In this, the final residency and performance from the series 'A Certain Degree of Immobility', choreographer Maria Ramos and I tried to find the borders of the performance space, and explore the theatrical space and its inherent conventions as a landscape. We used light and darkness to expand and contract the space, to propel the dancer’s bodies forward towards the audience, to contain them, to press them to the floor, to create barriers, to break open the space and give the dancers room to move, to overexpose them and cause them to retreat into the darkness.
We used light and smoke to create a meeting place between the audience and the performers by placing all of their bodies in similar environmental conditions. Albeit that these conditions were not always experienced at the same time or in the same space, they provided a shared sensory reference through which the performance could be navigated. To begin the performance the dancers and the audience watch together as the darkness slowly expands towards them, eventually overcoming the public. The dancers enter this expanding darkness, walking into a seemingly unending void.
The dancers emerge from the void to test the limits of their bodies. We used smoke and wind to enable the light to explore the limits of the space. Pushing into every corner, eventually filling the space, uniting the audience and dancers in one space flooded with light.
A landscape that transforms depending on the atmosphere, the intensity and the eye of the spectator. Surely no one can remain indifferent to this landscape …a breathtaking aesthetic journey on the plane of shapes and images carved by the body. Sofia Soromenho, Jornal de Letras.
Choreography and artistic direction: Maria Ramos
Performance and collaboration: Marta Cerqueira e Benedetta Maxia
Sound design: Francisco Salgado
Light design: Vinny Jones
Photography: Vinny Jones
Premier Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite, Almada, Lisabon, September 7, 2013.
