The Cloud Cuckoo Land

  • Karolina Bielskyte
The created object symbolises the Cloud Cuckoo Land, with reference to The Birds by Aristophanes. Like a white cloud above the performer's head, it refers to an idealistic state where everything is perfect. The short performance explores the relationship between set and performer and shows how scenography can be used as a part of choreography. It tells a story about the person who is perfectionist and lives in her dreamland trying to create an ideal/perfect life. Contemporary dance elements are used to criticize perfectionism; unlike other dance genres, contemporary dance is not idealistic, but reveals reality as it is. Such dance elements, as an opposition to perfectionism, help reveal the story and conflict between performer and set.
At the beginning, the object is hanging is in the air like a cloud symbolising performers dreams, something unrealistically ideal. The cloud in interaction with a dancer starts changing its shapes. During the performance the hanging object falls lower and lower like perfectionism, and dreams take over the place pressing the dancer to the floor, affecting her movements. Finally, the cloud becomes like a huge wrap for the dancer and she falls asleep. This may be interpreted as death after trying to live an unrealistically ideal life.