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The Shyness of the Bones
Pathosformel, born in Venice, are a group that experiment with and
reconsider the elements that make up a performance through body and images,
space and materials. In their work ‘The Shyness of the Bones’, it is the
particular element of the dancers’ visibility to the audience that has been
reconsidered and the absence of a material medium. Reflecting upon this
theatrical essence, Pathosformel have explored the possibilities of the role
such a medium could play.
On the stage, the only thing visible to the audience is a bare, vertical,
white sheet. Initially, this material is punctuated with hurried, urgent
stabs; however the cause of these movements is disguised from those on the
other side. Slowly, a skeletal, human form comes into focus before
disappearing back into the unknown. Throughout the performance, parts of the
bodies emerge and remerge through the sheet, allowing those on the other
side a glimpse of the possibilities of their appearance. In an interview
about the intention and reason behind the medium Pathosformel responded ‘It
is not so much about seeing the body but investigating it, reading it and
reconstructing it, showing it in a different manner’. The choice of material
does not deny the body its appearance, but its obviousness to those
watching. The writhing movements and shapes are therefore left to
interpretation. The sheet gives the forms violence, sexuality, intensity or
at times a tranquillity which is unclear. The audience becomes almost a
surgeon watching an image emerge on a scanner or an archaeologist uncovering
through the dust a forgotten form. The white sheet and the momentary shapes
that appear upon it require the audience to search and discover for what is
being portrayed.
Although at times the movements seem random and lack structure, the ‘Shyness
of the Bones’, through the presence of a material medium has explored a new
kind of relationship between audience and performer. It is when the dancers
step out from behind the sheet to take a bow that this can be fully
appreciated as we are made aware that the white sheet strips the skin from
the dancers and gives an awareness of the anatomical make-up of the bodies.
The uncoiling of the spine or the undulating movements of the pelvic bone
exhibits the bodies’ contours and exposes the dancers in rawness unique to
the performance. |
di Sarah WHITEHEAD