Slow motion in black and white. Two bodies in a white box of the stage standing still, awaiting, breathing. A quick, decisive step towards. The first contact. The tension in harS by choreographed Aydin Teker, performed by Ayse Orhon is generated not only on a physical, but also psychological and poetical level. A body of a harp, a body of a woman, both expressive, refined in the context of its own – the comparison seems to be such a cliché. That is – before you seen Orhon dancing with her stage partner. There are two players in this game of exploration, both equally tense, scared, holding back and literary leaning towards one another in the same time. No gentle touching, any celestial sounds, but painful dissonances, weird crackles, unnatural, yet beautiful angles.
Upside down. One could also ask – which way is up, which – down. Physically demanding movement – tossing and pulling the harp around, turning it, overthrowing it demonstrates, of course, the technique and possibilities of a certain body. One has to admit – time to time the performance questions the limits of a human body itself. However there is more to the show than physicality. The key question of the performance is – who is actually the centre, the string in this relationship? Who is resounding? Constantly moving the connections of the two change rapidly both physically and emotionally.
The performance generates a thick layer of images – beautiful expressions of the metaphorical statement of the performance. The freedom of the body, almost a lack of gravity, invades the stage through physically very demanding actions. The dancer floats over the ground while balancing on the body of the harp, the harp itself – flies in circles though the charged atmosphere of the stage, sounding on its own – the miracle of impossibility coming to live is achieved.
Finally becoming one body, only to resolve in two again in a while. Never the less the alteration of the body has happened. A strange creature, dragonfly perhaps, is so different from the snail the spectators watched stumbling on the stage in the beginning of the show. The weight of an instrument pushing a body of a dancer to the ground has been overcome to achieve a new connection between both. The meeting of two beings, exploring, falling in love to create an artwork.