Fluorescence by Oliver Starpov

[Syrene Hvid]

Fluorescence by Starpov is part of the company within the company, Corpus and is one of their minimal pop up performances. For me, it is one of those performances that will be hard to review in detail, simply because some performances are too deeply personal to review and rather needs to be recalled. I'll try to recall the parts I liked best, perhaps out of order, perhaps without too much sense, because Fluorescence was the kind of art that was in your mind, flowing with your emotions through your system. 

 

In the printed piece of paper that introduced the evening's concept, Starpov wrote that it was a work about being young today, about feeling alone and misunderstood, about having a horrible view on your own body and on yourself and about having suicidal thoughts. He also wrote that a big part of the evening would be improvised, because it creates moments that can feel more honest and true than choreography. And that his aim wasn't to choreograph something beautiful and amazing, but to face himself and prove that he had moved on. 

 

As someone who has and is still struggling with mental illness and has continuously used ballet as medicine for the soul this entire concept intrigued me and I was very excited to sit on first row in a completely packed A-sal. I can also happily announce that the 40 minutes the performance lasted were well spent and in good company. 

 

Besides Starpov himself who took centre stage, the dancers were Viktoria Falck-Schmidt, Stephanie Chen Gundorph, Sebastian Haynes and Andreas Kaas from the RDB as well as modern dancer Rune-Frej Stenholt Mortensen whose duet with Starpov finished off the program. 

 

So, if I can't review it, what can I say about Fluorescence? I'll list things that spoke to me so deeply that they're still lodged in my memory now. 

 

- The first part of the performance was a video montage featuring Starpov moving with a pair of antlers strapped to his head. As silly as this may sound, it was absolutely beautiful, not only because of Starpov's absolutely artful way of moving himself, but because of the psychological depth to the image of this mostly undressed man using the antlers to keep the space closest to him safe and void. Very effective. 

- The T-shirts scene with Starpov scrambling around the stage to collect all the strewn out T-shirts there to carry on his back and cover the target board painted on his naked back with fluorescent paint. Meanwhile the four RDB dancers walk in straight lines between the dropped T-shirts and forcefully point to them, causing Starpov to hurry over and later throw them at him hard - reminding me of my own inner voices in the depth of my worst periods and I was crying, I admit it, at this point. 

- The window scene where a window has been placed on stage and a new video montage is rolling in the background of a streetview seen from up high. A crying Starpov, and the scene really gained its emotional punch from his strong and honest presence, sits before the window. Opens it and leans out to look, then hastily shuts it again after a moment of seeing what waits down there. 

-The final scene of modern dance between Starpov and Stenholt Mortensen which felt like a love duet and improvised into some strong, almost iconic moves between the two. Difficult to describe as they were created in the moment, but the dancing ended with the music and with a kiss, before the lights went out. I felt personally how it was a testimony as to how relations and love can heal and help us move on to become better versions of ourselves. 

 

All in all, the evening was a success in my view. It delivered what it had promised and then some. What was most amazing about Starpov's project was how it was so firmly lodged in his personal story, but he made great parts of it take on a firm air of "human". An experience shared. Rather than only an invitation into his private sphere, although in part it was that, too. In his way of arrangement, I kept thinking "movement art" - like an installation piece fron AROS or one of the other big contemporary museums. 

 

And that made it beautiful to me.