As a starting point for this short solo work, Courtney May Robertson, takes the image of a rider taming a wild horse – a metaphor for self-control. Inspired in part by the role of horses in Tara Westover’s memoir Educated, the work explores how the horse becomes a site of conflict; a creature of instinct, freedom, and force, often subjected to domination in the name of discipline. In Westover’s story, the taming of horses mirrored the subjugation of her own will under familial and societal control. Here, Courtney expands on the tension between desire and domestication, between being shaped and being broken.
Encapsulated within an octagon of projected imagery spanning four meters in diameter, she navigates this terrain through a layering of poetry, dance, and song. The octagon becomes both corral and cosmos, framing her as she travels across landscapes of longing, memory, and resistance. The space acts as a time capsule, Courtney’s intimate home videos splice into fragments of YouTube clips, documentaries, and old films; auto-biographical and found media is collaged into flashes of consciousness.
the pleasure of stepping off a horse when it’s moving at full speed – an act both reckless and freeing – becomes a way of embracing the messy, contradictory truths of being human. In the push and pull between the wild and the worn, between submission and self-possession, she rides not to arrive, but to stay in motion.
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“When she rises, her gestures are sharp, surgical. She wrestles for control as images of the intricate workings of the universe flash beneath her feet. The music is loud, glitchy, stumbling to keep up with the rhythm of her frenetic thoughts and movements. It’s not long before the brave front she puts on cracks, too.”
Sedera Ranaivoarinosy – Springback Magazine
“Her physical frame may be constrained by an octagonal projection on the stage floor, but it’s hard to imagine anything, or anyone, holding Courtney May Robertson back. The Scotland-born, Netherlands-based dynamo exudes possibility in a show replete with opposites. The title is long, but the piece is short; the deep, distorted voice emanating from the speakers seems to bear no connection to the mouth pressed against the microphone […] Fast-paced projections are interlaced with even faster-paced movement that leaves us longing for more, both on this fascinating topic and from this powerful performer.”
Kelly Apter – Springback Magazine
CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY, PERFORMANCE, SOUND DESIGN AND VIDEO DESIGN Courtney May Robertson
DRAMATURGY Merel Heering
OUTSIDE EYE Kristin de Groot, Yoko Ono Haveman
TECHNICAL SUPPORT Edwin van Steenbergen
TOUR TECHNICIANS Manuel Boutreur, Janine de Weerd
TRAILER Paul Sixta
PRESS PHOTOS Anna van Kooij
MUSIC AAR – A01 & A02, Empty Set – Order, Cities Aviv – Title Piece, Death Grips – Disappointed
PRODUCED BY Courtney May Robertson, Dansateliers Rotterdam
FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY Municipality of Rotterdam, Kickstart Cultuurfond
WITH THANKS TO Bas de Geus, Adam Peterson, Nik Rajšek
