Merry.Go.Round

55 min | Minimum stage: 8x10 m | Black Box or Alternative Venues | 5 performers

Dance theatre by choreographer Maria Nilsson Waller.

Dancers: Marcia Liu (CHN), Mikel Aristequi (ESP), Elin Hedin (SWE), Kevin Coquelard (FRA) and Sara Ezzell (USA).

Sound design / Light / Cosrtume / Set: Maria Nilsson Waller.

Music: Stace Gill/The Sei + Je Suis!

“deepf-felt, heartfelt, exquisitely tender” **** The Arts Review

Merry.Go.Round is both dance and theatre, movement and poetry. The music is a mixture of Swedish jazz, opera, pop and NASA's recordings from our solar system. It is a performance full of improvisation and presence, unique each time and difficult to put into words. The press has described it as "big and cinematic, like an intro to an unknown world" (Malin Palmqvist, Länstidningen, 2017), and "striking images, pure emotion". (Seona Mac Reamoinn, The Irish Times 2017)

Between 2012 and 2017, Maria Nilsson Waller created three dance pieces; all of which had their starting point in our last unowned places - terra nullius. The first, Last Land, was a journey in the imagination to Antarctica and the Bir Tawil desert, followed by Founder - a deep dive down to our unknown and inaccessible seabed. Merry.Go.Round is the third and final piece in the series, a dance drama where we look out into space and towards humanity's unknown future, while also whipping up a storm looking at five well known romantic epos and the role fo romantic myth in the western society.

Consistent with all the pieces and the Flora Fauna Project's work is that they highlight in different ways our changing relationship to the environment and nature, and look more closely at the unknown - the borderland where science must give way to myth.

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Merry.Go.Round är både dans och teater, rörelse och poesi. Musiken är en blandning av svensk jazz, opera, pop och NASA’s inspelningar från vårt solsystem. Det är en föreställning full av improvisation och närvaro, olik det mesta och svår att sätta ord på. Press har bland annat beskrivit den som “stor och filmisk, som ett intro till en okänd värld” (Malin Palmqvist, Länstidningen, 2017), och “striking images, pure emotion”. (Seona Mac Reamoinn, The Irish Times 2017)

Mellan 2012 och 2017 skapade Maria Nilsson Waller tre dansstycken; som alla hade utgångspunkt i våra sista oägda platser - terra nullius. Det första, Last Land, var en resa i fantasin till Antarktis och Bir Tawils öken, följt av Founder - en djupdykning ned till vår okända och oåtkomliga havsbotten. Merry.Go.Round är det sista stycket i serien, där vi blickar ut i rymden och mot mänsklighetens okända framtid. 

Genomgående för alla stycken och för Flora Fauna Project's arbete är att de på olika sätt belyser vår skiftande relation till miljön och naturen, och tittar närmare på det okända - gränslandet där vetenskap får ge vika för myten. 

Merry.Go.Round (karusell på svenska) väver här också in den romantiska myten - alla dessa historier och idéer om kärlek, romantik och relationer som dominerat västvärlden sedan tidig medeltid. Det är ett stycke om hemlängtan och våra hjärtans längtan. Genom loopar och omloppsbanor, i en dans som är lika mycket kosmisk som vardagligt mänsklig, tumlar de fem dansarna om varandra i en värld som ibland verkar söndertrasad av post-romantisk stress disorder, och ibland rymmer skönhet och harmoni. Vad händer när våra vägar korsas? Hur kan vi hålla samman om våra vägar går isär? 

by Maria Nilsson Waller

THE PEACE PROCESS Choreographic SCORE

A circle. A loop. No beginning, no end. Flexible enough to hold the present moment at any time. A piece where time does not matter. A dance that can go on forever. A mirror and a field. Real time IRL.

Perform it for ever.

When the day is done, go home and rest. Tomorrow, start again, and start fresh.

Follow the map, the form. Choose any starting point.

Entropy/Stillness.
Feel and dance to your own heartbeat. When the time is right, join the movement.
Join together - follow the one heart, like on a silent disco. (Pre-decide a leader or let chance guide you.)

Walkings.

Sync up with the person infront of you, in your field of vision. The leader in front make loops of transformation, evolving mutations. Stay on spot or travel around the space. The group might split but will come back together again. Embody soldiers, freedom fighters, horses, farmers, women, and whatever else floats up on the day.

Waves of Emotion.
Slide between neutral body and an emotionally charged physical state representing: Joy, Fear, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Surprise.

When the time is up, let Wailing Whales transition you into the..

Desert.
Improvise/play/dance the desert. A desert. Any desert you like. Possibly include: sand dunes, insects, shelter, spacemen.

Let your improvisation form characters. Make a parade? Rise and fall of civilisations. Interact with materials available to you. 
(Materalistic girl with planetary care, Serving robot, The Asteroid, Antarctica.. see who is in there today. Let your body lead you and reveal your subconscious to you. Play with intention and remember that time is not linear.

For more action, use prompts. Perhaps find a way to prompt and include the audience? (ex: Gather everything. Build something. Help someone. Copy someone. Spread joy. Etc. )

Ring bell and have Tea-Break. Break bread. Have a break. Tell stories. Chat. Sit in silence. Be equal. All human.

Transition through the Empty Space - a window for whatever is needed, follow your individual flow and needs each time. 

Hearts & Parts.
Tune in to your heart organ. About the size of a fist. A little to the left of your spine, in your chest.

Start to feel small movement of sliding the heart forward, back, to the sides.. Start to follow you heart. Let your heart guide you, bring you in to movement - forward, reverse, to the sides. Play and Listen.

From your heart open up your energy field and your field of perception. Like a bubble expanding around you, open and take in the room, the world, the universe. Open and close it back in to your physical heart 3 times.

Dance with your heart. Let your heart dance with other body parts. Through dancing, have a heart to heart conversation with someone else.

Army of Lovers.

Again, start to feel the small movements of the sliding heart, this time forward and back. Join together in the room, and link hearts. Let your hearts bring you forward and back in the room, almost like waves rolling onto a beach, or the tides pulling in and out.

After a while, space yourselves out evenly, side by side, and also suspend yourself evenly in your own body (head, feet, lungs, spine etc, all stacked and suspended, grounded yet spacious. ) Keep your heartfield/energy open and active, and link up/merge with the people around you. You are moving as one frontier, a pushback and a nourishing river. Acceptance and Generosity. Give the audience a wash, or perhaps the opportunity to gently dip their toe in the waves.

The person most to the left passes in front of the other in the line, heart to heart, gliding past every one. (Practice eye-contact too if you like.) Continue until everyone is gone, and form a circle in the room.

Circle.
In a circle anything can happen. Rest together. Find symmetry and harmony. Tie the room together. Perhaps do the praying positions score? Open and close. Include everyone? Exclude people? Gather around?

Build Bridges.
Make connections.
Use all the skills, materials and possibilities.

When all is done, and you can’t go any further, settle down. Find yourself back in Entropy/Stillness. Connected. Suspended. Stretched out. Loose the grip. Become bodies in the space. Rest for as long as you need. Until you are ready to listen to your own heartbeat again. Etc.