Inspired by the seminal artwork of the same name by Swiss artists Fischl & Weiss, The Way Things Go is a choreographed chain of events, of cause and effect.
By regarding the body as a combination of express will and mechanical function, the performers continually reshape the circumstances in which they find themselves. Through an interplay between placement within the choreographic line of fire and the willful and precise modes of contact, the performers articulate the fictitious inherent in this inexorable series of events.They collapse, merge, push forward, hold back, stop, slide, pull, balance and fall, blurring the boundaries between activity and passivity. As the performers move through an empty space without a stage or seating, the spectators can follow their movements and be drawn into their choreographic constellations.
As the patterns and structure of the work change and expand, so too does is the audience afforded the possibility to constellate anew. Now pulling away to avoid a collision, now coming closer so as not to miss a detail, or simply repositioning to see where something new is emerging.
Premiere 2009
Performed by Cullberg Ballet at Kulturhuset (2011) as part of the Out in Context series.
Concept: Jefta van Dinther
Created by: Naiara Mendioroz Azkarate, Kyung-Sun Baek, Jefta van Dinther, Luís Miguel Félix Norberto Llopis Segarra & Eleanor Bauer