We’ve all heard the phrase “Dance as if nobody's watching,” right? In some form or another, we understand what this means. We understand that when no one can see us, no one can judge us and we can be as free as we need to be in order to express our own inner world.
As If No-one Is Watching, presented by Vulcana’s Women Circus and WAW Dance in partnership with Brisbane Powerhouse, is just that. The freedom to express oneself without judgement is explored and it’s an interactive world of imagination, thought and creativity.
We peek into the inner worlds of the performers, ranging in age and appearance. Each one different from each other but alike - all part of the same world, yet experiencing different things, different ways of seeing - different ways of being... when no-one is watching.
As we stood outside the Stores Studio we walked around and watched this interactive space, we had our phones accessing a website that could link the audience member to a story from each of the surrounding performers. We could listen in to their inner world, as we watched them as though no one could see them, judge them or be them - all in a world of their own.
These women were expressing their inner world in different spots around the area outside the studio, one girl was twisting her body on top of a large mirror, another stuffed into a fridge with tape measures all over it and another could be found in a box that moved side to side, as she tried to escape from it.
It was an interesting to explore different themes on femininity, not only being a woman but experiencing life as one. We returned to the studio to watch the second part the performance, the part where we could really see what these performers had in store for us. They were at first, trying to escape from the space they were in. Pushing against the walls, trying to escape vertically and horizontally, without much success.
The performers continued to work together to showcase their skills. One of their strengths was in the air - flying as free as a bird and circling the women below. It made one think, what would it feel like to be so free like that? I wish I could experience it, but all you can do was sit and imagine. Imagine the feeling of it.
There was a woman in a red dress that was singing to the girls, to the women, she was almost wailing, throughout the performance. She first appeared at the end of the interactive part of the performance, and collected the girls from their places to bring them to the studio. After some unusual warm ups and sounds the group made, they all walked inside, pulling the audience members and telling them “Come with us, come with us.”
Long and high pitched notes escaped the woman’s mouth as she watched them from the side of the studio, as they did different routines, and added an abstract element to the performance. It was up to one’s own perspective to make sense of it all. It wasn’t handed to you, you had to feel and experience what this very moment meant to you and you alone. Whether you were giggling or shedding a tear by the end, it wasn’t what the person next to you was thinking, it was what you… you alone, felt after watching these women perform. It was almost as though they acted as if there was no audience at all, because, maybe to them, there was no one else watching.
27-30th Sept
Brisbane Powerhouse, Stores Studio
Joanna Letic