Lara Cortellini
I knew your performance was about transitions. You studied the same subject at Uni as I do now, we learn about what exists but is never really “there”, the “medium”. But you made it sensible: the place in-between, the movements in it.
When I walked down the stairs and into the theatre space, it was all clear to me. It was a performance that would never have the same effect in a big theatre or an open space.
The dust, the darkness, the only light hanging from the ceiling. It was as if I had climbed down a deep well. There was this sound in the background, not a real melody, no steady rhythm, just shivering dripping sounds and this loud noise. A stalactite cave, only upwards, not downwards. In this place time goes by differently. There’s no chronology; it moves differently, maybe in circles or from the ceiling to the floor.
And you danced in this space as if you were part of it. Your slow, controlled motions helped to create it – never have I ever experienced such a focus on the smallest tremor of a hand and the almost unnoticeable shifting of feet. Movements that slowly formed new poses, like a moving sculpture. It was electric, magnetic, and very colourful to me.
Is this what life is supposed to feel like? A constant in-between? The transition between birth and death? How are we so calm? – It’s the pressure, I know, that keeps everything the way it is. The ocean bed. The darkness. A galactic space with no escape. But somehow there’s another place, layered on top of the other: The one where life is fast and ecstatic – just when you leave the theatre and come back to the streets.
And then you vanished into the abyss, your white shoes the last thing that I saw –leaving me wondering if I was part of it, or just lucky to have watched it for a while.
Lara
Lara Cortellini just started to study theater film and media at the University Vienna. Besides her passion for dance, and almost any kind of art and performance, she has always loved to write. She tries to travel a lot, finding wonderful people and inspiration wherever she goes!
