performance

approach and process

I believe that the aliveness of performance is rich with possibility when listening and transparency are held in equal balance with spontaneity and action. For me, dancing is at its finest when effort, rest, thinking and feeling are held in equal balance— indeed, the beauty and immediacy of performance emerges from the simultaneity and interaction of these four elements in real time. Caught in a web of dynamic polarities, a performer’s task is to search for a way to access the choreography while unapologetically committing to the needs and desires of their body; to not lose themselves or forfeit autonomy. Instead, dancers must navigate the complexity of asking and embodying the question: Considering how I feel and who I am right now, what can possibly become of the pre-determined agreements that we call the choreography?

Kate Holden and David Norsworthy in who we are in the dark by Peggy Baker, during a residency at The Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada) in January 2018. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh. — Kate Holden and David Norsworthy in *who we are in the dark* by Peggy Baker, during a residency at The Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada) in January 2018. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

Dancers are a flesh and bone material understood as the artwork itself, but also undeniably the creative and artistic force behind actualizing any dance. While the choreographer may be responsible for many of the decisions governing a performance, and for cultivating an overall framework inside which the action can transpire, it is ultimately the dancer’s personal training, sensibilities and volition that shape the ephemeral outcome. The dance doesn’t exist in some universal realm of idea within the choreographer’s mind, more than it does within the minds and bodies of the dancers. This posits dance performance as a negotiation between self and other (when the dancer is performing a work choreographed by another artist), and between past and present, as the dancer filters their knowledge of the choreography through the bias and subjectivity of their personal artistry.

Kathia Wittenborn and David Norsworthy rehearsing for Variation on Time by Marie Lambin-Gagnon in March 2019. — Kathia Wittenborn and David Norsworthy rehearsing for *Variation on Time* by Marie Lambin-Gagnon in March 2019.

VIDEO BANNER CREDITS (in order of appearance): 1. Slow Death (Choreography by Marie Lambin-Gagnon / Costume by Mairi Greig / Videography by Hannah Schallert). 2. Out of Reach (Choreography by Helena Franzén / Performance by Philip Berlin and David Norsworthy / Videography: Håkan Jelk). 3. Anything / Everything / Nothing (Choreography by David Norsworthy). 4. Saudade (Choreography by Josh Beamish). 5. Slow Death (see above). 6. wither bloom (Choreography by David Norsworthy). 7. Eyes Swallow (Choreography by Jason Parsons / Performance by Kristen Carcone and David Norsworthy / Videography by Fourth Frame Films). 8. Solo Improvisation. 9. Slow Death (see above). 10. Out of Reach (see above). 11. wither bloom (see above). 12. Solo Improvisation (Videography by Kyla Ernst-Alper).