Review: Weathering
Weathering. Photo Maria Baranova
This is a must see at this year’s wonderful FTA!
Fasten your seatbelts and go see Weathering!
Between choreography and installation, Weathering is a multi-sensory performance where bodies, sounds, smells, fluids, and objects gradually become the last vestiges of our species. This performance is very intimate. Seated around a square raft we witness a real tour de force, in which the ten performers start by developing a group-statue which they hold for a very long time. Then almost un-noticed they start moving and the statue very slowly transforms into a series of different paintings.
It is a simple raft; it looks like a hospital platform where the bodies of the performers gradually merge and where they are in a fragile balance. They support each other, they change positions and they blend from one painting to another during a fascinating hour. During the show, the performers take turns undressing each other and taking turns to spin the platform.
Together they form a bold living sculpture whose limbs, faces and humanity blend together with striking sensuality. The visuals they created remind me often of The Garden of Earthly Delights, the famous painting by Hieronymus Bosch.
Towards the end of the show, the platform spins like a tornado, a whirlwind that also surprises, challenges, and moves.
The ten performers form a close-knit team of talented and generous dancers who completely abandon themselves to this demanding dance. The performance also unfolds as a hallucinatory exhibition of images of bodies that we have recorded throughout human history. These statues bear witness to the monuments of our histories throughout the ages. And during this dazzling performance, we realize that these stories are in our lives and are part of us all.
When you watch Weathering, you feel many emotions. There is struggle and sexuality, there is the breath and heat of the performers, and there is a suggestion of loss of control. Every second counts, every second something happens that you observe or something that you missed.
This astonishing and lucid work by American choreographer Faye Driscoll uniquely metaphorized both the debacles and the metamorphoses that shape our era.
This fascinating dance will stay with you for a long time!
Weathering is part of the FTA. Information about the festival can be found HERE.
