︎︎︎ Green asphalt, grey bark
︎︎︎ fiction, stitched
︎︎︎ Steps: A choreographic novel
︎︎︎ Threaded bodies
︎︎︎ On top of things
On top of things is a piece by Maia Means and Oda Brekke that explores the dynamics of two’s and the act of observing.
Performers are on top of things. The weight of bodies breaks objects. Or objects change the form of the body. Glass crack, muscles give in. Or tension builds to hold a stacked moment – until it falls. A word is stacked on top. The meaning changes. A description, a feeling, a sense. Stacking things shapes and changes each entity. It creates new bodies. Time is passing, short and long. There is a person on an object. There is attention on the performer. There is language on an action. One thing on top of another. 1+1=2.
Performers are on top of things. They know what’s going on. They see what people are wearing and notice how they’re feeling. They know stuff that the audience don’t know. They know how the performance will end. But then someone is upside down, in a headstand. Now, the performers are underneath things. The situation is smarter than them. During a headstand, they are lost and confused. The headstand ends when one loses one’s balance, or strength. At the end of the headstand it’s clear that being underneath and being on top of is actually the same thing, just from different perspectives.
On top of things was shown at Prøverummet, Bergen and Dans/5, Oslo.