In Calling three characters circle each other with equal parts suspicion and intrigue. They have been doing this for some time. Attracted and repelled, their bodies move away and towards each other, sometimes with pleasure and at other times with disgust.
Circling and circling, advancing and retreating, away and towards, closer then farther. They don’t know what is at stake, what it would mean to break the status quo or the rhythm of their patterns. They cannot stay in this limbo for much longer though and soon they will be overwhelmed by their curiosity…
In Calling, the choreographer Ofelia Jarl Ortega examines the power relations within the collective of The Field. The dynamics are revealed in all their complexity through choreographic games and playful scenarios. The performers offer themselves to each other to be used, downtrodden or deified, teased or even pleasured.
"The piece Calling has its starting point with The Field, a Swiss dance collective where the dancers invite the choreographer, instead of the choreographer inviting the dancers. The Field have their own existing group dynamic, and in the work with Calling I’ve entered as an outsider to observe but also to expose. Throughout the process they’ve allowed me to make them vulnerable, working on the thin line between what’s me and them or the piece. I’ve been made vulnerable too, as they have exposed my desires. I’ve welcomed things I never tried on a stage before, welcomed silence and props, more rhythm and more of my humor.”
– Ofelia Jarl Ortega
Credits
Concept and choreography Ofelia Jarl Ortega
Co-choreography and performance The Field Lucia Gugerli, Pierre Piton, Declan Whitaker
Music composition Xafya Lovecraft
Light design Christoffer Lloyd
Costumes Julian Zigerli
Production Matheus Vo-Ngoc, Rabea Grand
Dramaturgical advisor Tanzhaus Zürich Jessica Huber
Photos Nadja Voorham
Coproduction Tanzhaus Zürich
Special thanks Jamuna Mirjam Zweifel, Marisa Godoy
Supported by City of Zurich Culture, Department of Culture of the Canton of Zurich, Landis & Gyr Foundation, Migros Cultural Percentage, Stockholms stad, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
The Field is a collective of dance artists who have been working together since 2019. The collective has collaborated with local and international artists to create a range of works from large scale performances to intimate artistic exchanges. So far, The Field has developed works with Meg Stuart (Waterworks), Isabel Lewis (Scalable Skeletal Escalator), Simone Aughterlony (The Best and the Worst of Us) and Ofelia Jarl Ortega (Calling). The collective came into being from the necessity to create flexible, versatile, sensitive and enduring forms of togetherness, to find ways of articulating our cultural, social and political concerns through dance experiences. Their commitment to non-hierarchical forms of working shapes all of The Field’s artistic outputs.