Untitled III: A revelation of Nature

By Dominka Simkova

As a gentle red light appears in the distance, it uncovers two bodies standing still next to each other in silence. Sunrise begins. Bodies, with underlined perfection of their fragments depicted by shadows, are anonymous and almost motionless. Yet it’s not possible to be unaware of quiet scratching in the audience, as some spectators are making notes of what they see, and even if it’s not directly related to performance itself, one gets connotations of Liu Wentao’s minimalistic black and white circular artwork displayed on flyer everyone holds in his hand.

Just like in nature, most of processes and movements are very slow and calm, as they follows inner processes like breathe and heartbeat. Every movement requires its time, which is not measured by artificial rhythm but rather by the feeling. Even when dance is accompanied by music, everything is in one flow and it creates wholeness through simplicity. Occasionally, bodies fasten their breath, move their hands quickly or try to reach each other, as if they are interrupted from their growth by outside stimulus, but soon again, they go back into solitude. However they are one, even if separated, indistinguishable one from another despite the fact their movement slightly differs.

Lighting slowly shifts from red through yellow tones into white, just like it’s trying to resemble sun’s every day journey, and presence of strange swooshy objects in the background is uncovered. Three female bodies are hiding in shiny silver sheets, but soon they get rid of material surrounding them and they became part of the whole. For a while we can see another attempts to create connection between figures, but after a while they let go and as two male figures are slowly walking into darkness, three women are facing auditorium. Not that gender separation seems to be relevant. It’s rather part of story, where some aspects of process naturally gain importance in specific time and space.

At the end of performance, all dancers hide themselves in background, facing intensive white light, which suggests some kind of transcendence or spiritual growth. They are entering into another dimension of existence.

Performance: October 13, 2018