Blogpost for misiconi
The Different Ways of Falling
by: Giulia Cristofoli
The problem of synchronization
Synchronicity: a body of dancers moving together, at the exact same pace, as if they were one single body breathing together. That is exactly what you won’t see in Falling.
Already a long time ago, Gertrude Stein, an American poet and playwright from the beginning of the 20th century, identify synchronicity as being one of the main challenges in watching theatre. For her, the play’s structure imposed feelings at certain moments to spectators. But Stein confesses that she was never at the same pace. Instead, her feelings were always ahead or behind and she could never meet the performance. This feeling had much to do with the dramatic structure of plays. And although we are decades passed drama as the main paradigm in theatre, the question of imposing feelings to spectators still lingers. Afterall, it is the goal of every artist to make audiences feel with the performance.
Falling answers to this question by experimenting with a dramaturgical line that de-construct dramatic structure of climax and denouement but without completely rejecting it. When you watch the choreography, you will go through waves of different tension-building moments that are never in synch with each other. By desynchronizing dramaturgical lines, the piece wants to give you, spectator, the chance to meet the performances at different times. Instead of imposing feelings, the performance was created so that it can activate different feelings at your pace. Maybe what you will feel is the dread of being on the edge of a cliff, but it may as well be the thrills of the 0,2 second of weightless you feel when you are about to go down on a roller coaster.
More than a matter of structure, desynchronization is also a key choreographic feature of Falling. During the one hour you will be in the hall, you will see different rhythms and temporalities in the four dancers on stage. No performer is doing the same thing a the same time (at least not on purpose). The different rhythms create layers of attention while also admitting that we cannot all follow the same pace. The idea is drawn from crip time, which is a concept coming from crip studies that define the multiple ways people with disabilities experience time, both in the world and within themselves. Contrary to common assumptions, crip time does not mean slowing down; it is meant to disrupt normative temporalities by revealing the ableist barriers and impositions of time. To resisting normative temporalities, thus, means acknowledging and embracing that people experience daily life at different paces. In that sense, performative elements such as desynchronization become tools to conceive the possibility that feelings in response to a performance can be multiple, and dissociate and that it can give space for ambiguities to exist in the theatrical experience. In all, it means that desynchronization is what allows for one spectator to feel dread while the person next to them is feeling thrills, and none of them has the sense of it being inadequate for the performance.
The integration of desynchronization in Falling has very much to do with the making-process of the piece. Instead of forcing the dancers to comply with expectation of what falling means and looks like, Joop embraced the different perspectives and integrated them in the choreography. Organically, this process formed individual characters that have particular features, intentions and ways of relating to the concept. In this way, Falling embraces the individuality of each dancer on stage. However, mind you, this individuality goes beyond postmodernist obsession with identity and individuality. Instead, the piece gives the space for each dancer to explore different ways they can fall, the feelings it might bring to them and invite the audiences to do the same.
So, are you coming to fall with us?