A dancer walks on stage with a chair without a leg in her hand and she places it on the right side of the stage. She starts to move in silence. She is illuminated by a white light from above which projects a small square onto the ground. The rest of the stage remains dark until the dancer turns her head. After this movement, some white spotlights appear creating three lines. The other three dancers walk in and out of the circles of light moving slowly, creating the illusion of running in slow motion. Each time they enter a circle of light and they are visible they have shown a different facial expression. A red sidelight comes on when the solo ends revealing three more chairs without a leg behind the seated dancer. The other three dancers walk towards the chairs which they take and position in a row. The four dancers begin a choreography in unison. End of scene.
The chairs are without a leg because they are inspired by a metaphor made by Alessandro Pizzicotti to explain the sensation he feels when he has tics. He explained that having Tourette's syndrome is like trying to sit on a chair without a leg, you can never find balance.
It was not possible to have a chair without a leg to film this video and to create the phrases for the solo so the material could change due to a different chair.
The dancer was asked to create a sequence of movements keeping in mind the various tics that can be done by those who have this syndrome. She was also asked to make a sequence where the weight of the body was shifted.
Although the reference was unwanted, having positioned a dancer on a chair with loose hair in silence is very reminiscent of the style of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. However, this is not a factor that influences the result of the choreography and therefore I have decided to leave this section unchanged.
MOVEMENT MATERIAL OF THE CHAIRS
In this piece, the dancer continued to create material using the same task previously used but adding the element of musical accents. The selected music is full of sharp sounds to which the dancer has been asked to pay attention and create movements that emphasize them.
SPACE AND LIGHTS
The spotlights lined up highlight the slowness of the movements and the costumes that reflect the light.
Image from Vogue credit to Adrien Dirand
