VOID

Directed by

Claire Marshall

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Winding upwards, gazing downwards, slinking, sinking, vaulting, halting, a solitary figure, dancer Erin O'Rourke journeys through an old labyrinthine staircase as a metaphor of her psyche. Moments of déjà vu and multiple selves emerge in a dance film that conjures ideas of psychological entrapment of women trans-historically.

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EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH:
Taking an experimental approach, following Claire's 2019 film Shift (a duet that travelled through numerous locations), Claire became interested in exploring the performer/ location relationship without the distraction of meaning drawn from a duet asking, 'do we seek to read more story information from a solo dancer in a single location than in a duet?'

Furthermore, 'up nodding' to scholar Sylvie Vitaglione's assessment of locations in dance film, Void became an experiment in responding to a single interior location - the abandoned staircase.

Drawing from iconography associated with the location, Void was an investigation into how cinematic elements of the lens, editing, and the location itself can be furthered to realise the sense of story and subvert experiences in dance film. Through this process, the stairs became a signifier of a journey, the closed stairwell presented the idea of entrapment, and the repetition in the architecture provided the impetus for multiple selves. Finally, Void embraces the concept of the 'journey'; slowly building, slowly impacting to the climax.