Photo by Renae Shadler

Desire emerges between bodies, & between bodies & the space. There is no such thing as desire in a vacuum, or at least none that we have access to. The Universe Project looks at desire not from the perspective of the individual but as arising intersubjectively.

It also emerged from my experience of a sound bath with large silver gongs played by yoga & gong master Kay Karl. I’m curious to expand the effect of the gongs’ vibrations on the cells & fluids of the body into the surrounding environment through movement. Could an immersive space be created, in which a non-dualistic reality could be physically experienced, & boundaries between bodies, between bodies & space, between performers & audience members, & boundaries between different ways of reading a movement, could be dissolved?

I am also interested in extending the question of interconnectedness to the emergence of “meaning”. That is, the associations that images, constellations, relationships of bodies in space evoke in an observer – & whether they can ever exist independently of the observer’s cultural background.

In this way, I am interested in researching the idea of non-dualism on both a physical level, as well as a kind of collective consciousness which is becoming, by physical & technological means, more & more global, somewhere between the idea of a “hive mind” facilitated by the internet, & archaic rituals such as gong baths that create a collective state.

Performers

Paweł Dudus, Laura Eva Meuris, David Bloom

Sound

Kay Karl

Cranio-Sacral Dramaturgy

Nicole Berndt-Caccivio

Choreography in Collaboration with the Performers

David Bloom

Special Thanks to Tanzfabrik Berlin for supporting the development of this project with an Open Spaces Residency & to Tanzzentrale der Region Nürnberg e.V. for a Creative Residency.