Concept
Drawing on reflections of a stranger in a foreign land, 247 Days is Anouk van Dijk’s intimate exploration into the subtleties of everyday human existence. An exposition of what we most passionately love, fear, desire and hate, 247 Days investigates how these divergent facets manage to coexist in all of us simultaneously.
Focusing on the individual, Van Dijk’s choreography, for six dancers, captures unguarded moments of delight, despair and ultimately, self-revelation. Stripping back the veneer of the human facade to reveal what ultimately lies below.
A Note from Anouk van Dijk
Slowly, my first year in Australia unfolds. Seasons take shape, names and faces meld together, my bike finds its way home by itself. Although the rhythm of my daily life on the surface hasn’t changed much, living upside down has made me look at things from a new perspective. Surrounded by new people with different beliefs, backgrounds and ways of communicating, I’ve had to recalibrate the image of myself as well as that of the world around me.
A kaleidoscope of impressions echoing in the room, 247 Days blends my personal take on the world with the reflections of my new surroundings. After our first collaboration in An Act of Now, dancers Leif Helland, Lauren Langlois, Alya Manzart, Niharika Senapati, James Pham and I, together with new recruit Tara Soh, took a closer look at what we most passionately love, fear, desire and hate. These many facets often seem irreconcilable, even to ourselves, yet co- exist in all of us simultaneously.
It’s funny how you read yourself in the faces of others. There are so many sides of ourselves that we do not allow others to see. Still, our emotions invariably seep through one way or the other. An oddly timed laugh, eyes sparkling or turning away, an unexpected hug, a sentence stopped short – it’s these miniature moments where people are not in control of themselves that stay with us and trigger the imagination. Through a tiny crack in time, they expose a private world that is as meaningful and real as that which we so carefully choose to present. It’s this hidden inner world that fascinates me, as well as the way we each try to control and channel it.
