Witnessing the Unfinished: Raw Inquiries at 'Choreodrome 2026'
As an incubator for contemporary choreography, The Place’s Choreodrome platform invites audiences into the generative, vulnerable space of work-in-progress performance. The evening of 8 September 2026 presented a compelling triple-bill, exposing raw artistic inquiries where audience presence actively nurtures choreographic evolution.
Eleanor Sikorski: Instrumental
Eleanor Sikorski’s Instrumental interrogates the boundary between human agency and objecthood. Dressed in a minimalist white shirt, jeans, and a tool pouch, Sikorski navigates a DIY web of ropes, carabiners, and suspended lights with mechanical intimacy. Rather than manipulating her props, she grants them autonomous identity: a pair of dangling lights, descending like struggling twins, finds a sonic counterpoint in Sikorski’s live harmonica — an improvisation guided not by musical notation, but by her somatic breath and movements. Entangling her body with cables and striking bronzed cymbals, Sikorski turns her physical form into a resonant vessel. With the projection and reflection created on the stage, she joins not only the objects but creating a symphony of object agencies beautifully. Even when an intentional blackout momentarily misled the audience into expecting a finale, the piece sustained its compelling symphony of object agency and mechanical serendipity.
Annie Hanauer: One, Two
Annie Hanauer’s One, Two confronts the fetishisation of disabled female bodies, asserting crip pride through themes of consent, joy, and self-authorship. Dancers Annemieke Mooij and Paulina Porwollik open with intimate lifts, balance and counter-balances via the slow and poetic movements, showing trust and strength. The soothing whispering vocal fades in and unfolds the movement sequences. Hanauer operates a tripod-mounted camera that projects live footage onto the backdrop. By alternating roles between dancer and videographer, the piece subverts the voyeuristic gaze, using camera angles — such as a projected infinity tunnel — to reclaim the lens as a tender tool of self-witnessing. The corporeal materiality of the disabled body becomes a site of power that invites engagement rather than being manipulated with objectification. As driving beats interrupt the soft vocal score, tender partnering erupts into a rowdy, punky ensemble. Ending in darkness with only audible breath, One, Two triumphantly redefines body autonomy on the artists’ own terms.
Olúwatósin Omotosho: The Aunties: The House of Masks
Closing the bill, Olúwatósin Omotosho’s The Aunties transforms a domestic table-and-chairs setup into a vibrant arena of intergenerational friction. Flamboyant, fan-waving Nigerian aunties confront a sleeveless tank top Gen Z young woman with invasive inquiries regarding marriage and cultural compliance. Accompanied by live under-arm drumming (by the only male performer), the ensemble blends spoken word, comedy, and street styles. Exaggerated hip-hop motifs and leg kicks from the aunties are met by the younger woman’s rebellious mockery. Crucially, Omotosho balances theatrical satire with rigorous choreography, capturing a universal generational tension that deeply resonates across cultures — provoking thoughtful reflection on how such familial dynamics and social pressures manifest through dance and movement in contexts like Hong Kong, where I come from.
Across all three works, Choreodrome demonstrated the vital necessity of staging early-stage research, proving that raw vulnerability on stage yields rich, transformative dance dialogues. -- Choreodrome: making progress (previously known as Touch Wood) took place across two evenings at The Place, and this review is based on the performances on 8 September 2026.
