Icosa A dance company

Repertory

Counterweight

Eight dancers who spend the whole piece stopping each other from falling.

First performed
2,018
Running time
31 minutes
Dancers
8
Music
Percussion, live, on the stage
Travelled
9.7 radii

Everything in it is a transfer of weight that only works because somebody else is there. There is no version of this piece for fewer than eight.

High right — Door plane High right High left — Door plane Deep right — Door plane Deep left — Door plane Deep left Forward high — Wheel plane Forward deep — Wheel plane Back high — Wheel plane Back deep — Wheel plane Right forward — Table plane Right forward Right back — Table plane Left forward — Table plane Left back — Table plane Left back

The phrase, written down

6 reaches · 67% of them in the door plane · 9.7 radii travelled

  1. High right Door plane start
  2. Deep left Door plane 2.00
  3. High right Door plane 2.00
  4. Deep left Door plane 2.00
  5. Right forward Table plane 1.70
  6. Left back Table plane 2.00

The last column is the straight-line distance from the previous reach, in kinesphere radii. Two is right across the body; the shortest possible step between two of the twelve is 1.05.

How it is danced

Basic Effort Action

Slash

Strong, sudden, indirect. A limb thrown through the whole reach at once.

Weight
Light Strong
How much the body commits its mass. Not how hard the dancer works.
Time
Sustained Sudden
The attitude to time, not the tempo. A slow piece can be full of suddenness.
Space
Indirect Direct
Whether attention goes everywhere at once or to one place.
Flow
Free Bound
How readily the movement could be stopped half way. Not part of the action names.

Also in the repertoire