ANOIKIS
Contemporary Dance
An Open Area Inside the Mountain
premiered 2009
Choreographer: Melissa Pasut
Performers: John Duncan and Melissa Pasut
Instruments designed and constructed by John Duncan and assisted by Esteban Ayala
" An Open Area Inside the Mountain" explores communication through different forms of language, using written dreams as a platform to formulate dialogue between two people and the self. A dancer and a non-dancer interpret and re-interpret each other's unspoken words creating a deeper understanding into the truth of what is being said, absorbing it physically into the body. Movement is a primal form of expression.
Sound is experienced physically, whether it is felt by the creator or the listener, it passes through and around the body evoking sensations or emotions. Integrating instruments to heighten the senses. The interaction and communication surpass the superficial barrier reflecting the characteristics of the individual through the instrument itself and the sound that emerges challenging the other into exploring a quality that is not their own.
Dream
We are training to work in teams. One of us jumps and falls 20 meters to be caught by our partner, grabbing us by the wrists. The point is to learn trust. If the partner misses, the jumper dies. Our supervisors are Gypsies, Trapeze Artists, who advise us from the ground.
Dream
I was visiting a family; mother, daughter and a son. We went to visit a place in the mountains where people had died and the bodies were laid out where they had died. We entered an open area inside the mountain that was somewhat dark and very large. There was a door at the opposite end, a bathroom, which after having looked down into a large pit, we went through. Bodies were scattered. Some piled up one on top of the other but not so many that the floor was covered. The drop was long and the way down was through the bathroom. We went to the space where we ourselves laid around with them, moved with them. The bodies were black with white all around. Cold concrete. A yellow substance was pouring in. It was like urine. The children were playing in it with the bodies. Slowly the bodies, one by one, went missing. The caretaker moved them outside, a daily ritual. We left ourselves and as we left I saw a sign that labeled this place is an elementary school…