“Back then, flying meant you could land in a farmer’s field.”

(2021)

Using rhizomatic information structures, subject/object material dissonance and looped time, “Back then…” aims to work in this choreographic paradox: how can material collapse and continue at the same time? What if collapse could take many forms? In performance, what can these dancing bodies hold, intercept or corrupt?

This work started by transcribing and physically learning (by heart) radio, TV and live streamed transmissions from events in history of extreme falling or low gravity. These texts, gestures, sounds, images, emotions, costumes and characters were abstracted, juxtaposed, written down and edited into scripts. I trained in Tai Chi and created somatic scores of weight and speed. Ball Kid collaborators use an epiphyte logic and ‘countdowns’ to create temporal containers.

Collective writing methods with collaborators were used to imagine, re-define and categorise modes of Landing and Orientation.  These processes reference Stephen Wright’s concerns of usership: hacking, piggybacking and monetising content, authorship and ownership, the collective and the individual; as well as terms from Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology: nausea, sinking and sticking.

“Back then…” was presented as part of the New Performance Practices Masters Program (DOCH) in Farsta, Stockholm 2021 (45 minutes)

Choreographic concept : Leah Landau
with dancers: Oda Brekke, Sigrid Sjöholm, Alice McKenzie and Lisa Schåman

Supervisor: Andros Zins-Browne