'Spectatorship is not passivity that has been turned into activity. It is our normal situation. We learn and teach, we act and know as spectators who link what they see with what they have seen and told, done and dreamt. There is no privileged medium, as there is no privileged starting point. Everywhere there are starting points from which we learn something new, if we dismiss, firstly, the presupposition of the distance; secondly, the distribution of the roles; thirdly the borders between the territories. We have not to turn spectators into actors; we have to acknowledge that any spectator already is an actor of his own story and that the actor also is the spectator of the same kind of story.
Jacques Rancière, ‘The Emancipated Spectator’
Sunday 17 February 2008
RELAY - concept
At the core of this dance piece we question the roles of spectator and performer through an exploration of the act of watching. We are interested in the border between observing and taking part, the transition between watching and doing. The piece calls for an audience that communicates their own interest in each moment of the performance.
"RELAY" becomes alive in the choices and interest of each audience member, within the rules and responsibilities we provide as a framework. As a constant negotiation between the roles of performer and spectator.
"RELAY" is hosted in two small rooms – a performance room and a watching/waiting room. Video cameras in the performance room connect to the watching room via a live video-link. It is made for a limited audience, which will stay together as a group in the watching room throughout the piece. The number of audience members allowed in the performance room and the time spent inside will vary throughout the piece.
During the previous research phases in London and Potsdam we have worked with themes of intimacy and status/power-games within a small group or two individuals. Set up as a series of sensory experiments for either the performer or an audience member we have so far used blindfolding and masks, emphasising sensory experiences or allowing for elements of anonymity and theatricality to impact the audiences’ experience of content. Choosing which props, masks or costumes they want to bring into the performance room, each audience visit can also leave a tangible trace in the piece.
As a site-specific performance format the simple look of the set changes with each venue, adapting to the character of the rooms we perform in.
"RELAY" will be premiered on 15 & 16 April at Greenwich Dance Agency London
"RELAY" becomes alive in the choices and interest of each audience member, within the rules and responsibilities we provide as a framework. As a constant negotiation between the roles of performer and spectator.
"RELAY" is hosted in two small rooms – a performance room and a watching/waiting room. Video cameras in the performance room connect to the watching room via a live video-link. It is made for a limited audience, which will stay together as a group in the watching room throughout the piece. The number of audience members allowed in the performance room and the time spent inside will vary throughout the piece.
During the previous research phases in London and Potsdam we have worked with themes of intimacy and status/power-games within a small group or two individuals. Set up as a series of sensory experiments for either the performer or an audience member we have so far used blindfolding and masks, emphasising sensory experiences or allowing for elements of anonymity and theatricality to impact the audiences’ experience of content. Choosing which props, masks or costumes they want to bring into the performance room, each audience visit can also leave a tangible trace in the piece.
As a site-specific performance format the simple look of the set changes with each venue, adapting to the character of the rooms we perform in.
"RELAY" will be premiered on 15 & 16 April at Greenwich Dance Agency London
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