A performance project which combines movement, text, sound, and objects to explore flow, adaptation and ways of sensing the world, evoking ideas related to deep sea cultures and the environment.

Karen, Tara and Jemima are collaborating to devise, direct and perform the work — negotiating a flexible devising process and searching for ways to alter our senses of gravity. A sperm whale breathes once an hour.

Research for the project has included the very deep Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone and the very strange Angler fish found in that underwater area. Creatures at this depth possess physical characteristics and ways of sensing and shifting we never experience in the dry world. An Angler fish attaches to its mate; they are so few and far between, they literally become one. How might humans respond to the kinds of adaptation to changing conditions we find in the deep sea? These ideas have inspired new performance material, including questions of duration, song structures, masking, phosphorescence and survival in conditions of darkness, pressure and slowness. An octopus holds clam shells around her with her many arms.

Additional background to Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz can be found in the Blog.

Tara Fatehi is a performance maker, performer and writer. www.tarafatehi.com
Jemima Yong is a performance maker and photographer. https://jemimayong.format.com/ 

Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz is at an early stage of development. The project is supported by Queen Mary University Centre for Creative Collaboration (London) and Arnolfini (Bristol), and will be completed in 2025. Omikemi contributed to the early stage of this project’s development.