NORMCORE

NORMCORE is a playground dance for five performers. Departing from their bodies in what they have of specific materialities, architectures, histories, dance training, background amongst others.

Questioning the exhausted idea of undressing as a metaphor for revealing one’s natural essence, we invest instead in constructed nakednesses paying attention to bodies that do not imagine themselves as they are medically described or seen by society.

We investigate and build bodies with assemblages that transform our bodies into what we need, what we wish, or how we feel them, and we dance the dances they dance. Communal dances of a crooked togetherness where the politics of doing are more relevant than their formal equivalence. Dances of self custom made virtuosities where our bodies discover themselves in a collective process. A multiple togetherness where we build our identities and their very materialities. A dance together where the trust in each other allows us to discover our bodies further into places we dream of.

Performances
Siobhan Davies Dance // London, UK // 21 Jun'19 (Work in progress)
FIDANC // Évora, PT // 30 Out'19 (PREMIERE)
ZDB // Lisboa, PT // 2 Nov'19
Metal // Peterborough, UK // 12 Nov'19
BACKLIT // Nottingham, UK // 14 Nov'19
Chisenhale // London, UK // 16 Nov'19
Weld // Stockholm, SE // 21 a 23 Jan'20
Skogen // Gothenburg, SE // 24 a 26 Jan'20

A performance by

Dinis Machado (SE/PT)

Danced by

Mandi Tiukkanen (FI/SE),

Lo River Löof (SE),

Kathleen Hawkins (UK),

Gareth Cutter (UK),

André Cabral (PT)

Produced by

BARCO (SE)

Co-produced by

Weld (Stockholm, SE),

Skogen (Gothenburg, SE),

METAL (Peterborough, UK),

Chisenhale (London, UK),

CDCE / FIDANC Festival (Évora, PT)

Other residencies at

BUDA(Kortrijk, BE),

Citemor (Montemor-o-Velho, PT)

Siobhan Davies Dance (London, UK)

Project funded by

Arts Council England (UK),

Konstnärsnämnden (SE)

Stockholms Stad (SE)

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (PT)

DGartes - Ministério do Estado da Cultura (PT)

Touring funded by

Swedish Arts Council (SE)

Press

Five dancers play together in a safe room by Maina Arvas in DN (SE)

https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/fem-dansare-leker-tillsammans-i-ett-tryggt-rum/

In Dinis Machado's "Normcore", the audience gets to see sexuality and identity as play and metamorphosis. Fun, nice and thoughtful, writes DN's Maina Arvas.

Normcore is used as a term for a fashion trend that involves dressing normally (Jerry Seinfeld is often highlighted as an example of this anti-style). But also in a wider sociological sense about hipsters who long for group affiliation, suddenly want to blend into the collective instead of striving to define themselves as individuals with narrow interests and unique markers. There is probably a circular movement around subculture, conventionality and avant-garde to ponder.

It is probably the second of the two meanings to which the title of Dinis Machado's work alludes. Possibly it is most about blowing up or at least changing the core of the norm. In "Normcore" from 2019, now with the Swedish premiere in Stockholm, there is a hopeful theme of transformation and development, to define about oneself, one's body and one's relationship to others, to be able to both stand out and be part of a community.

Five dancers play together in a safe room, the basement at Weld, illuminated with joint loops that draw volatile light lines above them. They are wearing a body-close basic outfit of black workout clothes, beige underwear, latex tops, brown socks and nude skin, which they change with the help of attributes such as leg protection, toe tips, dildos, ropes and mc helmets.

We view sexuality and identity as play and metamorphosis. There is an improvised air with plastic expressions, laughter, screams, noises, and a clear protocol or agreement to adhere to. The group suddenly becomes horses. Perform an unexpected ballet with the toe tips on your hands like animal paws.

Or flow into an act of group sex without sex, an exploration of gestures reminiscent of choreographer Mette Ingvartsen. Humorous but in all seriousness. An artistic instant interpretation of the mood is beautifully depicted in the middle of the stage: a large drawing by Edith Hammar with three figures covered by the artist's characteristic drops (sweat, saliva, tears or something that melts).