Calling ourselves DEATH PROOF. Calling ourselves DEATH PROOF. Calling ourselves
Calling ourselves DEATH PROOF is an ironical ambition, given that dance is an ephemeral art form. Dance deals with a medium that does not endure time: the body. The form it takes through performance is an artistic product that cannot be preserved. This is, in fact, the source of all the uncertainty surrounding dance funding: what dance produces are ephemeral works which, because they cannot be preserved (unlike painting, film, sculpture, and even some forms of theatre, which can take the form of a book), cannot be capitalized upon and are therefore neglected by the neoliberal system. So as DEATH PROOF we consider claiming to resist death—both in its literal sense and in a financial sense—and we acknowledge that as a dance project this is a challenge, if not an irony. Claiming to resist death is part of a determination to resist against a world that only aims to produce stuff that can be capitalized. Dance (as an ephemeral art form that generates works that cannot be quantified by a productivist economy) makes its fight to constantly resist its own death. We also make it our fight. DEATH PROOF is a desire to confront death, danger, and risk. A show that doesn’t take risks is a dead show to us. A performance where we don’t bare ourselves, where we don’t leave a piece of ourselves on stage, is a poor performance. So here’s what we want to do with DEATH PROOF: 1. Leave a piece of ourselves on stage. 2. Take risks. 3. Push the limits (of our abilities, our emotions, the legality, the constraints of the stage…). All this in a humble and healthy way. Because we know that others have done it before us, and we thank them for it. And because we believe that taking risks and pushing our limits is not dependent on putting ourselves in physical danger, inflicting violence, or experiencing pain. DEATH PROOF is the match that is always on the verge of burning out. Because the truth is, we aren’t death-proof; we just wish we were. In reality, we are a dance collective—a vulnerable entity operating within a vulnerable cultural sector (dance), in a vulnerable geopolitical world, and always on the verge of burning out.
Calling ourselves DEATH PROOF. Calling ourselves DEATH PROOF. Calling ourselves