In a word increasingly defined by rising geopolitical tension, ecological mismanagement, deteriorating labour conditions and social isolation, Liesel Zink’s Us and All Of This offers a rare moment of calm reflection. Bringing together 100 local dancers for a large-scale contemporary performance work, the project momentarily unfolds across a large plot of urban public space, not in the pursuit of profiteering , but in the pursuit of togetherness and communion.
In collaboration with sound artist Lawrence English and dramaturg Martyn Coutts, Liesel is working with three lead dancers to devise a series of choreographic and improvisational scores. The 100 participants, of various ages, ethnicities, genders and body types, will be split into small groups in which they collaborate in series of four workshops with the lead dancers. The ultimate outcome will be a meditative and sculptural dance piece spanning roughly 45 minutes.
Us and All Of This explores collectively and assembly as the antithesis of exploitation. It rejects the positioning of humans as something separate to the environment, and challenges the fast-paced, isolated structure of society. In this way, the performers move not on the landscape, but with the landscape, acknowledging our place as one part of a complex ecology. And for the participants, the experience extends beyond the performance itself into a ritual of coming together.
Us and All of This forges a space for a diverse collection of people to gather, to learn, and to embody their shared resistance to an atomised way of life. It is not only a performance but a process; an exercise in the gentle act of shared creation.
