FAINTINGS | NINA TRAUB

FAINTINGS
dance performance for four performers, 45 minutes, 2021

A big green tree, its branches and leaves droop like braids almost to the floor, stand center backstage. In the shadow of this weeping tree four girls are hiding and playing music. The tree hides most of their bodies and only parts of them and parts of musical instruments are to be seen. Silence prevails within the playing music. A musical spectacle with no face. A detained space. The air stands still and the temperature outside is low. From within heat vapors are flowing, under the tree it feels like in a room inside a house, protected. Around the tree is green wilderness, a feeling of shelter dap in the forest on a mountain surrounded by animals and stationary mist in the wind. There is nothing but the tree and the sounds emerging from it. An attempt to be inside the landscape, to be outside and feel at home. To create a world within which exists in nature outside, which is on a journey, despite the difficulty to come out and the fear to change.

The fainting in unison of the four women stops the music, and breaks the dividing line between under the tree and outside the tree. Colder wind is present and their bodies lay pondering whether to freeze or give in to oblivion. Nothing is heard. Women wearing long green wigs cover them like a weeping willow, now lay at the foot of the tree- their home.

different sources, with different qualities, I search for the right tune for every moment. I investigate even and repetitive movement.

From within the shelter disappearance, collapsing to rest. The body in control loses power, holding- giving in to total release. Edges of liveliness.

The work deals with shaking, indecision, fear, with the edges of sensations- loss of consciousness for the sake of devotion, walking towards the unknown as opposed to behaving in order, being a statue, feeling clear and familiar to myself.

I catch myself sensing my body holding itself. I walk the street imagining a collision, a fall, running into a fire, jumping from a bridge, fear of losing control and abandoning the body. Feeling the need to neutralize and silence the body so it won’t run and kill me. Immobilizing grip. Fantasizing existence with no effort, running long distance feeling only the wind. Dreaming of a place filled with beauty and details but is barren. Longing for green open space, depth of mountains and the fragrance of trees and water, for something I never managed to want, never managed to have. To faint and let myself live on the water. To be able to speak in long sentences, to go far without asking where. To let loose my jaw. To breathe cold air. To be satisfied with what I have.

Like a mountain like the sea, like a tree.