of course
whitefellas try to acknowledge things
but they do it wrong
they say
before we begin I’d like to pay my respects
not understanding
that there isn’t a time before it begins
it has all already begun
– Running Dog
What is it about the beginning that remains intoxicating? Our persistent lust for the first rush of a romance, scene, canon, theory, relationship, meal or country. Created by extraordinary dance artist Amrita Hepi, Rinse explores the romance of beginnings and what happens next, when those initial thrills begin to fade and inertia takes over.
Hepi’s electric new performance questions whether being on the brink of extinction—a series of endings of various kinds—has intensified the seduction of the past. By recreating an entropic origin myth on stage, Rinse travels from end to ending, weaving together autobiographical elements with the grand narratives of art, feminism, dance, the void, desire, popular culture and colonial history. An intimate yet epic solo performance based on a dynamic improvisational score, Rinse expands Hepi’s fascination with hybridity under empire and contemporary dance’s fixation with the “neutral” body.
Following a prototype of Rinse winning the People’s Choice Award at the 2020 Keir Choreographic Award, Performing Lines is producing a redevelopment of the work ahead of premiere in late 2021.
