maeshelle west-davies

photo by I've Changed my Heavy Shoes for Lovely Light Ones....video still maeshelle west-davies

About:

I've Changed my Heavy Shoes for Lovely Light Ones....................... In June of 1940 Jean Paul Sartre became a prisoner of war. For three weeks Simone De Beauvoir had no news of him. Finally on 11 July she received a note written in pencil confirming he was alive, but heard nothing more til mid October. I am making a video dance piece in Leipzig that will shown on the sails of a boat in a harbour in Barcelona and then live streamed back to me in Leipzig. The work is about distance, silence, fear, balance; and how we deal with adversity. The title is a line from the last existing letter De Beauvoir wrote to Sartre 14 March 1941 before he returned to Paris a free man at the end of the month.

http://maeshelle.wordpress.com/

2014

sail boat

Moll de Xaloc Barcelona cataluña 08005

2013

spinnerei

halle 14B Leipzig

maeshelle west-davies said:

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO THERE I CAN DO HERE is a performance piece based on modern day society. Teens have danced in their rooms forever. When television was introduced, they had new models to follow: American Bandstand, Soul Train and MTV opened up alternate ways of moving. Today we have youtube and smartphones. Do we need to stay in the bedroom? Do we have to be teens? What we did in the privacy of our bedrooms used to be private. Teens would share secrets there. They would talk for hours in person or on the phone. With the arrival of the internet, many now share their secrets with the world, not knowing if who, if anyone, is watching. Invited guests will come to my studio to dance together or to participate online. Many have not met before. ANYTHING YOU CAN DO THERE I CAN DO HERE explores this shift in the blurring of real and virtual space and the discrepancy between quality and quantity we find online. It also will reveal how movement in intimate settings can break down barriers and i