The Animated
By Hilde Elbers
The Animated is a war of attrition for two female bodies that almost collapse under the force of movement. Moving is not an option, but a command: they are being danced to. Not the 'beautiful' dance, but the disconnected, dedicated, raw and imperfect dance. A fiercely rhythmic duet that tolerates no indifference. They are driven by the pleasure of complete surrender. Are they playful children, voluptuous ladies or slavish minions?
At The Animated Hilde and Lea challenge the perception of our dominant visual culture and let hidden stories tell themselves.
Hilde Elbers and Lea Martini's work has an intense physicality and a self-imposed compelling format. The Animated is the result and a deepening of questions they also raised in previous performances. It is a duet that addresses our perception of time by exploring the relationship between body and film. The source of inspiration is the work of Austrian filmmaker Martin Arnold, who manipulates found footage frame by frame extremely rhythmically to arrive at a totally different (temporal) perception of everyday situations.