Thoughts on Performing (inside a work / as a work / as work) at Newtown Library

Abstract

“But when we sit together, close,” said Bernard, “we melt into each other with phrases. We are edged with mist. We make an unsubstantial territory.”—Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931, 9)

The following thoughts are based on my fading memory of performing Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010-ongoing) by choreographer Mette Edvardsen. I attempt to articulate aspects of the relational fields that exist firstly between a performer and a performance work, and secondly between a performer, performance work, and an audience. I see these relational fields as “unsubstantial territories”, or partial forms that are precarious, transient, and porous. My interest in offering a text written from the perspective of a performer is inspired (from a distance) by dancer Chrysa Parkinson and her research into developing methods for documenting performers’ experiences of work, as distinct from the more common practices of writing about performance from the perspectives of the audience, choreographer, director and dramaturg.