SIFA 2019: Danger in Numbers
SIFA 2019: Crowd
What a proactive piece. Crowd was essentially a mess; a perfect metaphor for the human condition. It explores the darker undertones of who we are, through the heightened phases of a rave party, and examines our more primitive nature in a absurd but compelling way.
The performance started in slow motion, much like how I feel life goes by sometimes. Then it escalates just as everyone gets high, enjoying themselves until it becomes too much; descending into the carnal depths of sexual tendencies, violence, greed, and fear. Each dancer was a story in themselves, expressing their deeper, more primitive desires. The mish-mash bodies delving into depravity was intense, especially as all 15 dancers moved on their own and everywhere you look told another story. I couldn’t help but feel this was but a magnifying glass of our more primal conscience that Vienne captured in the performance.
In each act there were also different leads, though honestly I couldn’t tell because everyone seemed equally intriguing.
I felt the way they moved together was a fitting description of what a crowd is, each one unique but by some beat or another, was also in sync. Don’t get me wrong though, the way they moved was definitely not how a crowd actually acts. It was much more absurd; each limb extending to the fullest, contorting in direct directions, stretching what I thought as uninhibited as they groped each other and rolled around the dirt. This was probably to emphasise the heightened, surreal state that they were in, where time seemed inconsequential and their movements were whatever the body wanted. It was an absurdist, physicalised view on what one would feel in (I would assume) a 90s techno rave.
Which brings me to the technical side of things. Besides the blaring music and harsh spotlights, let’s talk about the set. Vienne said it was just an outdoor rave party area which I can definitely see, but I really appreciate the details of how messy the place actually was. The litter people have strewn around, lying all over the set was perhaps a little ode to the disregard to the environment that humans have when we’re consumed in our own little bubble. And with every batch of ravers, it gets worse. Very lovely detail, I must say.
It’s also interesting to note that despite the pulsating music and odd movements, there was a monotony in the entire act– which is partly why I did fall asleep at one point. I could pretty much predict the kind of moves they did, as if it fell into a sort of linear pattern of things that were happening but nothing -really- happened. At the end of the performance, I felt like I gained nothing. No lesson. No moral of the story. No clear conclusion. Which honestly I thought pretty much summed up a depraved lifestyle. The end of a high.
Quite a thought-provoking ride indeed.
