Graviton

What happens to us when we become infatuated with a person or an idea? Should we resist the powerful attraction and the change that the contact with something outside of ourselves inevitably brings?

Every day we are faced with the changing world around us that pulls us in different directions, lures us into new temptations, provokes us and often puts us in a dangerous environment that may hurt our sense of freedom. This project aims to examine this ongoing tension between our awareness of the impossibility to remain untouched and distant from the world surrounding us and our innate desire for belonging and sharing that forces to adapt and change.

I use gravitation as a concept to examine this problem. Gravitation affects space and matter in a way that (de)forms the initial status quo and places objects (and subjects) in a state of interdependence. I view gravitation as a dialectical contradiction and energy that is both fatal and creative. Gravitation alters the passive existence of autonomous objects/bodies by giving them new direction and connecting them to other objects/bodies in a symbiosis that is both stable and powerful.

The movement depicts two different realities. One, of the passive and uneventful existence as a form of absolute freedom (freedom of external influences and stimuli) that makes one feel weightless, ephemeral and calm, but also without a purpose and direction; and the other, the pull of gravitation that is full of interactions, provocations, temptations, and attractions, which places individuals in a new state of dependency and motivates them to change. The movement illustrates the interactions between the objects/bodies and the transformation that is the result of their connecting to one another.

Graviton is a contemporary dance performance, choreographed by Petya Mukova, created and performed at Derida Dance Center on March 22nd 2015.

Music: Ivan Shopov

Listen and download the soundtrack: https://www.abstraktreflections.net/releases/balkansky-graviton/