Edisa Weeks & Delirious Dance Co.

nomadic new york counters Manhattan's restless flow of money with "decelerated" in-between spaces. Their performance art refuses spectacle. It takes on a political dimension through the formation of temporary collectives which occupy spaces in new ways. The artists open up New York and Berlin through their nomadic coming and going, their avoidance of fixed structures. In Berlin they will tell us a story of life in the global metropolis, a story that we all have in common.

"May I perform a dance in your living room?" the American choreographer Edisa Weeks asks Berlin residents. In private flats, the four dancers from Delirious Dance Co. enter into various liaisons, both with the spectators and among each other. To the accompaniment of catchy melodies by Mantovani, the easy-listening king of the 1940s and 1950s, the choreographer plays with the awkward moments that arise whenever strangers approach each other. In this work, Edisa Weeks – who grew up in Uganda and New Guinea and lives in Brooklyn – explores the possibilities of intimacy or closeness between strangers. We are socialized not to stare at strangers – what happens, then, when you observe strangers while they are watching you?

Curated by André Lepecki, New York University