PERFORMATIVE ESCAPE WALKS 

In the performative escape walks, knowledge gathered through mapping is used to design choreographic principles, but also to offer movement and choreography pathways for escaping the negative aspects of a specific neighborhood space.

This research will offer choreographic tools as pathways for rethinking and reshaping negative features of the neighborhood. These choreographic tools will be organized as participative escape experiences in the public space of the neighborhood and will include both movement professionals/performers and participants.     

How can movement practice and choreographic tools construct spaces of escape within Trešnjevka neighborhood? 

How can such escape experiences cultivate deeper awareness and more intense presence in the neighborhood, instead of being merely an act of avoidance?

PERFORMATIVE ESCAPE WALK #1

First tryout to escape from Trešnjevka neighborhood was created in a park on a crossroads of Krapinska-Selska-Zagorska street. The chosen park is one of the biggest green spots in Trešnjevka. It's a space for recreation, dog walks or for catching a moment on a bench in a park environment. At the same time, the park is surrounded with busy streets so the green environment of the park is in constant clash with traffic and the urban environment. 

The escape session was imagined as a polygon of sensory inputs based on the exploration of rhythms in specific places of a park. The thought about inner rhythm and outside rhythm as symbiosis is something that shaped given tasks. 

*Literature: 

Lefebvre H. (2004). Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Continuum.

STEP ONE: GATHERING

Each of the participants (two close collaborators - Ema and Gendis, one acquaintance- Franjka, one stranger - Dorjan) got a map of a park with four places marked on a map.

*Participants were asked to bring the earphones.

STEP TWO: CHECKPOINT MEDITATION

The goal of step two was for each participant to discover her/his own rhytm of the day through the introspective and somatic moments.

Their rhythm became visible when they produced it by tapping on the floor. 

I asked the participants to repeat the rhythm checkpoint every time they finish tasks at each location. That recognized rhythm should affect the speed and the quality of a walk to the next location in the park. 

STEP THREE: STARTING OF A POLYGON

Each participant started their walk influenced by their current body rhythm. On every mapped place there were either audio or written tasks waiting for them.

FEEDBACK SESSION

Feedback session was held in a space that invites you back to Trešnjevka neighborhood - exhibition The Original Moment. 

NOTES FROM THE FEEDBACK SESSION:

-introspective experience

-the experience encouraged me to look for more places like this in a city

-melting of hectic pace

-as soon as I start to think and stop using my physical perception, I start to perceive selectively

-individual moment but at the same time collective experience - practicing presence

-mapping the soundscape got me into critical thinking about the city 

! Emilia bench - instructions can be more simple

! Moving chair - less instructions

NOTES FROM ME:

Introspective experience not connected with the specificity of the neighborhood. Bring attention to the neighborhood!

PERFORMATIVE ESCAPE WALK #2 

Trešnjevka Square, 18th October

Finding ways for resistance or escape from mapped negative features.

RESISTANCE = collective actions or behaviors through which individuals or groups challenge, oppose, or refuse to conform to dominant social, political, or cultural norms, values, or policies; RESISTING DOMINANT VALUES

ESCAPISM = the tendency or desire to avoid or withdraw from reality by engaging in activities, thoughts, or behaviors that distract from life's challenges, stress, or unpleasant aspects; ESCAPING CRISIS

We collectively decided to focus on pedestrian movement - to explore how much we have to adapt our decisions according to the rest of the pedestrians. 

We are trying to find possibilities for resisting or escaping from the dominant characteristics of the pedestrian crossing, while the act of crossing the road should still be done. 

Feedback:

Ema:

"I managed to find a solution for escape by the different spatial organization of my walk - two meters on both sides of a zebra crossing, there are no people but is still safe to cross the road there." ESCAPE

Mina and Ana:

"We decided to stay together (shoulder to shoulder) while crossing the road and that way people had to adjust to us." RESISTANCE

Gendis:

"I found an escape by coming closer to someone and becoming part of their space/moment/story while we wait for the traffic light to turn green. I entered into another role and left my world behind for a moment." ESCAPE

Laura:

"I tried to walk on zebra crossing horizontally or walk backward. Then I noticed I was impairing functionality and now I'm the one who is creating a crisis for the rest of the pedestrians." 

Collective tryouts:

We were exploring what can collective resistance offer:

• crossing the road slowly to offer another rhythm
• crossing the road in a line

What did I get from this experiment?

The most important thing was that my research project is an experiential process made for the participants. It is not a performance outside of the bodies of participants, it is not a dance piece for an audience. It is a work created through the experience and perception of the participant. 

Performers possible

Participants definitely

Audience outside of the work - passers-by.

ALERTNESS

ADAPTATION

COMPROMISE

PERFORMATIVE ESCAPE WALK #3

Trakošćanska Street, 6th - 10th Nov

Dancers: Eva Kocić, Iva Katarinčić

Audience: Ema Crnić

3 rehearsals (6th, 8th, 9th Nov)

1 performative walk (10th Nov)

Steps:

Individual (choreographer's) mapping

Mapping with the dancers

Rehearsals

Escape experience

First music

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop

Second music

Haustor: Skidaj se

The lyrics of this song call for freedom of movement on the streets:

"Take off your clothes

The streets are wide

Take off your clothes

The streets are safe"

What did I get from this experiment?

Choreographic principles of escape:

Working with objects (chalk, flashlights).

Working with text to create alertness - escape instructions.

Inviting participants into the activity through constructing an imagined network around them - a network of communication and partnership. Network dynamics in order to learn and make adaptive responses.

Fight for steps:

Since the cars and concrete appeared to be leaders of the street, one of the physical tasks within the performance was to leave traces of as many steps as possible during the night, when cars are not here. This decision had an element of protest that came out through performing this task.

Observations and question marks:

Choreographic decisions weren't influenced by inhabitants' perceptions of the street. The performative escape walk was based on individual mapping by the choreographer (neighborhood inhabitant) and collective mapping with two dancers. 

If I did this experiment again, the first step would be collective mapping with the inhabitants. Then collected information would be processed and shaped into choreography principles.   

1st REHEARSAL - Mapping with the dancers

1) Public stretching session

2) Group walk - commenting and observing the crises of a body created by the features of a street. Static observation from one spot with noticing dominant factors of an observed space. 

3) Solo walk - deriv. Noting the crises that stop the flow of walking - limitations and obstacles. Finding safe spaces - safe from overstimulation and negative components of a space. 

3) Practice of a flock - collective occupation of space: merging and penetrating the space.  

↓

 Thoughts after the collective mapping which directed the next days: 

SHELTERS - COMMUNICATION PLAN - LEAVING TRACES - SPREADING

2nd and 3rd REHEARSAL - Developing choreographic tools

Choreographic tools for:

Spreading the body around the space

Communication plan with the participant

Finding shelter 

Leaving traces around the space

I started to read about organic materials and formations that spread in the environment. That's how I got to the resilience and intelligence of fungi communities. Their methods of occupying the spaces were used as a basis for creating movement (and text) vocabulary.

"Network dynamics rather than centralized brains."

"They withstand a variety of physical stresses."

"When they encounter toxins, they change their growth patterns to avoid toxic areas."

"They have gradually expanded their invisible realm."

"They colonized every ecological environment."

"They create sustainable habitats."

"They take something from a toxic state to make it less toxic."

"Fungis always appear to have built-in an emergency exit."

....

Source: Documentary "Fungi's Resilience and Intelligence"

____________________________________________________

For creating a communication plan and state of alertness I asked Chat GPT "How to escape the city?" A collage of this information became text material.

Essentials

It's all about timing

Adaptivity

Escape is easier in the early stages

An emergency kit is important

...

We found a shelter for a collective escape to the history on one of the benches in the street. This is the place where part of the street history was shared as a meditation moment with gentle movement tasks. 

The traces were created with chalk which was used to mark which spaces the body occupied during the escape experience.

The participant was invited to help the "escape experts" (two dancers) to leave traces of bodies in the street. The escape happened during the night.