A Rest

Poses borrowed from depression-era dance marathon contestants are held with increasing difficulty. Without a partner to lean on, the poses become an urgent sort of endurance feat for a solo dancer. Stances that are restful when buttressed by a partner become unsustainable stress positions that cause the solitary body to strain and finally collapse. This is a dance comprised of involuntary movements, charting the forfeiture of control as fatigue wins out over the performer's skill and training.

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Choreographed as a solo performed by James Phillips originally commissioned as part of Singular Bodies, Toronto Dance Theatre, April 2016.
Presented as a single channel video projection in the exhibition Figures of Sleep, curated by Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Art Museum, University of Toronto, January 2018, cinematography: Lee Henderson.