Role: Conceptualisation of piece in collaboration with the group, co-designer for set, co-choreographer, performer.
On the edge uses choreographic methodologies and movement practices to construct a contemporary dance performance. The concept is formed around expressions of anxiety; as an ensemble, we explored the translation of anxiety into the body through movement, asking how this manifests individually in the body and in relation to others in the space, and to examine the physical toll anxiety can have on the body.
The space is representative of the mentality inhabited by individuals in an anxious state, aiming to outwardly project a visualisation of the mind when suffering with anxiety. A sense of purgatory is present in the durational situation of the world – the bodies have occupied this space for a long time due to their inability to leave it.
We wanted to compose a non-naturalistic space that was abstracted so as not to explicitly represent or to prescribe a concrete location. Instead, the space allowed the organic generation of thematic qualities to be reflected through the movement of the performers and the manipulation of the space through interaction with the scenography. The furniture selected has associations with waiting to evoke the durational quality: a waiting room is full of identical chairs, a park bench or a bus stop has connotations of waiting for something to arrive. We chose to have a draping gauze over the backspace to create a sense of compression. Since we wanted to abstract the space, we decided on achieving that through creating this looming presence, representative of the looming pressure those faced with anxiety feel.
