I am a Poem, There is No Way Out
In April 2018 I began working with 'Lunatics and Poets' as an Associate Artist. Founded by Anna Jacobs and Hanna van der Meer, 'Lunatics and Poets' is an interdisciplinary movement studio which intrinsically connects choreography, art and fashion through creative storytelling.
I am a poem, there is no way out, connects and merges anonymity and uncertainty. This duet choreographed and danced by Hanna van der Meer and Anna Jacobs, takes place in a world of magical lostness, a shadow world of hidden identities and unknown truths. It uses the bodily voice to look for what is behind our identities and what can’t be seen, whilst juxtaposing these questions with the tenderness of the human touch.
The anonymity of using clothing as skins eludes to how it can be interchanged. There is history behind the present, others have been there before. When everything is constantly changing and evolving, invent and then reinvent, over and over again to get to the truth. The unknown becomes the known, the invisible becomes the visible and the anonymous, reveals itself. After this, the only thing that is left behind is the coat, the shell, the second skin. Then the only thing that really matters is the spirit, the bare truth and the essence.
When so much of our identities are defined by how we are seen, how do you identify with the ‘unseen’ and what if that identity is interchangeable. The unseen is not the unknown, for there is a knowing without seeing, a feeling. Then what is it that creates the identity, is it the seeing the feeling or the knowing?
Photograph: Nienke Elenbaas
Filmed on Location at Casco Amsterdam, this piece was selected for the Rotterdam International Duet Choreographic Competition, which took place at Theater Rotterdam in June 2018. Selected from 320 applicants to be in the final 15. 'I am a poem, there is no way out' was awarded a production prize by 'Club Guy & Roni.' The production prize consists of 2 weeks of research with the Poetic Disasters Club with the possibility of creating a full production afterwards.
Photograph: Nienke Elenbaas
““The work shows interest in a wider range of disciplines. It departs from the human body and by involving fashion it creates a new reality that is both visual and intriguing” ”