seek and be sought, to kindle love and be burnt by it, to have sight but no insight. Stuck in a bleached waiting room, pacing back and forth, wishing the wall was a window, seeing death as more likely than a change of mind. What would it take for us to see that we have already experienced ourselves on the other side of our extinction?"
Song of 8 is the last piece in a trilogy of works that explore the performer as a channeling body, the witness as participant, and practice over the preset dance. The works have been developed over the course of 7 years and although they have different thematic entry points they exist in a chain of causality. The trilogy includes the choreographic works TRANS- (BoraBora, 2015) and Ality (Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018).
In Song of 8, we consider the visionary space made available through the unbounded affectual energy of the erotic. A significant part of the research involved attempting to understand the notion of ‘down’, a concept that rides a blurred line between the metaphoric and concrete. Articulating what ‘down’ is involves, to some degree, a mapping of the immaterial world, one which will be idiosyncratic to the traveler who ventures there. In traveling ‘down’ one takes a circuitous round trip that may follow similar routes but will always arrive in a unique place. It is the diversity of these destinations that we explore in our Song.
PERFORMANCES 2020-2021
6th-12th of May. Cph. Contemporary, DK.
16th of Sep. Aaben Dans, DK.
CREDIT
Concept and choreography: Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, Marie-Louise Stentebjerg, Jonathan Bonnici
Performers: Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, Marie-Louise Stentebjerg, Jonathan Bonnici
Textile Installation: Lærke Valum
Textile assistants: Emilie Strøm, Christian S. Fisker, Marie H. Hansen, Mathilde Helbo
Tailor: Laura Emilie Andersen Lausen
Voice consultant: Emma Bonnici
Dramaturgical support: Anders Paulin & Eleanor Bauer
Channeling: Henriette Bjørn
Bodywork and guidance: Christine Borch
Photo: Jeffrey Scott Stratton & Morten Bencke & Rune Svenningsen
Teaser: Jeffrey Scott Stratton & På Den Anden Side/Morten Bencke
Graphic design: Sam Moore
Producer: Gry Raaby
Administration: Projektcentret
Co-Production: Dansehallerne, MDT & Bora Bora/Nordic Residency Exchange Program
Supported by: Statens Kunstfond, Knud Højgaards Fond, William Demant Fonden
Thank you: PDAS Biennale 2020, Andreas Liebmann/Tårnby Park Festival, Aaben Dans