The dance film was filmed at the Korean monastery and surrounding areas in Lumbini in 2024. The birth place of Buddha. The dance film is a response to the architect in the space and the lines of the body.
Editing the work together was a way for my unconscious stream of my personal thoughts and narrative unfolding viscerally within the body. Specifically my thoughts and feelings from going through the criminal justice system. There is sections where I see a woman struggling to get up everyday, although fighting on the inside, then watching her run away. Other-times editing the work together I didn’t see a person, or the movement, I just saw the transforming of shapes that were appearing. As the lines and colours were transforming in different directions. The work relates to my own dance practice in how the social world impacts on the nervous system. I see the organic nature, connection through the lines and the architecture of the space in authentic sense of being.
The very first moment where I transformed from lines, organic green space into red brick, tickled my fancy. I felt so excited by this edit, that I wanted to share it with everyone. The commentary on this work and this magical alignment just felt pleasurable to watch. It felt as though it transformed the space and my connection within the space to be able to make it super beautiful and to recreate a space that could evolve. I felt a healing process through watching the work. With all the beautiful colours inside of the body, with the dancing moving around the body.
Film Credits : Tian
As Tian and I were moving through Lumbini, over time shapes within the body were starting to re-appear. For example, I tried to do a spin in various sections to see if this might join together later in the video editing process. The lines of the arms, either reaching forward or back. There is a scene inside the Korean monastery, where I intentionally tried to dance away from the previous space that I danced into, so I could over lay the movement together to show a body double. Many of the scenes are embedded on to the dress, where the dance moves inside and outside of this frame. This is done by moving the frame of the film, which had to be shifted and transformed into and outside the frame of the camera.
After editing the movements together with the moving landscapes intertwined behind the body. I had a very satisfactory feeling of visualising these effects moving through my body. The colours, the movements the different shapes. When I watch the shapes moving through the body, I have a visceral experience in which my body is feeling connected to these colours, shapes and movement. It enables me to see the inside of my body as moving differently, as though it is something that is less connected to the emotional or external experiences, although connected to the visceral deep awakening of being inside of the body.
Le Requin 