Between control and uncertainty by Marta Wörner Sarabia

"Between control and uncertainty" is a practice-led research that combines the kinetic study of the body as a structure and the implementation of media and expanded choreography tools to de-pattern the conventional relationship between body and space in performative environments. Moreover, on a meta-level, the investigation reflects on the tension between control and uncertainty in the act of research itself. With the firm belief that the body has inherent philosophical and epistemological knowledge which can be activated by experiencing and observing movement, I embraced the challenge to name and contextualize that knowledge. This inquiry started from my fascination for the kinetics of the body and its ability to reorganize itself in comparison with other micro and macro structures that do not move that way, such a, for example, the microstructures of materials like metal, rocks or the macrostructures built by the geography of the city and the Port of Rotterdam. The interdisciplinary research addresses the dichotomy structure-destructure and its application and affections to the body. In this sense, the research proposes a tool for de-patterning the habitual relationship between the body of the performer and the external space and offers to the audience a door for de-patterning their relationship with performative spaces. The research has been framed under the inspirational umbrella of the idea of performing the Deleuzian concept of “becoming”, (deriving from the Latin verb “devenire” which means “coming down, falling in, arriving to”). The physical inquiry is focused on the action of “falling in”, "devenire". The exploration led to an articulated and defined set of physical and interdisciplinary exercises that are the core of the dance practice ‘falling in’. In concordance with the practice, the findings of this research can be seen as ways of controlling and ways of facilitating, allowing, provoking uncertainty within the choreographic practice-led research frame. This research artistically materialized in the performance Falling in. Notes on body space and matter premiered in 2019.

Click in the black bubbles to access the findings of this research.

In this sense, falling in is, an attempt to define the specific characteristics of the body as a structure in order to articulate the specific knowledge of the body, always with an aim to understand from a philosophical perspective how can I potentially move and what can I learn from it that I can implement in the way I move in a broader sense, act, think, and relate to.

The inquiry resulted in a particular and articulated movement vocabulary that served as a base to entail a set of exercises and tools for the creation of choreographic material.

Both the exercises and tools for the creation of material have a focus on the reorganization of the body in between moments of physical balance or control and work the de-patterning of certain paths of the body in order to allow "uncertainty" and let the body become.

Finally, the research led to the discovering of tools for articulating the practice within this unconventional academic research that did not part from, never had, a solid articulated research question but an always becoming one.

Falling in walked by the hand of my inquiry of the de-structuration of the space through the expanded choreography practice. This two lines of research feed and affected each other in an interdisciplinary dialogue in which video images and scenography served as a metaphorical translation of the aim and the experience of the movement research, offering "anchor points" in between uncertainty. Moreover, the movement research as a starting point served as an inspirational sensorial experience for the de-structuration of the space.

Finally, falling in has been sometimes inspired and sometimes contextualize by the philosophy of Deleuze and especially by his term becoming.

Falling in.

Physical practice

Alternative perspectives

The research started with a huge fascination for the kinetics of the body and its ability to reorganize itself as a characteristic that would define it between the other structures that I would find in my closest environment, like the structure of small pieces of metal, concrete or the structure of the water

Falling in is a movement practice-led research that resulted from the inquiry of my body as structure and its comparison with other inorganic structures that do not move or relate to space the same way.

The philosophy behind

Resulting choreographic material

Tip

Tip