Reflections
dance performance
Author and choreographer: Iskra Prodanova
Performers: Sofia Hristova, Maga Arna
Light design: Iskra Prodanova in collaboration with Hristina Ivanova
Music: Victor Prodanov and Tsvetan Momchilov in collaboration with Iskra Prodanova
Costumes and stage environment: Iskra Prodanova
Graphic designer: Stoycho Chakarov
Production photography: Gergana Encheva
Duration: 45 min.
Produced by Performance Room
*The structure allows for flexibility in the number of performers, but not less than 2, aiming to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
Reflections is a choreographic work-in-process that explores oscillation as a physical and metaphysical movement. Oscillation is a type of periodic wave that refers to the repetitive back-and-forth movement of something between two positions or states.
The concept of the middle, or in-between, the liminal space, has preoccupied my work for quite some time. What happens in that space in-between? As Deleuze and Guattari writes in ‘A Thousand Plateaus - Capitalism and Schizophrenia’: “The middle is by no means an average; on the contrary, it is where things pick up speed. Between things does not designate a localizable relation going from one thing to the other and back again, but a perpendicular direction, a transversal movement that sweeps one and the other away, a stream without beginning or end that undermines its banks and picks up speed in the middle.”
The research based on oscillation began in 2022 with the long-term research project Practices for Altered States, where I experiment with Pendulation, Practices For Altered States. The practice is apparently simple, with a strong effect on both body and mind. It is based on the principle of oscillation, with two steps forward, one step back, a distance of approximately one kilometer is covered in an hour, hour and a half, with the hands in a fixed position, eyes are not moving, and breathing synchronized with the steps.
The choreographic work deepens the exploration based on the principle of oscillation and Euclidian’s rhythm and plane geometry, and in some way reflects inner states, the eternal search, and attempt to position the self in relation to the other. It plays with lines of articulation or segmentarity; movements of deterritorialisation and destratification trying to leave space to read between different strata and territories - between outwards and inwards, arrival and return.
On the other hand, the work also reflects the human condition (individual or collective) placed in the context of capitalism - a brakeless, repetitive cycle, a centrifuge. We act as small machines that make up the big machine, and the question is what is the interrelationship of these individual or collective machines - organisms, to the machine of war, for example, or the machine of love, the machine of revolution, etc. and the abstract machine that sweeps them away.
Workshop propositions based on the concept:
In public space (all levels):
Practice: Pendulation, Practices for Altered States
In a dance studio (dancers/performers):
Theory: Readings and discussion
Practice Pendulation in rhythm, Practices for Altered States
Practice: Instant composition based on the choreographic work
.References:
Deleuze and Guattari - A Thousand Plateaus - Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Emmanuel Levinas - Totality and Infinity
Jean Luc Nancy - Corpus
photo by Gergana Encheva
photo by Gergana Encheva
photo by Gergana Encheva
photo by Gergana Encheva
