Comewhatmay;

On Comewhatmay; Monica Emilie Herstad says: 

"FASHION AS MEDITATION:

Through a composition that cultivates the slow and disquieting, the dancers find a way of moving that both transcends and reflects a monotonous tempo, with all that this involves of boisterous information flow and compulsory decisions in involuntary situations

 In the form, and particularly in the staging, there is a conceptual pattern of movement, while the content approaches the realm of the ritually meditative, almost the therapeutic; executing, repeating, enduring

The dancers seem distant from the events around them, but all the more intimately involved with the movements they perform

Experienced by the audience as a living work of art, the performance can bring to mind fashion shows, scenes from films, performance art

The participants seem at once vulnerable and strong as they seek out their intrinsic value as individuals in a “society of noise” in which symbols and information are getting out of control, and thereby losing their value, in a landscape where all things become equally valid

A demanding and simultaneously refined atmosphere emerges out of the tension between abrupt patterns of activity and classical beauty

The herStay performers naturally have their own thoughts about and understandings of the situations they describe, but they keep these to themselves

Viewed in this way, Comewhatmay; is a subtle report from a private herStay´ish sphere, in which light is shed not only on the self's need for protection but also on its ability, and desire, to harden itself."

Comewhatmay; was supported by Arts Council Norway.

The quoted text above was originally in English and has not been altered in translation.

Sources:

herStay, herStay.net, 22.11.2011, http://herStay.net

Scenarkivet, scenarkivet.se, 22.11.2011, http://www.scenarkivet.se/uppsattning/1466/comewhatmay/

Grete Indahl, 2001, Klassekampen [Oslo]:
"Comewhatmay; is created from a dialectics between inner movement and outer aesthetics, and is guiding the audience to enter a meditative condition, wherein the spectators meets their own pulse" 

Anna Ångström, 20.04.2002, Svenska Dagbladet:
"It is like witnessing a subtle social game in which all have lost the keys but the bodies still carry memories of acquired meaning; in dance movements, in putting one the Sunday shoes, in a gesture or a frozen bag. Women as mannequins, the man appears confused, as if they have all lost the purpose of information."