Camden Fringe: Bold Bodies and Feminist Choreography in ‘THREEFOLD’

Image: THREEFOLD  | Credit: Katie Ho

THREEFOLD presents a powerful evening featuring three distinctive performances by female-identifying artists. Each piece explores the complexities of identity, authority, intimacy, and human connection through bold and physically charged movements.

Preen invites the audience to unspool threads of beauty and identity. The stage is set with feminine accessories including a red handbag, a paper scroll, high heels, and an unknown ‘mass’ (Lesya Tyminska) swathed from head to toe in chaotic fabrics. Supining with lifted knees, Tyminska’s intricate calf rotations evoke submarine periscopes exploring the environment. Kiera Sanderson’s entrance disrupts this exploration, kicking open the paper scroll to reveal the handwritten word ‘PREEN’, then mocks traditional femininity by applying lipstick defiantly. Sanderson’s attempt to wrestle cloth from Tyminska, underscored by an intensifying electronic soundtrack, is both intimate and combative. It culminates in the symbolic act of fitting Tyminska with heels as if imbuing a spirit into this mass and giving it an identity.

Tyminska’s Sufistic spinning in a white dress channels classic feminine beauty and transcendence,  yet the duet subverts this ideal through forceful, synchronised movement that approaches directly towards the audience. Transforming from masked beauty into a statement of agency, the work peaks with the unfurling of a Palestinian flag from the handbag. Preen redefines beauty as a politicised, empowered voice that rebels against objectification through vulnerability and strength.

The second piece, Kiss Garden, radiates an electrifying energy about human relationships that contrasts with Preen’s gradual unfolding. Annarose Atamian occupies the stage foreground with a visceral bodily vibration, a rapid tremor emanating from her core. Esme Wales contrasts Atamian’s shaking with controlled, isolated movements on all fours, their distinct but interwoven energies creating seismic-like choreographic waves. Weaving between cacophony and cohesion, their choreography symbolizes emotional overwhelm and the detangling and re-tangling of intimate relationships. Through the lifted legs, disrupted balances, and gentle pushes in the hip-hop beats, the duo’s physical interplay reflects a trusting negotiation of control and release that speaks to resilience and resistance. Atamian forms a box for Wales to step and fall, repeating similar sequences with increasing tempo and staged applause, followed by live applause. The collective notion of clapping expresses an immersive and cathartic release.

The final work, Afters, examines the complexities of female presence in nightlife, invoking Dr. Ashley Mears’s idea of unpaid aesthetic labour—women’s often unacknowledged performance of femininity as labour in elite social spaces.

The piece opens with Erin Cottereall and Susie Dore in black party wear. Their mirrored movements cast shadows that evoke observation and objectification. Ellen Oliver begins as a detached observer, then passes between the duo, adding tension to the group. As the trio increasingly moves from unison to radical individualism, marked by stark gestures like violent head shakes, the work attempts to shift from passive objectification to active female agency. However, these dynamic movements can feel somewhat clichéd compared to the final, dimly lit scene. Punctuated by blue strobe flashes resembling photoshoots, the closing sequence reveals the performers’ still yet fleeting, fierce expressions, prompting reflection on the thin line between liberation and exploitation in nightlife and performance contexts.

THREEFOLD offers a raw and bold exploration of identity, movement, and power dynamics. While the performers’ physical strength delivers undeniable visceral impact and challenges traditional narratives of femininity, the piece leaves one wishing for deeper, more thought-provoking insights through a sharper feminist lens, especially for the relatively younger audience it attracts.