The Italian philosopher Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi said that he finds it difficult to distinguish between social excitement (“call it rebellion, revolution”) and erotic excitement: that on a fundamental level, it is the “pleasure of a crowd”, a physical and meaningful relationship between bodies in a given space, which “becomes a movement”.
T.F. Dance Company’s Border Bodies is perhaps the most powerful distillation of this notion you could ask for in a work of contemporary dance – an exhilarating hour that reminds you of what we mean when we say “movement”, politically and otherwise. And aren’t those the same thing?
It begins with stillness and silence. Seven dancers positioned not too close to each other, not too far apart. Gradually, sounds click into the air – animating small twitches that build into larger gestures, punctuated by the dancers’ sharp exhales of air. Each of them is like a vibrating atom: the collective space reverberates with the rise and fall of their energy, transcending states of matter.
There is a striking, elemental simplicity to how emotional it is to experience the choreography that unfolds: a fluidity between individuality and collectivism that feels irresistibly utopian. Moments when difference comes to the fore only underline moments of synchronicity: a particularly euphoric sequence one can’t help but read allegorically sees the dancers rhythmically crash into a circle together, as if breaking down an invisible pillar with their bodies.
As they climb over each others’ bodies like temporary structures – as apt a visual representation of communal politics you can imagine – the sweat that glistens on their skin is a reminder that the work of lifting each other up demands we all need to have skin in the game. And as the dancers disperse and come back together, disperse and come back together, Border Bodies crescendoes into a declaration of the beauty and necessity of moving with – and being moved to action by – the bodies of those around you.
Border Bodies, Assembly @ Dance Base, until 30 Aug, 5.15pm