This video demonstrates how the anthem is a deeply rooted part of Valencian identity, serving as a unifying force in times of social crisis. By singing a song that reinforces their sense of belonging and empathy, these volunteers found the strength to continue helping despite the horrific conditions.
5.1.3 Reflection
My artistic process was shaped by my environment and circumstances far more than I had initially anticipated. This became evident through both my wrist injury and the devastating floods in my hometown. While external influences can enrich a performance, I realised that in this case, they led to an overload of ideas without a clear focal point. Not everything can be addressed in a single performance, and some ideas must be set aside to maintain conceptual clarity. In particular, the ecological disaster played a significant role in shaping the performance. The following section will examine the relevance of this disaster within the framework of choreomania, after which I will continue with my reflection on the first try out.
Performance Structure and Audience Engagement
The decision to begin the performance before the audience entered was intended to create the sensation of an event with no clear beginning. This mirrored historical choreomania episodes, where people would suddenly become part of an event already in progress, with no clear beginning or explanation. Therefore, this approach aimed to blur the line between observer and participant, immersing the audience in an experience that felt immediate and inevitable.
The try-out, along with subsequent reflection, helped clarify what worked and what needed improvement. Despite this being my first time publicly incorporating voice and movement into my practice, I felt comfortable improvising with these elements. This gave me the confidence to push further in expanding my expressive range. The combination of red and yellow lighting, along with the positioning of the piano and live electronics station, created an engaging and mysterious atmosphere. Audience feedback also highlighted the effectiveness of my initial positioning in the space.
While the production process was largely successful, certain aspects could have been addressed earlier. Fortunately, accounting for unforeseen circumstances - such as allocating extra time for each action in the draaiboek (script) - allowed me to resolve last-minute issues on the day of the performance. However, balancing logistics, production, performance, piano playing, research, analysis, and reflection proved to be far more demanding than expected.
Challenges and Areas for Improvement
One of the key challenges was the balance between improvisation and structure. While the flexibility to adapt in real time is valuable, it also carries risks if transitions between movement, voice, and piano are not thoroughly rehearsed, or if the overarching concept is not clearly defined. In this performance, the conceptual direction shifted significantly during the process, with the final idea still in development just a week before the try-out. This lack of clarity resulted in certain elements being underdeveloped. For example, the improvised music and humming were meant to convey vulnerability, but this did not fully translate in the piano improvisation.
Another area for improvement was the feedback session with the audience. Rather than fostering an open, non-hierarchical discussion, it felt more like a structured interview. I realised that to encourage a more organic exchange, I should step back and allow the audience to engage with one another independently. This would minimise bias and lead to more authentic insights. Additionally, describing the research and using Valencia’s anthem proved not to be effective.
Final Reflections and Next Steps
The feedback session provided valuable insights into how the performance was received. The core themes I aimed to explore - social upheaval, collective power, anger, and vulnerability - resonated in some ways, but the element of collectivity was not as evident as I had intended. While it was embedded in the recited text, some audience members found the text too dense, which may have diminished its impact. This highlights the broader issue of attempting to incorporate too many ideas without a strong central focus. Without clear guidance, a performance risks becoming fragmented, making its core message unclear.
I recognise that my collaboration with Niccolò in shaping the performance took on a hybrid nature, alternating between collaboration and cooperation. As the initiator of the project, I generated most of the ideas, but the evaluation process was shared. Our discussion about the audience feedback session, for instance, was particularly in-depth, with many key insights and new directions emerging from his perspective. Additionally, while the development of the classical seeds was fully collaborative, with both of us imagining and evaluating ideas together, the movement seeds followed a more hierarchical approach. Since this was not Niccolò’s area of expertise, he did not feel comfortable assessing this aspect of the process.
Moving forward, several key adjustments were made:
- Audience Engagement: The feedback session was restructured to encourage open discussion, without my direct influence and integrated it into the performance itself.
- Exploration of Movement and Voice: I pushed further in experimenting with these elements, particularly in expressing vulnerability and anger.
- Rehearsal Strategies: Practicing movement while envisioning an audience, helping reduce insecurity during the performance.
- Improvisation and Structure: More time allocated to refining transitions between movement, voice, and piano to ensure coherence.
- Spatial Considerations: The audience’s interaction with the space was reconsidered, possibly by adding cushions for those who need seating. The placement of the piano in the space was also reconsidered. Although I initially did not want it to be the central focus, the audience naturally gathered around it, unintentionally leaving Niccolò on the periphery.
- Study Process: The structure of my study sessions was adjusted to meet the evolving needs of the performance, with increased focus on piano practice.
- Text Refinement: The recited texts should be reconsidered.
These observations aimed to ensure that future iterations of the performance are more focused, impactful, and immersive while staying true to the core themes of collectivity, resistance, and emotional depth.
5.1.2 Documentation
The following documentation can be found below: a recap video of the performance, photos of the performance, a selection of my project journal, the draaiboek1 (or script) for the day of performance, and relevant audience’s feedback.
Recap video of the performance (5-6’)
Selection of project journal
This selection follows, in a day-by-day format, the intricacies of the creative process. You can expect reflections on the development of the performance, but also apparently isolated thoughts which then materialise and become part of the artistic outcome. Although the entire project journal starts on the 10th of September of 2023, this selection includes only the journal from one month before the first try-out, until three days after. This decision was taken to ensure that the diary entries where relevant and more specific to the try-out in question. Go to Annex E to find the full document.
Full video of the performance
Readers who are interested in seeing the full video of the performance can find these in Annex I.
Draaiboek or script
This collective response - marked by urgency, grief, and resilience - mirrors the dynamics of choreomania, where individuals are affected by an overwhelming force beyond their control. The people’s movement through the ruined city reflected not only chaos and anarchy, but also solidarity and resistance. Just as historical episodes of choreomania have been interpreted as expressions of social upheaval, the mobilisation in Valencia exposed the failures of political structures while highlighting the power of collective action.
Without centralised coordination, people created their own networks of care, moving through flooded streets to rescue, support, and rebuild. Their improvised yet relentless labour - passing supplies hand to hand, forming human chains in the mud, calling out names in search of the missing - became a kind of (un)choreographed performance of survival and defiance. The city itself transformed into a stage where movement was no longer just physical but deeply political, a testament to the refusal to be abandoned.2
During the performance
My approach to movement in this performance was heavily influenced by Alexandra Cassirer, particularly in gesture, and by ELLE FIERCE in audience interaction. The movement was largely improvised, with a sense of urgency evident in my rushed pacing around the space.
The disposition of physical components was highly dynamic. The audience entered the space while the performance was already in progress, receiving no explicit instructions. There were no designated seats and no conventional stage. The piano was positioned on one side, Niccolò occupied a central area towards the opposite side, and I began on the floor, moving only my hand.
Niccolò's position remained the same, but mine changed throughout the performance. During the movement seed, I moved through the entire space before eventually remaining at or near the piano. See video to the right.
Interdisciplinary interaction was evident in the introduction and the movement seed, where recited texts were triggered while Niccolò improvised with electronics, and I responded through movement (See second video to the right).
Interaction within a single discipline, particularly within sound, reached its peak during the classical seed (Scriabin recomposing). See video to the right.
Even though we had a scheme of the intentions and desired expression we wanted to convey within each part of the music, there was room for improvisation, and we were in constant conversation. Additionally, audience-performer engagement intensified when I actively encouraged the audience to move through the space.
Furthermore, during the interaction with the audience I introduced my research and played Valencia’s anthem in honour of the victims, recognising its role in uniting citizens through collective empathy. However, my explanation was unclear, and the audience struggled to connect it to the performance. Some even perceived it as a sarcastic use of a patriotic hymn, which was not my intention. The following video captures volunteers singing the anthem while taking a break from their efforts:
Audience feedback
During the dialogue session I collected valuable audience feedback regarding their thoughts on the performance. Some of the keywords they used to describe the performance were “emotional”, “touching”, “spacious”, “political”, “reflective”, “vulnerable”, “uncertainty”, “puzzling”, or “incredibly impacting”. During some of the interventions, people also shared how certain moments made them feel. The most relevant examples are: “I was suddenly very nervous. I didn’t understand what was happening.”; “I saw you, laying there with your arm. This had an incredible impact on me.”, referring to the surprise of coming into the performance and finding me on the floor with a hand moving upwards in erratic gestures; “there were multiple places where I felt uncomfortable”; “I was a bit scared”; or “I felt the need to move into a less crowded space”. Furthermore, people were surprised by me playing only with the left hand -after breaking my right wrist in an accident a few weeks before the performance- and wearing a cast on, as well as encountering the white dress on the floor. Another phrase that arose was: “sometimes the most creative things come when we are restricted”.
Finally, in a conversation with another audience member a few days after the performance, he suggested ways of expanding my expressive means - in particular, the anger and the vulnerability -, not only in movement, but also how to translate those to the music and the voice.
5.1 Try-out 1
Title: Choreomaniac seeds
Performers: Silvia De Teresa - piano, voice and movement; Niccolò Angioni - live electronics.
Date and time: 6th of November 2024. 19-19:40h.
Programmed in: Student Collaborative Festival 2024, Koninklijk Conservatorium.
Space: Studio 1 - Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag (The Hague, NL).
The first try-out consisted of a 40-minute performance and dialogue session during the Student Collaborative Festival 2024 (at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag). In its final stages the performance was profoundly shaped by the devastating floods that struck my hometown, Valencia, starting on October 29th. The frustration of knowing that countless lives could have been saved had the appropriate institutions and political structures issued timely warnings became the catalyst for this artistic exploration of anger, vulnerability, and political action.
Index of try-out 1
5.1.1 Description of the process
5.1.2 Documentation
5.1.3 Reflection
5.1.1 Description of the process
Throughout this section, I describe the process of shaping try-out one using the terminology from Joel Gester’s Map of Components (2021), as outlined in Chapter 4.4. I first approach the process chronologically and then add some notes on the performance itself.
The process
“Performance: being inside my head in a choreomaniac burst of over-productiveness” (Annex E, 1st October entry). This entry from my personal journal marks the early stages of the conceptual development of my performance. Initially, I aimed to explore hyperproductivity as a self-critical reflection on my compulsion to produce artistically in order to feel useful or valid as an artist. The perpetual, uncontrolled movement - akin to a trance-like state - resonates with choreomania. While some historical accounts and medical theories have linked choreomania to altered states of consciousness, my own experience stemmed from the opposite: an inability to pause and reflect.
At the same time, I was thinking about musical elements, envisioning a dream-like soundscape created through live electronics alongside my performance of a Mozart sonata. The performance space would represent my mind, inviting the audience into my thoughts, anxieties, dreams, and ambitions. This conceptual direction led me to seek a collaborator skilled in live electronics and improvisation.
By this stage, several key components were in place: the performers, the performance space, a defined time limit (30–40 minutes, due to its inclusion in the Student Collaborative Festival), and an emerging conceptual framework.
However, breaking my wrist forced me to confront fears tied to past injuries, reshaping my artistic approach. New ideas emerged around the impact of mental health on artists, and I had to rapidly adapt my repertoire. In response, I explored ways to integrate my cast as a structuring element. The dramaturgical units - distinct sections, or "seeds," as I often refer to them in my journal - began to take form. I identified four key segments: a transformation of Scriabin’s left-hand piece in dialogue with Niccolò’s live electronics, an improvisational segment, a movement-based section, and a final part featuring recited texts written by me (Annex E, 16th October).
As movement had not been a focus in my previous practice, I began incorporating independent movement sessions into my creative process. These sessions involved experimenting with various movements, recording myself, and analysing the results both with and without music. As these explorations progressed alongside rehearsals with Niccolò, I started restructuring the order of the dramaturgical units to establish a more cohesive narrative.
However, one week before the try-out, an ecological disaster struck my hometown of Valencia, causing severe flooding. The distress of knowing my family and friends were affected kept me awake at night, leading me to incorporate this experience into the performance. Consequently, I decided to centre the recited texts on this event. The emotions of anger and vulnerability that surfaced in response to the disaster, and the collective response of Valencian people, echoed previous discussions with Kélina Gotman on the theme of vulnerability. As Aun Helden - through her holistic approach to the process during the residency - reminds us, some questions are impossible to answer individually (Annex D).
Choreomania and the Collective Response to Crisis
The October 2024 floods in Valencia caused immense destruction and exposed severe failures in institutional response. With no official aid arriving until four days after the disaster, citizens were left without basic necessities - water, food, electricity, or communication. Many had lost everything: their homes, businesses, vehicles, and, most tragically, their friends and family. In the face of this abandonment, Valencians took action themselves, spending weeks searching for missing neighbours, recovering bodies, and cleaning the streets. The following video captures the immediate response of thousands of volunteers:
