In an imagined future where the purpose and necessity of the human body have become uncertain, Learning from the Future unfolds in a science-fiction-inspired setting inhabited by BODY A. This prototype exists in an ambiguous state between the living and the inanimate: part body, part highly sophisticated biological machine. Without self-awareness, it cannot distinguish inner intention from external impulse.

BODY A unsettles the boundary between inner experience and external reality. It is not anchored to a single, embodied point of view. Its fictional existence becomes a poetic means of imagining a world shaped by accelerating flows of information and encoded data, which increasingly determine how bodies move and function. In this artificial environment, bodies and objects seem to share a pervasive, disembodied consciousness. Information passes freely between them, dissolving the boundaries of the individual. Learning from the Future considers what happens when the living body is displaced by the properties of the inanimate and by its virtual, posthuman representation. Through movement, the work seeks to make the body’s raw, enduring power palpable against a backdrop of increasing dematerialisation and disappearance.

CREDITS

Choreography: Colette Sadler
Performance: Leah Marojevic
Dramaturgy: Assaf Abraham Hochman

Music: Brendan Dougherty
Light: Samuli Laine
Photography and Video: Mikko Gaestel
Costume: Eyal Meistel

Produced by Colette Sadler / Stammer Productions and Dance4 / Arts Council of England. Funded by Creative Scotland. Supported by residencies at TanzHaus Zurich and NordDance/ Bora-Bora Aarhus