On entering the Contemporary for Infinity Doughnut the instruction that all coats and bags must be left in the cloakroom instantly quashed my plan to have a glass of wine while watching the performance. And I wasn’t the only one disappointed.
On entering the performance space, further instructions were given. Shoes must be removed but we were free to move around at the side of the studio. We were told that when everyone had arrived, we would all walk into the space together. My partner started sweating.
Katie Ward lives and works in Montreal. She studied contemporary dance at Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dance, physical theatre at Primus Theatre, and choreography, visual art and art history at Concordia University. In 2011, she founded the Katie Ward Company following three years with The Choreographers, a group she also co-founded.
She has enjoyed a long relationship with Dance4, visiting Nottingham to take up residencies both with The Choreographers and with her own company last year to further develop Infinity Doughnut.
Across the floor of the brightly lit studio lay 30 or so square quilts, black on one side and white on the other, folded neatly into triangles. Four dancers already moved in the space and as the studio door closed they drew nearer.
Inviting the 40-strong audience to hold hands, Katie took one line, a member of her crew the other. We were then led across the quilts in two snaking lines like schoolchildren as an improvised narrative began. We were told that Infinity Doughnut was a ‘blind, imaginative system of navigation’.
The dancers explored the world around them by using different parts of their body. Sounds deemed unacceptable in most public spaces were produced with enthusiasm by slapping bare backs on the studio floor. Sometimes behaviour appeared spontaneous, other times the dancers copied each other, exaggerating movements to produce entirely new ones.
One by one, we were invited to sit down. The choice: a quilt, or one of two cushioned benches. The majority chose a quilt, unknowing that this meant they would be part of the performance. Over the course of an hour, a handful of audience members were dragged around, imitated, stared at and wrapped in their quilts in a playful sort of way that was amusing and curiously fascinating to the rest of us.
Halfway through and now mic’d up, Katie asked in calming tones ‘Now that we’ve been here a while, what would it be like to lie down?’ The audience obliged and what followed felt more like a relaxation therapy session – ‘it might be the beginning of a cult!’ my partner suggested, obviously still slightly uncomfortable.
The soundtrack fluctuated between drone music, electronica and silence. The lifts were some of the most purposefully unsteady you’ll ever see and when their energy heightened some of the chest bumps look positively painful. Just when you thought it was over, off they went again. Sometimes they tugged at each other’s limbs so hard you wondered whether anything has ever dislocated during a show.
It’s true, not everyone will appreciate this kind of performance but if audience participation, spontaneity and improvisation are your thing, Katie Ward should be top of your ‘follow’ list. Go with and open mind and just one word of warning: if you choose the floor, watch out for the flailing limbs.
Katie Ward’s Infinity Doughnut was at Nottingham Contemporary on Thursday 12 March 2015.
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