Soirée: Felt Room

Soirée: Felt Room

Thu 1 Mar 2018, 10:00am–11:00pm
Fri 2 Mar 2018, 10:00am–11:00pm
Sat 3 Mar 2018, 10:00am–11:00pm
Sun 4 Mar 2018, 10:00am–6:00pm

The installation is ongoing with live performers in the space from 1.00 - 4.00pm & 7.00 - 10.00pm daily. PLEASE NOTE only one show Sunday 1-4pm

Featuring Josie Elizabeth Archer, Vicky Kapo, Rosie Tapsell, Emma Barber and Olive Bieringa with sound designed by Justin Jones and lighting by Mike Wangen.

felt room is an immersive performance installation designed to conjure imagination, speculation and perception, engaging viewers in a practice of vibrant potentiality. In the darkness of felt room viewers are offered an escape from a world of constant illumination. Unfolding somatic landscapes move into and out of the darkness, transforming our perceptual field. In felt room we can practice other ways of knowing. Like human animals moving into the night, the darkness can be a cloak of protection, as the dance slowly reveals itself to us.

Through its visual absence the dance becomes heightened in our imagination. There are no handles in the dark and no ways to mark time. In its intimacy we are both hidden and vulnerable. Together we share fluid time, a space for napping, lucid dreaming, visioning, and collective imagining.

“From darkness to dimness to light – the “felt room” was a revelation. It’s rare to confront your own physical and emotional hesitancies while watching a performance. It felt good to feel the heart pump a bit when confronted with uncertainty.” Caroline Palmer. Read the full review here.

“Stretching between amazement, fear, and tenderness Bieringa’s piece is a dream of life at its most instinctual.” artist and audience member Sean Smuda

“And then suddenly in a burst of clarity I could see! The room and everyone in it now completely visible. I could hear a heartbeat. Tears came to my eyes as I was awash in the feeling of being a human.” Bernie Jungle, audience feedback from the Headlands Center for the Arts

Check out a trailer here:
http://bodycartography.org/portfolio/thefeltroom/

Support for this project comes from Carleton College, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Alumni New Works grant and residency from the Headlands Center for the Arts, an Arts Activity Grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Arts Council Public Art Fund, Atamira Dance Company.