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If I Can’t Dance proudly presents the first chapter of By Any Other Name, a new performance project by Emily Roysdon, presented in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Playground Festival in STUK/Museum M, Leuven.

The piece is the first chapter in an international and multi-year series that is developing a vocabulary around the term ‘to discompose’. The opening chapter will be structured as a workshop within a theatre setting that articulates an environment of observation and response, and is framed by text and tableau. A lighting design by Katinka Marac will present a dramaturgy of darkness that is punctuated by the contributions of invited artists; namely a series of drawings by Babi Badalov, that inaugurates Roysdon’s project at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and a choreographic contribution by Eleanor Bauer, that will be introduced for the second presentation at Playground Festival in Leuven. These collaborators will continue to accumulate throughout the progress of By Any Other Name, growing to become a troupe of players. Two sessions of twenty-five participants will be held each in Amsterdam and in Leuven, RSVP will be required.

About ‘to discompose’, Emily Roysdon says, “I’ve been thinking through this idea for about two years now but can’t yet use it in a sentence, which I find promising.” The idea is thus far a tool for Roysdon, one she is working through in this series of performances. She uses it in relation to site and performance, social spaces, institutions, and collaboration. Roysdon is also working through what she calls ‘minor theatre’, and which denotes her interest to invest in staging the relationship of audience and text, while trying to “build a structure for people to be alive inside.”

The performances of Emily Roysdon take place as part of the Playground Festival, which also includes presentations by Grace Schwindt, William Forsythe, Lundahl & Seitl and Marijke van Warmerdam amongst others. If you're planning a visit to see By Any Other Name, we also recommend the performance 27 Gnosis by Michael Portnoy, taking place on Saturday the 9th at 3pm and 7pm, and on Sunday the 10th at 5pm and 5pm. For more information, visit the Playground Festival website.

The new work of Emily Roysdon is commissioned by If I Can’t Dance within the frame of Edition V – Appropriation & Dedication, with commissioning partners the Playground Festival Leuven (STUK/Museum M), the TBA festival of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The work is also supported by Corpus, European Network For Performance Art, funded through the European Union.