Natural Basic — Rebecca Jensen

— Body as barometer

“How do the conditions of contemporary planetary crisis shape the genres of temporal experience that make up the present? What happens when the “background” to our world building - the temporalities we took for granted - assert themselves as protagonists as they do in the Anthropocene?“ Gary Zhexi Zhang - Catastrophe Time

The natural basic waltz step is a three-part clockwise movement. Originating in 16th-century peasant dances, the waltz has evolved through countless forms. In Natural Basic, this cadence is a starting point, a steady loop that drifts off-axis- its centre of gravity slipping.

Three dancers converge through clouds of thought and matter. Their movements register change like barometers—sensitive to pressure, to subtle shifts in metronome, to unseen forces acting upon them. The work inhabits the state of Polycrisis. Dinosaur-like, they carry the weight of deep time, caught between extinction and evolution, chewing up the future and spitting it back out again.

Choreographer: Rebecca Jensen

Performers: Lana Šprajcer, Anika De Ruyter, Rebecca Jensen

Sound Design: Andrew Wilson

Lighting Design: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez

Visual Design: Romanie Harper

Understudy: Texas Nixon-Kain

Producer: Anna Naplantidis

This project is supported by Creative Victoria, Creative Australia, Chunky Move Minimax Residency, Lucy Guerin Inc Resident Director Residency 2023 and Gertrude Contemporary.