NEW [DIGITAL] GHOSTS

DANCE

4 Sept

Recently landed: New [digital] Ghosts

Gracia’s written response to New Ghost by Mason Lovegrove, performed by Serena Graham and Joseph Romancewicz for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque.Digital, for Fjord Review.

What was live, I can pause, and it occurs to me that not being able to conveniently pause a live performance was one of the things I most enjoyed about it. It was live. It is live. It was/is roaring along, independent of my will. And in having no control over any part of its trajectory, I disappeared completely, in the best possible sense. I wasn’t me in the theatre or hall, but a series of notes, a flurry of limbs, a lightness, an extension, particles illuminated by stage lighting; anything. In this freedom, a different kind of pause. A pause from being (frantic, scrolling, drafting emails, composing invoices, busy self).

I miss this pause.

Now, when I watch film and dance on my laptop as miniature theatre, I can pause to answer anything unrelated to what I am watching. Watching: less feeling; less required of me, perhaps. I can leave the formerly moving world frozen on my screen indefinitely, or, at least until the settings on my MacBook draw the curtains; Energy Saver: turn display off after 10 minutes of no activity. Activate Screen Saver: Flurry.

There are many things I would quite like to control (or, at least, have my word heard): environmental policy for an ecologically sustainable existence; transforming Australia into a carbon-neutral powerhouse; ensuring a strong public education system…. but one of the things I don’t wish to control is the pause button on a ‘live’ performance.

I miss live.