When the bodies speak

Trauma and memory work in dance performance Feathers

Författare

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62779/puls.9.2024.23743

Nyckelord:

dance, scenography, trauma, memory, Upsala Circus, materiality, kinaesthetic empathy

Abstract

The article explores the material interrelation in the dance performance Feathers, created by the small, independent theatre Upsala Circus located in Saint Petersburg. The socio-cultural circus project is led by Larisa Afanasyeva and refers to itself as a “Circus of Hooligans”. For more than two decades, it has been working with children that come from dysfunctional and marginalized families or have special needs. The performance is a memory work that uses a tightly woven canvas of bodies, props, and sounds to encourage the spectator to reflect on their own past. Relying on the concepts of scenographic materiality and kinaesthetic empathy, the article analyses how the dance performance strives to communicate what potentially lies beyond representation – trauma of others. The dance performance explores the possibility of the language of bodies, human and non-human, in exploration of the past, often forgotten, hidden, or suppressed. The article examines how different means of communication available to the dance performance influence affective and meaning-making processes in the experience of the spectator. 

Författarbiografi

Olga Nikolaeva

Dr. Olga Nikolaeva is an independent researcher and lecturer in Visual Communication at Linnæus University, Sweden. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Gothenburg, MA in Visual Culture from the University of Lund and Specialist Diploma in Art History from Russian State University for the Humanities. She recently completed her international postdoctoral research at National Collections of Music, Theatre and Dance, Stockholm and Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki. The postdoctoral research explored scenography of trauma in works of women theatre-makers in contemporary Russian theatre. She published articles in English and Russian languages. Her main research interest lies in the field of performance art and theatre, with special focus on scenography and materiality. She is interested in diverse artistic practices addressing trauma, traumatic and post-traumatic experience, and difficult past as well as working with concepts of empathic unsettlement and feminist ethic of care. She is currently working on developing research connected to application of holistic scenography to study of interventional protests. 

Publicerad

2024-05-22 — Uppdaterad 2024-05-23

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Referera så här

Nikolaeva, O. (2024). When the bodies speak: Trauma and memory work in dance performance Feathers. Puls - Musik- Och Dansetnologisk Tidskrift, 9, 83–98. https://doi.org/10.62779/puls.9.2024.23743 (Original work published 22 maj 2024)

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