In the early 90’s during the Great Depression of the US, there began an interesting tradition of exhaustive dance marathons. Participants would dance for hours while mesmerised audiences made bets on winners and predicted losers. Although they included many rules with risks of disqualification, these marathons offered a cathartic release as they acted as a sort of mirror to the crisis happening where the main aim was survival as opposed to glamour.
French institution Centre National de la Danse as a part of their Trois Fois Rien exhibition recently tapped artist and choreographer Émilie Pitoiset to conceive a performance titled, “Where Did Our Love Go?” in ode of the iconic dance marathons. The 6-hour performance set for March 16 & 17 at the institution’s headquarters in Pantin, France will explore the dance form which Pitoiset has been studying since 2009. It will include repertory of gestures and postures which are at the heart of her studies and artistic works from the time period which will feature the bodies on the borders of falling, intimately enduring the mechanisms of capitalism in ways to appear increasingly contemporary. For more information, visit CN D.
The new season demands poise, precision and passion in order to do it justice. Watch the new fashion film from Agnes Llyod-Platt made especially for Twin magazine. Read the full story in the latest issue, out now.
Siobhan Davies’s collaboration with the ICA, Table Of Contents, is now open until 19 January 2014. Set out to reflect on the concept of archiving dance itself, the project uses Davies own history as a choreographer and dancer as a starting point. Having worked closely with five dance artists Andrea Buckley, Helka Kaski, Rachel Krische, Charlie Morrissey and Matthias Sperling, Table Of Contents looks to find answers in the way this artform creates a lasting memory, or, if indeed it can. The new body of work comes in the form of a kind of live encounter or exchange, celebrating dance as a unique and interesting way to see the world.
“You always have to push yourself beyond the image others have of you and your work otherwise you are always in the past.” Siobhan Davies, 1982
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