GLADE
at DOCK 11, Berlin
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What if the stage were a habitat?
Taking inspiration from a forest glade - a clearing - GLADE brings the outside in. The multi-disciplinary piece transforms the stage into an immersive territory in which live lights, sound and drums emulate a natural habitat. A clan of three performers animate this landscape with their bodies, seeking shelter, composing storms and shapeshifting between human and non-human. Do we see ourselves in them? Or in their shadows? GLADE is a study on our perception of nature through tension and minimalism. The work draws attention to the sensorial and what we cannot know, evoking the weird and the eerie. |
Artistic direction & choreography: Beatrix Joyce
Dance & co-creation: Michela Filzi, Susanna Ylikoski, Savina Casarin Choreographic assistance: Imola Nagy Sound: Jethro Cooke Drums: Jake Long Lights: Lena Gätjens Video: Vincent Jondeau Voice coach: Rupert Enticknap Performances on 13.06 / 16.06.2024 at 7pm Premiered at Dock 11, Berlin as part of soundance festival 2024 |
Text by Ben Knight: Shade in the Glade
“Maybe eco-anxiety is really nothing but the realization that there are other non-human creatures out there that we have to live with, that they too have consciousnesses, and that we don't matter any more than they do.” |
Journalist Ben Knight reflects on encountering the non-human in the piece GLADE by the interdisciplinary performance group WILD ACCESS.
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Concept
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With GLADE, WILD ACCESS approaches our existentially threatened environment and the ecological crises that mark our times.
Taking the romantic image of a forest glade – an opening between trees – as their starting point, the artists explore the non-human actors of the woods through the mediums of sound, light and dance. The performance space is transformed into a natural habitat in which three unique characters act on their primal instincts, desires and curiosities. From tender heartbeats to raging storms, they channel the mysterious forces of nature with their bodies and senses, revealing the shadow-side of the glade. With GLADE, WILD ACCESS continue their site-specific approach to creating performances. The work draws attention to the sensorial and the unknown, evoking – in the words of the late cultural critic Mark Fisher – “the weird and the eerie”. |
CHOREOGRAPHER'S NOTE
“While walking in the forest, I have found myself naturally attracted to these clearings, as for me they hold a promise of a utopian scenario. Nature at its most calm, nature at its most accessible: nature that we can depict, nature we can [as humans] feel comfortable in. However, I find that when you enter this frame, this sensation instantly disappears and instead a panoply of perspectives opens up: you’re in the thick of it. You and your body and the forest. And that’s when the magic truly begins.” - Beatrix Joyce |
Images by Dieter Hartwig, Chrysanthi Ha
Videos
Research
Glades in Buchenwald Grumsin with videographer Vincent Jondeau
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