UNCANNY VALLEY
Ensemble · Contemporary Dance-Theatre · Netherlands · Germany 2018 - 2019
Living in algorithmic worlds
Uncanny Valley explores what it means to live inside algorithmic worlds — spaces we increasingly inhabit through digitization, which quietly entangle themselves with our own longings, dreams, hopes, and fears. During rehearsals, imagination and sensory perception became central tools: everything around us, and everything inside us, folded into the choreography itself. The piece dissolves the line between performer and audience, drawing everyone into the same unfolding story — an experimental attempt to restore balance in a digital age.
Uncanny Valley is a choreography by Lin Verleger, created for the Festival Schrit_tmacher GENERATION2 with Kulturbetrieb der Stadt Aachen, Parkstad Limburg Theaters, and Huis voor de Kunsten Limburg (Netherlands/Germany). It was later invited to perform at Die Berliner Festspiele. More here.
What the apple held
Uncanny Valley was a demanding forty-five-minute piece on stage. The process involved not only learning Lin's choreography and body percussion patterns, but also learning each other's ways of moving through space, and how we use our bodies to communicate the story we're telling. It was a fully collaborative process that asked for stage presence, coordination, and body synchronicity.
The rehearsal process moved through different layers of exploration — group choreographies, duets, and solo work. In my case, I had the chance to develop a short solo with an apple, a space for personal interpretation and discovery within the larger framework of the piece. Alongside creating movement material, we also worked on the dramaturgical structure of the performance, and on understanding how the different sections connected to build the overall narrative.
The process included movement workshops, various warm-ups, and exercises built to develop trust, expand our movement vocabulary, and strengthen our sense of group unity. There was also room for improvisation, and for discovering something new in every performance.
Underneath it all was a great deal of research — not only physical research into how digitalization impacts our bodies, but conceptual exploration too, into technology and how our bodies, minds, and perceptions shift the more we interact with phones and other devices.
Team
Ensemble — Ronja Luka Bellhoff, Femke Brons, Sharon Habets, Maria Gatsal, Mohamed Ben Salah, Jerome Schickschneit Artistic Direction / Choreography — Lin Verleger Physical Rhythm — Jimi Renfro Composition — Marie-Christin Sommer, Ophelia Sullivan Lighting Design — Maud Wedick, Emma Zaalberg Costume Design — Lin Verleger Production Management / Dramaturgical Accompaniment — Yvonne Eibig
