Samantha Shay - Film Screenings

Come see a series of short dance films that emerge out of rehearsals for an original dance theatre piece by director, Samantha Shay, titled Life in this House is Over.

Exploring the social awkwardness of grief, and inspired by the writing of iconic Russian writer Anthon Chekhov, the piece asks questions Chekhov posed years before: how do we move forward when an uncertain future presses on a dying past, where emblems of nostalgia are intertwined with human suffering? Is connection possible in a world drawn taut by the force of imminent change? Hitting the inflection point between past and future, this piece is a powerful sum of collective and individual experiences, and a subconscious reaction to the living world of memory. Just as the writing of Chekhov approached the blurred frontiers of past and future, so does the artistic team of this piece. By gathering artists from two significant artistic lineages of performance: current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theater company, Teatr ZAR, we reflect on the lineages of two post-war artists: Jerzy Grotowski, of Poland, and Pina Bausch, of Germany, and the relationship between the two, and how their work resonates today. The piece invokes cross-generational tensions in content, form, and context, we look our histories, both personal and shared, in the face and see what, if anything, can be salvaged – and what must be left behind.