How do we look at each other?
How do we allow ourselves to be seen? How do our bodies shape the ways we perceive the world around us? Can we change how we see others?
The Way You Look (at me) Tonight is a social sculpture-a sensory journey, for two performers and audience. Developed in collaboration with noted author and philosopher of perception Dr. Alva Noë, disabled artist Claire Cunningham (Scotland) and international choreographer and performer Jess Curtis (Berlin / San Francisco) dance, sing, tell stories and ask questions combining performance, original music, and video to wrestle (sometimes literally) with important questions about our habits and practices of perceiving each other and the world.
In collaboration video artist Yoann Trellu, composer Matthias Herrmann, dramaturge Luke Pell, set and costume designer Michiel Keuper and lighting designer Christopher Copland, they perform an evening-length duet that excavates their own ways of seeing each other-as a man and a woman of different ages, bodies and backgrounds. In 2005 Curtis was the choreographer who first introduced Cunningham to movement, leading to her career as a choreographer in her own right. Now a decade later they return to work together to co-create The Way You Look (At Me) Tonight.
The Way You Look (at me) Tonight was shortlisted for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in the ‘Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text’ category for the 2016/17 performance season.
Click here for access information.
Video: www.tanzforumberlin.de
Below is a section of audio from The Way You Look (at me) Tonight entitled This body has not. The poem was also which was published in Stairs and Whispers D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, edited by Sandra Allanda, Khairani and Daniel Sluman.
In 2020, with support from the #takecare program, Claire and collaborators Jess Curtis (Co-creator, Performer), Luke Pell (Dramaturge) and Yoann Trellu (Video Artist) engaged in a series of conversations regarding the most interesting ways to create and present an after-the-fact reflection on The Way You Look (at me) Tonight, particularly in view of the recent effects of Covid-19 on our physical choices in social space. The result is a film by Yoann Trello with reflections from Claire, Luke and Jess.