The eight If I Can’t Dance Tonight features Maria Pask. Pask investigates in her work collective creativity, social structures and empowerment. Working with open formats, Pask employs a broad array of methods ranging from sculpture and film to workshops, scripts and live performances and events.
Previous projects have involved a range of participants from different social groups. For Beautiful City for instance, her project at Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007), Pask set up a camp for the duration of the project where speakers of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds were invited to give lectures and respond to specific questions set by the artist. The camp was run by a number of young people who became, alongside the public, either believers or skeptics.
4 F-ER is a new performance closely related to the experiences from Beautiful City. It is resulting from a period of workshops led by the artist with a small group of Dutch young women and musicians. After a pilot in Studio Voltaire in London (2008) and a lecture performance in MuHKA in Antwerp (2008), for If I Can’t Dance Tonight Maria Pask will present 4 F-ER as a performance in Frascati Theatre.
The main characters and concerns are connected with the ‘Four F’s’: a term used in evolutionary biology to describe the four basic drives or mind states that humans are evolutionarily adapted to be proficient at; feeding, fighting, fleeing and fertility. The script follows the protagonists’ reflections on what to do and what to be, both on a personal level and in a wider social position; the choreography focuses on the gestures these 4 F’s arouse.
Pask lives and works in Amsterdam. Previous solo exhibitions and performances took place at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2006), If I Can’t Dance, Utrecht (2005) and Amsterdam (2006), Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes (2005), BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht (2004) and Marres, Maastricht (2001).
4 F-ER
Players: Inger Koerselman, Anne Marie van Rees, Adriënne Wennekes, Steven Leijen
Musicians: Marijn Jongewaard, David Hazeleger, Steven Leijen
Choreography: Esther de Vlam
Script: Maria Pask
Thanks to: Adva Zakai, Helena Pask, David Powell