A Post-Human Dance Fiction by Colette Sadler
Learning from the future
14 - 15 January, 7.30pm @ The Mount Without
Pay What You Can: £10 / £20 / £30
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Imagine a post-human future where human bodies are on the verge of disappearance.
In Learning from the Future, the futuristic female cyborg Body A inhabits a science-fiction world. The fictionality of Body A is taken as a poetic means to speculate on an inconceivable reality where ever-accelerating flows of information and encoded data could dictate the manner in which bodies move and function. The choreography uses movement to amplify the primitive power of bodies against the background of their dematerialisation and disappearance.
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ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreography:Colette Sadler
Performance:Leah Marojevic
Music:Brendan Dougherty
Video:Mikko Gaestel
Light:Samuli Laine and Veli-Vile Siven
Costume:Eyal Meistel
Dramaturgy:Assaf Hochman
Producers:Feral
Funded by Creative Scotland. Arts Council of England. Supported by Dance 4 Nottingham Uk. With residencies at TanzHaus Zurich and Bora-Bora Aarhus.
BODY A
An imaginary future, in which the purposes and necessity of the human body are put into question, creates the departure point for this work. The piece operates within a science-fiction-like setting inhabited by the prototype BODY A. This inconceivable futuristic body is regarded ambiguously as being “alive”, but also as a highly sophisticated bio machine. It possesses no self-awareness and cannot distinguish between inner-intention and external impulse. BODY A transcends the boundary between a self-perceived interiority and an outer physical reality which normally stands in opposition to it. It is not subjected to the singularity of an embodied position.
The fictionality of BODY A is taken as a poetic means to speculate on a reality where ever accelerating flows of information and encoded data could dictate the manner in which bodies move and function. The objects and bodies in this artificial environment share the same ubiquitous disembodied “consciousness“ - Such a condition subverts the idea of self-agency; The performer‘s body in this piece is taken as a mere container - a channel. It can be filled and emptied. It allows information to pass through it.
Learning from the Future wishes to reflect on the replacement of the living body with the properties of the inanimate as well as with the virtuality of its post-human representation. It uses the medium of movement to amplify the primitive power of bodies against the background of their dematerialization and disappearance.
“An hour of striking, hypnotic and ambitious dance.”
BIOGRAPHY
COLETTE SADLER
Colette Sadler is a performer, choreographer and curator living in Berlin. Trained in classical ballet, she completed a BA (Hons) at Laban Centre London and worked internationally as a dancer until 2002.
Sadler's performances have been shown in numerous dance and art contexts, including the Performatik Festival at the Kaai Theatre Brussels, South Bank Centre London, Nottingham Contemporary, Les Lattitudes Contemporains France, OGR Turin Italy, TRAMWAY, and with her works Learning from the Future and RITUALIA as part of the British Council Showcase 2019.
In 2019, Sadler curated the multidisciplinary art symposium Present Futures in Berlin and Glasgow in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Glasgow, the Centre of Contemporary Arts, the GoMa (Glasgow Museum), and the Sophiensaele. In February 2021, she curated an online version of the festival, Present Futures Digital.
In 2020, she was part of the Temporars residency programme at Museum Susch, Switzerland, and participated in the FitArt exhibition with Swiss gallery Roehrs & Boetsch.
In January 2021, she created STRANGE GARTEN for the Purple International Dance Festival Berlin in co-production with the Fonds Transfabrik – German-French Fund for the Performing Arts; L'échangeur – CDCN Hauts-de-France; Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum Berlin, supported by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund from funds of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media; and the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe. With financial support from the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – Co-Production Support Dance –, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
In Spring 2021, she will develop her latest dance installation performance ARK 1 with support from “Stepping Out” / Nationales Performance Netz, Tanz Haus Düsseldorf, and TWR Glasgow.