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Based on the classic myth of Icarus, this Butoh dance piece reinterprets Greek history to put it in a contemporary context through the philosophical work of Byung Chul Han (The Society of Fatigue and The Agony of Eros). The staging explores the dichotomy between the desire for freedom (flight) and the new form of egalitarian slavery that post-capitalism has elaborated, in which the individual ends up becoming in love and a slave to himself.
The work was successfully premiered at the ALMA NEGRA Iberian Butoh Festival in Barcelona 2018, highlighting the artist's bodywork, precision and viscerality. Photography - justinpbrown71
ARTISTS
Original Idea: ORLANDO WHALES Direction/Dance: ORLANDO WHALES Lights: KAUE OLIVEIRA Photography: justinpbrown71 Video: MICHAEL REALIN |
SYNOPSIS
If Butoh is a dance destined for darkness, ICARUS' work proves to seek a cultural reappropriation of Butoh dance seen from the point of view and the spiritual ascension of the West, apart from the classical myth which still lives in the universal artistic memory. ICARUS tells us of the price to pay for wanting to go beyond limits and escape from the established system (Labyrinth of the Minotaur) to go in search of success (the sun as a symbol of freedom). It is a reflection on the models of thought and social success (cages) imposed on us by a society that grows in a computer and digital age where the virtual becomes real, and where the chains or labyrinths are the images or representations of the system, such like facebook or instagram. The current labyrinth manufactures obedient birds in virtual cages, unconscious automata wrapped in mediocrity and boredom; they seek the success that will enslave them and accentuate that desire until causing the collapse of the individual. Paradoxically, in that pain of success, there is also the possible awakening during the fall. Each civilization will have to face its own Minotaur. 
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