Song of the Cuckoo by Joost Vrouenraets

How are madness, the spine and Hamlet related to each other in a choreographic process? This exposition displays the collection of documentation of the research. The exposition functions as the contextual backbone for the project 'Song of the Cuckoo', an experimental Practice as Research project in the form of a soliloquy performed by two dancers: Joany Uranka; dancer, assistent researcher, co-creator and myself. The nexus of the project is formed by the three strands originating from (1) an understanding of madness as a performative concept and philosophical perception, a phenomenon of indwelling and study of the transformative nature of creativity, supported by Michel Foucault's thesis History of Madness,(2) the human spine as a choreographic, kinesthetic, (imaginative) anatomical concept as well as an existential metaphor for the idea of becoming, inspired by the embryological phases of birth. And (3), Shakespeare's play Hamlet which is researched as a poetic, literary source functioning as the main inspiration and theatrical search of the totality of the project. The appearance of the character Ophelia in this play is re-purposed and re-imagined for the construction of the narrative and dramaturgical line of the project. The symbolical interpretations of the flowers which Ophelia gives to other characters in the play are translated into specific emotional and physical states of the performance. The nexus of the project is experimentally embodied by the author of the project and research, myself. The project itself is a practice as research on the above described research question, as well as an emerging meta-reflection on the relation between the author and his work.

quia crepitus, qui per sedimentum exeunt, ad is os allisi, cuculi vocis similitudinem effingunt

(1618, Riolan)

the sound of the farts that leave the anus and dashes against this bone (coccyx), shows a likeness to the call of the cuckoo

Dear visitor,

We are happy to welcome you here at the exposition 'Song of the Cuckoo'.

You are free to scroll, jump or fly through the exposition you wish. To make things a bit easier for you, we have provided you a gentle guide who is there for you to make you go from one place to another. The guide is this cuckoo that apears at every page of the exposition. Each time you see it, you can click on it and you will be guided to a new place.

Follow his song and you will get along,

Joost Vrouenraets and Joany Uranka

CLICK

Madness

Maker

Hamlet

Ophelia

Foucault

Spine

Song

Practice as research

Process

Water

SHE

Vulnerability

Cuckoo

Ship of fools

Choreographic Love Letters

Honesty

Inclusion

Ghost

Body

Performance

To be or not to be

Alienation

180 degrees

Foramen Magnum

Construction

Middle

Dramaturgy

Author

Soliloquy

Shakespeare

reason

Reflection

Wisdom

Becoming

Dialolgue

Birth

Theatre

Transparency

Documentation

Imaginative anatomy

Coccyx

Dance

Maisel

Recording

Grotowski

History of madness

Change

Drowning

Dens of the axis

Transformation

Providence

Indwelling

Psychology

Core

Nature

Provoking

Within

Emerging

Since 20 years I am just obsessed by Shakespeare's Hamlet, there's no other play I know of that proposes such a vertigionously confusing, yet totally understandable figure as Hamlet. The Danish Prince is as extremely inward as he is theatrically expressive. There's no line in the whole play wich doesn't move me poetically, spiritually, intellectually. The following lines of Hamlet are -among many others- dear to me, but especially for its evidence of Hamlet expressing 'letting go', I find it so touching. And they are without doubt the best words to share with you for the start of this exposition. I humbly allowed myself to just change 3 words of Shakespeare's text:

fall = song

sparrow = cuckoo

Flowers

Center

Authorship

Overcoming

Roots

Axis Mundi

Hamlet. There is special

providence in the fall song of a sparrow cuckoo. If it be now, ’tis

not to come—if it be not to come, it will be now—if it be

not now, yet it will come—readiness is all. Since no

man, of aught he leaves, knows what is’t to leave

betimes, let be.

[V.ii.217-222]

When I create, when I make, when I search, when I research… I like to start from the middle, from a place where I feel to start from something that resonates in me. It might not be the literal middle, but it feels as ‘a’ middle, it could be a core, a centre, or something that just is sitting somewhere centered.

In my body, I can only think of my spine being that place where all can spring off from. My spine stands right in the middle of my whole body, it holds me together. My spine gives me direction, it negotiates up and down and offers motion to rotate. My spine gives me the strength to stand and resilience to adapt. My spine hosts and protects my nerves that travel to and from my brain and the rest of my body. My chest, head, shoulders, pelvis, legs and arms are the offspring of my spine.

My spine is the middle from where I want to start from.

My spine helps me to go back to the memory of being an unborn child. Being surrounded by water and dwelling inside of another body, inside of my mother’s body. I see myself upside down into her body, atlas down, coccyx up. My spine had just one single curve; my head peacefully being in close distance to my knees, my spine curving inwardly pushing against my mother’s uterus wall.

Seeing the daylight was the start of my spine to become what is is now, standing straight, coccyx down, atlas up, 180 degrees turned from my situation before. My strong spine, resilient with its constellation of coccyx, sacral, lumbar, thoracic and cervical curve; in continuous performance to bare the slings and arrows of life.