kevin jesuino
Crusing at 30 Kilometers a Second and Attempting Not To Crash
Presented at Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton); 2021
Featuring: Moses Kouyaté, Monica Gate, Sebastian Rueda, Shrina Patel, Sar J Culkin, Roseanna Joy Nay. Nuala Kennedy, NIUBOI, Mitchell Chalifoux, Falon Scheers and TheGiovani.
Cruising At 30km a Second and Attempting Not To Crash is a community participatory performance that examines how human bodies (specifically those that identify as LGBTQ+) relate to nature. The work explores the failure of traditional/mainstream narrative theatre troupes while embracing queer idiosyncrasies as natural, beautiful sites of potential. Community participants devised a collective dance score through a workshop and they were asked to go into a natural green space to perform the dance for nature itself. What resulted was all performers enacting the dance piece in different timings and expressions. The nature-dances were video-recorded and presented alongside a scripted piece of theatre that revolved around three performers figuring out how to rehearse for the impending end of Earth. The scripted theatre piece and nature-dances were not rehearsed in combination with each other until the presentation for the public. What manifested was an attempt to have structure all-the-while relinquishing control of any planned moments and recognizing the constant futurity of an oncoming moment — a theatre of nature that was truly live.
