ShSssh...It 'll be OK! (collective recreation)

~~~(~multisensory performance~)~~~

2017 was, among others, a year of the glue. Glue factories all over the world were hopelessly out of stock. Glue became the basic ingredient in preparing a DIY slime. Since then, the slime has flooded the Internet as well as toy stores. It fills children bedroom shelves and encourages to endless experiments. It spreads over hands with the desire of smooth touch. It mutates into various shapes or colours, bursts dazzlingly, and attracts the eyes of millions of followers on the other side of the screen. Nowadays, the slime is an ultimate portal and a tip of an iceberg of the phenomena called #asmr and #oddlysatisfying.

Shssssh... It’ll Be OK is a multisensory performance designed especially for a chosen venue. A participant is offered freedom of movement – they choose their own starting point of the environment exploration. The smells, visual and haptic sensations, sounds, voice, movement, and the overall atmosphere of the space are mixed to suit the variable needs of the collective recreation. Is it possible to transfer the ASMR principles to a theatre venue? Where are the boundaries between passive reception and active perception, spontaneous interactivity and choreography for the mirror neurons? Or, between a massage salon, a regional library, and a Snoezelen? How does the slime relate to photosynthesis, tapping of fingernails, marimo, lava, skin, and weeping willow?

The performance is drafted for a group of 30 people.

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The following performance review was generated within the project Dance Season 2018/2019 - a Slovak nationwide project of analyzes of contemporary dance performances and discussions, which was supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.

A seance almost in the intimacy of a living room, where all performed processes run seemingly unrelated to each other. Spectator can move around the space, search for connections, creators aspire to inspire relaxation, abrade hard edges. An interesting dialogue between visuality, poetry and movement.

by Marek Godovič