Bodies of Water

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'Bodies of Water' is a site specific work performed at the Totally Thames Festival 2021 on the bank of the river Thames in front of Tate Modern.

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It is a dance performed alongside water -  whether the sea, a river, lake or canal. The dancers merge with and emerge from their natural environment. They perform in huge colourful skirts binding themselves both to water and land through the movement of the body and the fabric. The piece is both literally and metaphorically about returning to the flow. The dancers use their skirts in different ways. They are the billowing sails of boats, magnificent queenly trains, mermaids' tails, whips and wings. As the skirts transform so do the women; at times they are delicate, ethereal beings, then they become washerwomen, fighters, spinners and selkies. The piece ends when they shed their skirts, returning to their human form, and leaving the performance space. When they are gone, we realise the land has also literally been transformed by their physical footprints and the traces of their trailing skirts.

The performance is about bodies of water, bodies in water and the beings and people who live near/in water. Movement and flowing fabric blur the lines between water and dancer. Where does their body end and the water begin? 

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CREATIVE TEAM 

CHOREOGRAPHY AND COSTUME: Alice Ortona Coles and Synne Lundesgaard

PERFORMERS: Julie Dahl, Anna Dunlop, Charlotte Theodorsen, Saskia Larcombe, Theia Maldoom, Alejandra Gisler, Alexandra Paal

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