“AndroMeda is visually stunning and thematically intriguing, introducing a blend of human and mechanical elements that work in tandem to paint a picture of society as warped and controlled by technology.”
– by Winfield Maben for The Dance Journal
quartet – 25 min – available for touring
SPACE REQUIREMENTS AND POSSIBILITIES:
Can be presented outdoors to fit specific space, in museums, galleries and theaters.
REVIEWS:
The Dance Journal – https://philadelphiadance.org/dancejournal/2020/02/03/twisted-future-zornitsa-stoyanova-paints-a-technological-apocalypse-with-andromeda-at-pmas-friday-remix/
ThINKingDance.net – https://thinkingdance.net/articles/2020/02/08/The-Future-is-Fallible
VERSIONS:
AndroMeda also has four traveling versions; One with full cast, 3 projections, and large inflatable sculpture; The second with full cast only one projection and inflatable sculpture; Third as a stand-alone video installation piece with or without the inflatable sculpture; Forth with performers and inflatable sculpture and without the video. All cast could travel, or local performers could be engaged to learn the piece.
DESCRIPTION:
A journey through a futuristic dystopian psyche, AndroMeda comments on the lust for the new and shiny and the cost and gain of technology to our humanness.
The title comes from its meaning in Greek -“ruler of man”. In mythology Andromeda is an archetype of beauty and womanhood. In the 60’s and 70’s Andromeda Galaxy becomes a synonym to futurism and science-fiction.
In this performance Andromeda is re-imagined as futurist post human women. The four dancers invoke past and present in a ritual mirroring Shakespearean witches inside android like bodies. Andromeda is not an individual, but rather the present coding of ones and zeroes that create this alienating representation of a woman. She is gentle yet commanding, distant and cold.
AndroMeda is created for a milti-generational cast and works to challenge the notion that the future is synonymous with youth. It illuminates a possible danger in achieving singularity with AI. It speaks of the ever shifting definition and experience of self and love and humanity’s tendency toward an even more digital life.
Created in response to The Designs for Different Futures exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as Zornitsa Stoyanova’s love of sci-fi.
A departure point for the text in Andromeda is the book The Old Axototl: Hardware Dreams by Jacek Dukaj. Full text from the performance you can read here: https://www.bodymeld.org/writing-about-dance/text-from-andromeda/
PREMIERE:
Commissioned by Philadelphia Museum of Art for Friday Remix, in relation to Designs for Different Futures Exhibit, Jan. 31st, 2020.
Philadelphia cast: Elba Hevia y Vaca, Rhonda Moore, Zornitsa Stoyanova and Megan Bridge.
Full Video Link: https://vimeo.com/392737542
please email for password zornitsa(at)bodymeld(dot)org
more info and performance requests: zornitsa(at)bodymeld.org