Events exploring new ways of being to feel alive in every act.
New ways of HYDRATING
​
Through participatory performances we seek to HYDRATE in ways that make us feel ALIVE. Playing in the tension of thirst and hydration, we connect to self, other and environment as we obtain, purify and drink water.
​
Event took place at Islington Mill's Unit 2 on 23/02/2022.
​
​
*Note: The reference to 'feeling high' in videos was solely from the effects of the pieces. No substances were abused in the making of these performances.
​
​
Right: To water me To water you. We balance in the tensions of liquidity and gravity, thirst and hydration, location of self and other, (and not wanting to get your chin wet).
​
To water me To water you
Kettle Boogie
4 kettles fill with rainwater on the floor outside. We will drink the rainwater these kettles have collected. But first we must remove its pollutants, purifying it through our boiling and filtering ritual. As the 4 kettle holders rise up chanting “KEH”, the choir sweep down chanting “TUL”, circling round the kettle bases continuing our chant and dance faster and faster until the kettles are put on. As the kettles boil, we prepare our thirst, holding tongues out and breathe in and out of our mouths, we spin and circle the kettles, our mouth becoming drier and our breathing becoming faster as the kettles get louder and boils. When mouths are entirely dry, lie your head on a mat – keep your tongue out and keep drying your mouth, then the kettle holders come to inspect your right to thirst. They drip water into your mouth and you let it sit on your tongue, trying not to swallow for as long as you can.
Left and below: Slurpers move between floor markings to collect water and communicate.
2 water me 2 water you 2
Bottles stuck on sticks, half filled with water. Playing in the tensions of liquidity and gravity, we connect in the reciprocal watering of other.
Round and Round the Water Well
In the dark of the freezer space, a blacklight makes a bowl of tonic water glow neon-blue. In hushed tones, all chant, “Round and round and round and round and round and round the water well. Round and…” as they circle anti-clockwise round the well of tonic water, while the dispenser circles clockwise around them, pouring glowing tonic water into their cupped palms for them to drink. When the dispenser runs out of water, he shouts, “Stop” enters middle, “Now, circle round and round the other way”– he refills, exits middle and dispenses again. The chant and dance get faster and louder until all have drunk the water.
sixmugsstucktogether
Six mugs are stuck together and 6 people are thirsty. In this equitable holding of water and thirst, how do we drink.
Mutual Mug 4 people push eyes through plastic sheet with bamboo straw in mouth. Water is poured onto the sheet, and the 4 begin to move with the rhythms of the water to drink.
.jpg)
Mutual Mug - Future adaptations: eye holes and strengthened straw.
And to You And to Me
by Samuel Collinge
https://www.samcollingemedia.com/
A participatory performance for New ways of HYDRATING. 6 wine glasses are filled with 6 different food-dye-coloured waters. The 6 drinkers must pour their drinks into each others' glasses, and only when all the colours are mixed together to make the same colour, can anyone drink.
The Rite to Thirst The water is still. Breathing through their nose, the groups weave around the pools, swooshing their hands through the water. The water is swirling. After a lap, they jump into the pool, panting through their mouth and circling faster and faster around the pool. The water is rippling, waving, collapsing and splashing onto the dustsheet floor. Once all the water is emptied, breath returns to nasal calm, and all weave around the pools, patting the watered floor with feet once more, before the pools are thrown aside and the water is tipped, off the dustsheets, into the kettle to boil and drink.
*I did not initiate this piece properly (as described above) and would have to demonstrate actions next time. A variant of this piece, would be to instruct participants to "Breathe according to the movement of the water and do something to spread the water over the sheet".
Hydration Reciprocation Station
TRANSP EYE RING WUD
NARA RA RAYTA clamber through forest and up trees, lay around, chat and drink the water which transpires from leaves. - Need to think how we can link the transpiration cycle of leaves to our own water cycle.
Drinking Coat
​
It's another lovely rainy day, so put on your Drinking Coat and get outside!​ As the Drinking Coat catches rain it cocoons the wearer in water, filling up to eyeballs to provide on-the-go hydration.
HYDRO COMMUNICATION - How does water communicate to and through us and how can we communicate with, to and through it?
Rainbow on tap
​
This piece was not performed at the event, as we ran out of time.
​
Using mirrors in a water vessel we can refract light to dance in rainbows around the room as the water pours into thirsty mouths.
​
Lying in a circle the thirsty minds watch rippling rainbows dancing on ceiling and walls, the room seeming liquid, quenching their mind, they await the water falling in mouth.