Tiran, to start, it would be great if you could share the starting point, research, and process behind blackmilk. Could you also explain where the title comes from?
I am curious in Absence and presence as a concept of performance. The two keeps propelling me through the process of making. Looking at identity within that and the concept of where is the source of your identity and how do we curate that and how do we change that. The Idea that masculinity and femininity is very fluid in what it means.
The title is looking at the idea of race and the fallacy of race. The question is what is black and what is white, as they really construct ideas that’s historical and political. What is underlying that and who are you beyond that.
I experienced an extreme sense of loneliness, melancholy, but also rage in blackmilk. Throughout much of the piece, your face and gaze are covered or internalized. Would you like to share your thoughts on these aspects?
There is a rebellious side to it but it’s also quite strong as a self-expression and pushing boundaries of fighting against or dealing with our unpredictable and instinctual minds. It helps me to manipulate, be highly individual and to have a personality.
I think of complete darkness as a strangely comforting sense of loneliness. Loneliness as delicate as possible without breaking. Breaking in relation to examining the question on violence. Within dance there is a physicality and it could be aggressive but it’s removed from Violence. Another layer of intimacy inside aggression as it decelerate.
How do you situate this piece in relation to your second work, that just came out in January? And how does it relate to your role as a performer in the works of other choreographers?
The accumulation within both works is a gathering of energy. I’m very curious what the body does when the mind let go, in a state of transcendence. The idea of how the body can speak for itself and tell you things without you directing it. I am interested in something that changes its personality over the course of time. React to the environment, I make work that functions within a system in relationship to one another and the space that they’re in.
Space location is very important to me and usually the starting point. There is a type of soul in all spaces and I’m curious of that and how to connect to that to lead me and hopefully encounter things.