A Small Space
Concept, choreography and direction: Deniz Atlı
Original music: Fırat Aktav
Lighting Design: Ecem Dilan Köse
Lighting technician: Nejat Sametzade
Performers: Deniz Atlı, Onur Dilek
Production: Deniz Atlı, Volkan Aykaç
Teaser: Mert Şen, Deniz Solaker, Volkan Aykaç, Umut Kambak, Erman Çetin
Platform Dance Theatre – PDT
Lasts app. 30’, no intermission
While we all are stuck in our homes and increased our distance with other people, we are reshaping our personal spaces with the effect of Covid – 19. Although, this situation revealed more financial handicaps for artists; we seem to have some advantages with our abilities to create new perspectives and to be able to enlarge our psychological boundaries. Especially, as performance artists; we are used to having face-to-face contact and interactive experiences via our creation, however, new circumstances prompt us to stay with ourselves for longer hours and adapt to communicating from distance to bring out a product. Specific to our work, this product encloses non-verbal communication methods and observes the distances between the individuals and the space. It explores the ways of forming and preserving the personal space, then carries on to enlarge or to violate this space. In order to do this, research begins with the body territory, which is the smallest and most intimate territory of a person and continues to relate it with extra-personal space both from kinesthetic and psychological point of view of Edward T. Hall’s ‘Proxemics’ studies. This territory is defined with dark walls. Even though they are perceived as solid walls in the beginning, new relationship with an undefined presence in the dark allows this space to be modified. As a metaphor of a link with extra-personal space, this undefined presence becomes clearer in the form of a light source. This new form of communication reaches out beyond the peri-personal space and provokes psychological symptoms of fear, anxiety and discomfort. It is followed by the adaptation to this new discovery of interactional territory and leaves itself to harmony.
During the choreography, this undefined presence will help creating new and different topographies in the space. The vertical use of space aims to play with the idea of hierarchy in between the person and the uncertain presence that will appear as another human body towards the end. These composed choreographies with multi–disiplinary art forms (dance, music and light) intends to create a metaphor of daily life; its variability, instability, repetition and life span. This a 25 minute performance, inside a 2 meters to 2 meters cube. The edges of this cube are defined with linear LED light animation design with paired original music.