A Linha Curva: Form

Artificial Things: Lighting

Bright light is used to create a stark, clinical atmosphere.
Low lighting in certain sections creates a more intimate, personal mood.
Use of spotlights to highlight solo or duet dance sequences, emphasizing the emotional impact of these moments.

Artificial Things: Properties

The wheelchair is a key prop that indicates disability and barriers.
Paper and litter scattered across the stage represent the messiness and struggle of life.

Artificial Things: Costume

The wheelchair user wears a brown coat, which differentiates them from the rest of the performers.
The other dancers are dressed in grey clothing, reinforcing the overall atmosphere of drabness and monotony.

Artificial Things: Dancers

The cast comprises four dancers, including one who uses a wheelchair.
The dancers give a powerful performance that uses both movement and pauses to convey the themes of the dance work.

Artificial Things: Aural Settings

Artificial Things: Dance for camera

The performance is filmed and edited in various angles and perspectives, to capture the full range of the dancers’ movements and emotions.
The close-ups on the dancers’ faces intensify the expressiveness of the performance.

Artificial Things: Performance environment (proscenium arch, end stage, in-the-round, site sensitive)

The performance takes place in a proscenium arch theatre, allowing for a clear view of the entire stage from all angles.
The decision to keep the stage minimal and free of scenery ensures that the focus remains on the dancers and their movements.

Artificial Things: Choreographer’s Approach

The choreography makes extensive use of contrasts, for example between motion and stillness, to convey the dramatic power of the piece.
The exploration of group dynamics plays an integral part in the choreography, enhancing the emotional depth of the performance.

Artificial Things: Movement Content (actions, dynamics, space, relationships)

The dancers’ movements include an array of gestures, body waves, lifts, and slides.
These movements are often performed with a fluid dynamics, creating a sense of continuity, imperfection, and struggle.

Artificial Things: Structuring Devices

The piece employs themes and variations, with certain motifs being repeated with alterations in each iteration.
The use of flashbacks provides a non-linear structure to the narrative and adds variety to the movement sequences.

Artificial Things: Form

The dance has a narrative form that tells a story about disability and societal barriers through action and movement.
It can be seen to follow a cyclical structure, which can be interpreted as the recurring nature of societal challenges.

Artificial Things: Choreographic Devices

The choreography uses canons and unison to showcase harmony and disconnection among the dancers.
The use of mirroring enhances the visual effect and aids in conveying the thematic similarities among the dancers.

Artificial Things: Mood

The overall mood is introspective, thoughtful, and melancholic.
There are also moments of togetherness and celebration which offer a sense of upliftment and joy.

Artificial Things: Meaning

The performance is a commentary on the nature of disability and the societal barriers that disabled individuals face.
It also straddles the border of the real and the unreal, asking the audience to question their perception of reality.

Artificial Things: Ideas

The idea of diversity and inclusion is prominently displayed through the casting of the dancers.
The work also delves into the concept of imperfection and how society perceives what is ‘normal’.

Artificial Things: Themes

The central themes include disability, diversity, and perceptions of normality.
The choreography also speaks to themes of individual vs group dynamics, and strength in vulnerability.

Artificial Things: Style

The style is a fusion of contemporary dance and physical theatre.
There is a fluidity and rawness to the movement that characterizes the style of this dance work.

Artificial Things: Similarities with Other Dances

Like other contemporary dances, Artificial Things relies heavily on emotion and expressiveness.
The use of meaningful props and contrast between different elements is also similar to other contemporary dance works.

Artificial Things: Differences to Other Dances

The inclusion of a wheelchair-bound dancer sets it apart from many mainstream contemporary dances.
Its intense focus on the theme of disability is also relatively uncommon in the dance world.

Artificial Things: Audience Understanding

The movement vocabulary and symbolic elements invite audience interpretations and personal reflections.
The clear narrative structure and universal themes allow for relatability and understanding by a wide range of audience members.

Artificial Things: Purpose

The purpose of the dance is to shed light on the lives and struggles of disabled individuals.
The work also invites the audience to reassess their perceptions of disability and societal norms.

Artificial Things: Environment in Which the Dance was Created and Performed

Created in an inclusive performance environment, this dance piece embodies the ethos of diversity and inclusivity.
The performance aims to broaden the audience’s understanding of disability and challenge societal norms.