Visited performance by Jeremiah Day at SIC 2. The event was organized by Ruler. Day’s presentation reminded me a lot of Philipp Gehmacher’s piece for Baltic Circle. Both were big men, moving in a stuttery dance form, talking about current politics from a personal viewpoint in an plain manner. Day’s event was more uplifting than Gehmacher’s (who comes of as a diva compared to Day).
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Visited TeaK Bunch performances today by invitation of Matilda Aaltonen. I’ve been watching more dance this autumn then ever before. It inspires me. There is more potential for change in dance than in performance art!
There is something unceasing in witnessing dancers illustrate internal drives with their public bodies (they become everybodies and make the audience nobodies). Dance is magnificent acts and on stage, which the artist present in an unhesitant/pro-hesistant, inhumane manner. They have no stutter – Stutter is their art. This makes them too perfect to approach. They are shielded from penetrating gazes on all fronts. There were three breaks during the two hour post-humanism inspired dance potpourri. During the breaks the movements the performers echoed in the audiences posture. Everyone ended up putting on a show, walking more steadily and concentrated then before arriving. Everyone was afraid to show their imbalances, everyone was afraid to show “they didn’t get it”. This is how institutions terrorise us and this is how we can use empathy to change the world.
I’ve started to develop dance for my kettlebell. “Workout in four parts”:
- Warm-up, kettlebell and techno making (as demoed at NPTurku for Pilvi)
- Protein-shake and kettlebell worship (for this I’ll use the stutter/poses techniques presented by Philipp Gehmacher and I’ll ask Pilvi to design a protein drink for me)
- 16kg of meat to counterbalance the 16kg kettlebell on a swing (a short transitional act between workout and cooldown phase)
- Attaching a six pack of beer on my belly with duct tape and serve the audience with alkohol
- […]
- Profit
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Visited “my shapes, your words, their grey” by Philipp Gehmacher for Baltic Circle festival. He danced and talked. The movements were inspirational, he worked to convert stutter and hesitation into dance – But the movements were not introverted as some gestures echoed poses that are familiar from street protests. The lecture he gave while dancing was an uninspiring illustration of the theory of performativity and new materialism. He was plowing space for the agency of objects and working to present himself as a material being. His claim was that when objects and humans meet in the realm of art, they lose their contrast and become “grey”. He tried to align himself with the materials but the process felt forceful – The objects were only supporting his storyline. The piece came off as a ballad for the agency the artist has lost.