FUSE#2

SCOPE #3
LA MARIPOSA
BORRACHA - the process
by Shanice Stanislaus
Do you stop dancing when you become ill?
‘La Mariposa Borracha’ began as an investigation on the theme of the exhausted
body. This a particularly relevant question to me both as someone who loves to
dance while experiencing the impact of sickness taking a toll on my physical body.
In the past three years, this issue struck me hard after losing dear friends and after
watching them struggle with illness both physically and mentally. I then became
curious to explore the effect of illness on the body, the relationship, almost like a
dance-like battle with sickness and the fight to get better through movement and
laughter.
Of course, I didn’t want this to be a work where we focus on the
negative aspects of sickness instead I wanted to present the
journey, the ups and downs, the surprises, the dissonance and the
emotional roller coaster that often accompanies an illness. Sick
people don’t need to be reminded that they are sick and hence, I
wanted this to be an experience, almost like a painkiller. This
concept came about when I was in a clown class and was in
immense pain but found laughter to relieve or distract some of that
pain away. Supported by research showing the effectiveness of
humor in pain relief, the art of clown became an important guiding
principle for the work. The work would also not function without
humor and a little party because often with suffering, I found it
important to embrace the celebratory aspects in life.
Photo credit: Shanice Stanislaus
Le Jeu as a research tool
My research in Dance Nucleus focused on how do we find the greatest pleasure
in the way we move despite the experiences of illness or exposure to illness
(caregivers, watching others suffer with illness) that may influence the way we
move.
‘Le Jeu’ (The game) became an important philosophy and tool in exploring this
concept. This is often used as a foundation for clown work and training, created
by clown master Philippe Gaulier. In this work, I was interested in using the
principles of Le Jeu to explore creating choreography. In the Gaulier mode of
thinking, pleasure can only be achieved by playing and the only way to play is by
creating a game. The game has a set of rules in it in which, we find ourselves
abiding by it, breaking it or creating new rules. In the first half of the year, we
explored the creation of games that could help us generate movements,
emotions and eventually choreography to explore this journey of illness.
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