#choreography #performance
Underfoot
Choreography & performance: Katja Nyqvist
UNDERFOOT (2011-13) is a solo performance rooted in my embodied experiences of relating imaginatively to the ground: as a surface of support, as a frame of composition, and as an animate and intimate presence. It also builds on my continuing interest in developing improvisational performance practice, which intensifies sensation and communicates through affect more than representation.
“The moment one gives up one’s verticality, the first thing one discovers is that even the smoothest ground is not flat. The ground is grooved, cracked, cool, painful, hot, smelly, dirty." Andre Lepecki
Performed at Michaelis Studio at University of Roehampton (17.05.2011), Blue Elephant Theatre, London (10-12/17-19.05.2012) and Michaelis Theatre, London (14.11.2012).
Photography: Eulanda Shead
Video and trailer: Richard Misek
REVIEWS:
“Solidly standing under a bright spotlight, feet firmly anchored into the ground, Katja Nyqvist is already on stage as the audience starts to fill up their seats, her strong posture speaking for her piece more than words ever could...Nyqvist’s dance takes us back to the basics: a grounded body, a shift of weight from one leg to another, hips slowly undulating and then comes the movement. It is natural, free and a breath of fresh air in comparison with more overly thought-out choreography...There is no music but the rhythm is seen and heard through her feet. It’s sometimes fast and tribal, when she travels across the floor with bent knees and a raw energy; sometimes delicate when she reaches to the sky, using the ground to lift herself up. Underfoot is about movement, movement so physically and spiritually free, that it suddenly comes alive.”
— Emmanuelle Julien, Londondance.com
"I did find the performance oddly enthralling, but I couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable with it...Not only was this a bold piece about survival, but also about the primative qualities of man – taking humanity back to it’s primitive form and reminding us that, however hard we may try – we are still just animals if we penetrate the surface. Confusingly moving."
— Sophie Porter, What's on the Fringe