HEX
A 360° performance | dance + light + sound
HEX fuses a choreography of body and a choreography of light. Through a bespoke light design, I explore the alchemy of being bewitched in a solo performance staged within a hexagon of programmable LED lights. The audience is positioned around all sides of the performance space, making for an immersive experience design.
HEX investigates how we transform our pain into power. HEX represents psychic dysphoria through bodily expression. HEX weaves together themes of possession, dysphoria, loss, release, and self-resurrection.
The spatial design of HEX bridges choreography, light design, and stage design. HEX combined light design and interaction design between my choreography initiating light cues, and lighting effects instigating my body’s response. I asked: what movements develop when a body becomes possessed from a surrounding force and how can the moving body transform these energetic forces into a journey of finding one’s own power? The hexagon of lights are simultaneously a prison of intimacy yet also an energetic portal.
In HEX, light serves as a technical form and energy source through which the story unfolds. Our team used the Astera light tubs to construct a modular setup. The light design follows a color spectrum from cold, bluer light to warmer tones of amber and golds.
Creative Team
Concept/Choreography/Performance:
Carly Lave
Costume Design:
Light Design:
Dramaturgy:
Sound Design:
Design:
Production:
Photos:
Premiere:
June 28, 2022
Location:
Hosek Contemporary Berlin, Germany
HEX was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner
for Culture and the Media in the program NEUSTART KULTUR,
(aid program DIS-TANZEN/ tanz:digital/ DIS-TANZ-START)
of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland.
Dramaturgical note
by Sophie Spiral-Allen
HEX is a 360° performance of dance, light, and sound where choreographer and dancer Carly Lave explores the alchemy of being bewitched in a solo performance staged within a hexagon of programmable LED lights.
HEX fuses a choreography of body and a choreography of light. The movement of the body influences the movement of the lights and vice versa, bringing them into dialogue with each other. We ask: what movements develop when a body becomes possessed from a surrounding force and how can the moving body transform these energetic forces into a journey of finding one’s own power? The hexagon of lights are simultaneously a prison of intimacy and yet an energetic portal where pain is transformed into power.
HEX is nonrepresentationally related to the word Hexe meaning Witch in German. It comes from the German word hecke, meaning the hedges on the edge of a village next to the forest where witches live/d making herbal remedies and providing a sacred sanctuary for those in need. The archetype of the witch playfully confronts this hedge as the edge of the metaphorical unknown. HEX draws inspiration from this archetype without representing the witch identity. It is a place where the dancer can come into dialogue with this edge, finding moments of synchronicity and glitch between body and lights, between possession and freedom.
In Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici outlines a detailed exploration into how the witch hunt has shaped the world today. The book traces the European witch hunt as an important turning point where patriarchal control supported capitalist and racist projects. The witch hunt is a moment of collective trauma, which HEX choreographically engages with to reclaim the power of the rebellious woman warrior, the old hag, or the trans witxch. The dance is an ode to the futurist glitchy witch who’s meticulous imperfection confronts the patriarchal need for predictable, objectified beauty. By being in communication with the encircling edge of lights, Carly uses this embodied knowledge to transform the forces of possession, dysphoria, and loss into energies of release and self-resurrection.
Team Bios:
Veslemoy Rustad Holseter
Light Designer View Profile
Veslemoy Rustad Holseter aka. Grinderteeth is a Norwegian sound and light designer based in Berlin. A resident at Berghain and Trauma Bar und Kino, she has a track record of creating light designs, for audio-visual pieces, exhibitions, modern opera, concerts, club lighting, music videos, documentary film, dance & theater.
Rustad Holseter's work is centered around creating artistic light concepts that enhance the mood of the project, speaking to performance & working within the rhythm of the pieces.
Her work holds a strong artistic preference for working with contrasts, spanning between a range of mono-colors, lasers and in-your-face blinding strobe as a base.
Giulia Fournier-Mercadante aka GiGi FM
Sound Designer View Profile
Berlin-based artist, GiGi FM aka Giulia Fournier-Mercadante is a French-Italian force well and truly to be reckoned with. Born and raised in Paris, Giulia relocated to New York in her teens after winning a ballet scholarship. After studying and practicing dance at a prominent level, she moved onward to London, where she continued to make waves with her unique approach to Music, Sound, Dance and Art. Giulia is as creative in the studio as she is on the decks. Her NTS Radio residency has given her free-rein to explore and share her musical palette further, welcoming kindred musical minds including the likes of Crossing Avenue, Azu Tiwaline, Bambounou, Midgar and Donato Dozzy. In her recent EP, "Magnetite," Giulia made use of her background in dance, employing motion sensor technology to trigger sounds and effects via midi alongside her ever growing technical repertoire in the studio. After two sensational Boiler Room sets and embarking on a Boiler Room club-tour covering some key UK and European cities, she is continuing to gain a devoted listenership via her monthly NTS Radio show, and looking forward to plenty of great shows coming up at Panorama Bar, HORST Festival, Elysia Basel, Selectors, Berghain and many more.
For the latest and relevant news please check octopus-agents.com/gigi-fm
Sophie Spiral Schultze-Allen
DramaturgView Profile
Sophie Spiral Schultze-Allen (they/she) is a dance dramaturg and researcher based in Berlin. Sophie has helped produce works for stage, site-specific/outdoor, and online viewing. Including collaboration on Virtual Geographies (2019) with Carly Lave and The Intervention of Loneliness (2020) with Ming Poon. Sophie recently completed a Masters in Dance Studies at the Frei Universität Berlin with a thesis exploring an emerging field of eco-dance practices that center decoloniality. Sophie was born in Germany but raised in California, and has been making socially engaged art for the last 15 years.
More Info: www.sophiespiral.com
Marina Stillger
Costume DesignerView Profile
Marina Stillger studied Fashion Design at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, moving to Europe 4 years ago to work in theater, fashion and costume design. After her first internship/hospitanz at MAXIM GORKI THEATER, she discovered a new face in fashion, and since then has been working with theater and video projects at large. Recently, she made costumes for “Die böse Frau” for Tobias Winter, and for “Dancing Matters” a VR dance video for Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Charité Berlin in the frame of the festival and exhibition “Stretching Materializes” which is exhibited at the Tieranatomisches Theater at Charité Berlin. She also has her own project which combines design, upcycling and sustainability, giving a second life to clothes found on the streets of Berlin with the hope to find a more sustainable approach to fashion.