You're the Stuff that Sets me Free
Since November 2008, CorpusCorpus has been making a new performance work.
With newest members Andrea Jenni and Stella Fotiadi, this is CorpusCorpus Movement Association's first time working with an international cast.
Which may not sound like a big deal, but it is. The skillset of Stella and Andrea is quite unique for me as an American choreographer. Stella is from Athens, Greece, and carries a firey nature. Her vested interest in social justice and political activism are the energies that she channels physically and emotionally with the content matter we are working on. Her contribution of personal history is far different from mine as an American.
Andrea is our Switzerland (Literally! She hails from Basel). She is methodical, tremendously gentle, and, a choreographer in her own right, intuitively understands our creative process. She completed her studies in Austria, and gracefully dovetails the conceptual trends in dance while validating working from the heart. Between the two of them, I am the goofy American thread of laughter, and a guide to the curious nature of this piece.
“You're the Stuff that Sets Me Free” is a ritual of confusion: From methodical water pouring ceremonies, to repetitious movements coaxing dream and stillness, to a vigil of Wunder-kurzen for a talking brick. This work calls to mind man's intent search for knowledge, for accuracy, for something that will either collapse our world if or set us free. This piece calls to mind of the witchy chaos that spells demand.
While engaging in a consistent practice of improvisation, CDP (Contemplative Dance Practice) and Authentic Movement, we dug into writings we had generated about our pasts, finding deep personal connection and story in movement. Yet, we also found a more demented in-accuracy of our memories!
Thus was born the process of random choice making. An act of creating born from the inspirationals Brian Eno, Deborah Hay, of course also Cunnigham & Cage. I found myself wanting to ask,“What if we could be free, at least free-er, from this story of our past? What if we could, out of mischevious examination, abstract these important stories of our lives, so that the Mystery of our experience contained more value than the value we may have falsely assigned it?”
“Curiosity about the infinite potentials of random choice-making...
