Everything Is Not Yet Clear Just as It’s Supposed to Be
Choreography and performance by:
Weichen Cui 崔未尘
Music by:
Adrienne Shoenfeld
Lighting design by:
Yiyuan Li
Tisch Dance: A Goodbye Performance
May 12, 2022
Jack Crystal Theater, 111 2nd Ave, New York.Everything is not yet clear just as it’s supposed to be was a pivotal project in my journey at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York, where I became a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA). It also marked my first rigorous and truly practice-led research endeavor—a process that ultimately inspired me to pursue a PhD, continuing my exploration of practice-led research methodologies.
The initial spark for Everything came years ago when I moved from Australia to New York, starting over and building a new home from scratch. I can’t recall exactly what I was assembling at the time, but I vividly remember kneeling on the floor, hammer in hand, driving nails into wooden boards. The house was empty, the sound of the hammer strikes echoing slightly in the open space. After a few repetitions, curiosity got the better of me. I began to vary the force, speed, posture, and flow of my movements as I hammered and shifted from one position to the next. With each strike, the shifting feedback of sound and sensation drew me deeper into what felt like a “functional performance.” In that moment, I thought: someday, I want to bring this scene onto a stage.
At its core, Everything asks: What makes a movement functional? What imbues it with expressive power? And how do these two aspects intertwine and transform in a performance context? Drawing on Laban and Bartenieff’s theories, Everything explores the duality of Function and Expression through the lenses of Body, Shape, Effort, and Space, delving into the nuanced transitions between them.
Everything invites audiences to experience the subtle alchemy of motion and emotion, revealing the poetry in the seemingly ordinary and the extraordinary in the everyday.
《Everything is not yet clear just as it's supposed to be》是我在纽约拉班/巴特尼夫动作研究学院成为认证动作分析师的一个关键项目，也是我做的第一个过程相对严谨，真正意义上的实践引领与实践导向研究(practice-led research)。因而也算间接推动了我开启博士项目，继续以practice-led research为方法论进行研究。
作品最初的起点来自于很多年前当我从澳洲搬到纽约，再一次从零开始建设新家的场景。我已经忘记了那时我究竟在组装什么，只记得我蹲在地上一下一下用锤子把钉子敲进木板，然后起身，挪动到下一个位置，继续一顿(收敛的)猛击。房子空荡荡的，竟能听到些许回声。重复几次之后，我玩心渐起，在敲击时不断变换着动作的力道，速度，姿势以及流动和走位的方式。伴着锤击声不断变化的实时反馈，我沉浸在自己组装家具的“功能性表演”中，心想有一天要把这个场景搬到舞台上。
于是，用锤子敲打这一动作就成为了《Everything》的种子。
是什么让一个动作具有功能性？又是什么赋予它表达的力量？这两者在舞台表演中如何交织、如何转化？基于这一核心提问，《Everything》从拉班和巴特尼夫动作分析的视角出发，从身体、形态、动势、和空间等角度探索拉班关于“功能”与“表达”的二重性，并深入挖掘两者之间微妙的过渡。
游走在功能与表达创造的动作象限中，在变与不变之间，又是哪一刻突破了阈值？