AGAIN

The Baroque idea of ‘the doctrine of affections’ in music leads us to question:

Can we move/affect the audience with our dance?

The Doctrine of Affections (also known as Affektenlehre) was part of the aesthetic basis of Baroque music. Baroque theorists placed musicians in the role of classical orators: they held that the principal objective of music was to arouse emotional states of being, or affection. In general, to affect refers to the influence a change has on something else. It is the consequence of entering a new state. In this piece we are exploring how motion brings emotion and how by witnessing this process one can reach a new state of being.

We invite the audience to share the same space as the performers with an honest presence that might arouse in them a corporeal/emotional response. We tried to avoid presentation or representation of our emotions but instead used the medium of movement to lead us to an emotional state. Being in emotion rather than presenting it. The process itself made us find a way of being on stage without performing something other than what is there when moving.

The practicality needed to physically do something again and again creates a direct and raw type of performance that allows normality to become a way of experiencing affect while at the same time it creates expectations for the future. The Baroque music characteristics of the unity of emotion, ornamentation, the performer’s interpretation, the element of surprise and variation were also important tools to our process. Henry Purcel’s aria ‘When I am laid’, Dido’s lamentation from the opera ‘Dido and Aeneas’ has also been a landmark o inspiration research and interpretation.

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Direction: Lia Haraki

Commisioned by: Joanna Lesnierowska

Dancers, Performers, Movement Collaborators: Aleksandra Borys, Cathryn Robson, Diomedes Koufteros, Eleana Alexandrou, Petros Konnaris

Dramaturgy: Joanna Lesnierowska

Vocal Coach: Cathryn Robson

Vocal Coach Assistant: Diomedes Koufteros

Musicological Advisor: Kenneth Smith

Music: Henry Purcell - When I Am Laid in Earth - Opera Dido and Aeneas

Costumes: Team

Photography: Jakub Wittchen

Co-Production: Art Stations Foundation / Pelma.Lia Haraki

Supported by: Dance House Lemesos, Nadina Loizidou Dance Studios

Funding: Art Stations Foundation – Old Music New Dance Festival Poznan

Performances

4-5 November 2011, Poznan Baroque Festival, Stary Browar, Poznan, Poland