When did you last dance into trance? When did you last cry at the news?
I invite you to listen, to reflect, to dance alone, with me, with us. Lie down if you want to, get up when you want. How can we connect and direct our collective energies? How can we live together like a big heart beating together in poly-voices?
Inspired by the socially empowering energy of the rave movement, and considering its emergence alongside the rise of neoliberalism and its competitive individualism, this research reflects on related contemporary crisis – such as environmental breakdown and the rise of fascism – and the need for collective forms of being and change.
From this research, I wrote texts and lyrics, recording spoken word and song, and learning to process everything on a digital audio workstation, adding polyvoices and beats, shaping the sound I invite you into. I operate the music via a MIDI controller from the dancefloor we share, where I also speak to you from the text. The choreography of space and atmosphere through text, music, bass frequencies, and light hosts us in shared embodiment, inviting us to inhabit them with all cells, states, and bodily being: shaking, pulsing, bouncing, flowing, streaming, grooving.
Raving about, with, for, and towards a politics of togetherness and solidarity.
With dramaturgical support, and performance in the Uferstudios Berlin version, by dance artist and researcher Alexandra Baybutt, musical assistance by musician and director Michael Picknett and performance by dancer Annick Schadeck in the Uferstudios Berlin version.
Research and creation residency: 31/7 – 11/9/2020 at Uferstudios, Berlin (DE), with a sharing on 14 September 2020 at 20.30 Research sharings/work-in-process performances: 29/2/2020 as part of Together We Are at The Green Nunhead, London (UK) 3/10/2019 at TROIS C-L, Luxembourg (LU) 19/9/2019 at Lubelski Teatr Tańca, Lublin (PL) Research project residencies: 23, 26–29/9 and 1–3/10/2019 at TROIS C-L, Luxembourg (LU) 6–20/9/2019 at Lubelski Teatr Tańca, Lublin (PL) 12–23/8/2019 at The Green Nunhead, London (UK) 27/6 – 1/7/2019 at Folkestone Dance, Folkestone (UK) Supported by TROIS C-L | Maison pour la danse, Focuna, DKollektiv, Folkestone Dance, The Green Nunhead, Lubelski Teatr Tańca and Uferstudios Berlin.
A first sharing of that journey took place on the 20th of October 2018:
Brave (K)New Rave N.1 at Alerte face à l'événement at Atelier D by DKollektiv, Dudelange (LU): http://dkollektiv.org/index.php/category/events/
I create a live soundscape of multiplied voices and spoken word within the now abandoned atelier hall that once belonged to ARBED—the Luxembourg steel industry—and was formerly filled with industrial noise.
