I created this project in quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This project was based on the prompt “Be the source of a headache” given by Detour Dance. I approached this prompt with the separate thought of exploring the many ways that I can fit my body into a small space. This got me thinking about the ways in which a space can literally and figuratively shape us. New spaces require new physical habits. Old spaces may bring back old physical habits. Similarly, spaces may hold power over the different shapes that we make out of ourselves in order to better fit where we are. I shape myself into a student when I am at school. I shape myself into a daughter when I am at home. I shape myself into an artist when I am at the studio. All of these shapes are within me but which one I choose to be is largely influenced by the space that I am in. Currently, our spaces have become more fixed than they previously were. I find myself in the shape of a daughter far more often than I find myself in the shape of an artist or a dancer just because I am in the space where “daughter” is the shape that fits best. Sometimes being in a shape for too long becomes repetitive, confusing, numbing, and painful. Hence, the headache.
The first iteration was just one minute long and can be found on he Detour Dance website here: http://www.detourdance.com/jukebox/can-the-brain-itself-feel-pain
I further expanded this idea for my composition class into a longer piece that included text as well.
Kara Komarnitsky 