10. “inseguimento al taxi (the chase)” - from "the scent of mystery"



some shower thoughts:

What is a performance? It surely cannot be a moment? It is so fickle. One thing goes wrong and it is not the performance anymore. The dancers are late. The music does not play. The lights are in the wrong place. Then is it not the performance anymore? If the writer pens a famous book about something that happened and was not supposed to... did it not really happen, or at least it happened but it was not the thing itself? 

Have I forgotten energy? I was dancing in class and I could feel that the teacher was the only person in the room, in the moment. Everyone was doing the same thing, if you should look at it from the outside. But they were somehow elsewhere? I remember watching the Danish Royal Ballet dance Sharon Eyal’s work and falling asleep halfway through it. I(we) need a reminder that doing isn't enough. I need criticism in the swamp's messiness (hey there Schön).

The Truth - Part One. The interchangeableness of meaningful words - choreographers that are now movement directors, dance companies are now dance theatre collectives. This is just a tiny frustration about not calling things what they actually are.


The Truth - Part Two. The McDonalds plastic straw dilemma. Am I too concerned with the small things that I forget to see the bigger picture. Am I self-congratulating on mini-victories that do nothing to societal change? I can feel on myself these moments where focusing on the smaller comprehensible ideas makes it easier to ignore bigger systematic problems that are deeply imbedded.


All the unethical things that must slip through the net of the institutionalisation of an ethics committee approval. Too many small questions. Too many check boxes.

Is there anyone out there radically reimagining employment contracts? Where the entitlement of a creative process includes the right to good facilitation and safe spaces…


What are the aesthetics of Woke Culture? Queer Culture? Feminist Culture? Are we becoming too exclusive? I’m all here for radical exclusivity. Addressing balances. However… Be vocal about your taste. If we are looking towards development, develop the language as artists and as organisations around the things you are willing spend your time on.


Intervention. Making art for nobody. Making magic for somebody. Leaving art lying around in the streets. Being kind. Emailing people you don’t want anything from. 


The Pedagogy of Self-Fulfilment. The matters we know best being our own. The delicacy with which we predict the future of our industry. The precariousness of optimism towards progression. The giving up that is implicated in our realistic inclinations.


Speaking out. Holding accountable. Using your platform. (This one is really a mission statement more than a thought). Sarah Ahmed writing in her bio: “I resigned from my post at Goldsmiths in protest at the failure to deal with the problem of sexual harassment.” Especially as a dance artist - not glossing over the ugly through pretty pictures and decent reviews. Holding your own in the job interview: being honest about why you left things behind and not apologising for your demands in a workspace.


photo one - the garden of earthly delights, hieronymus bosch


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‘inseguimento al taxi (the chase) - from the scent of mystery’ - mario nascimbene, the french dispatch (original soundtrack), track 10 

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