STANDSTILL

Keithy Kuuspu

Director-choreographer: Keithy Kuuspu
Performers: Martina Georgina, Agnes Ihoma, Jana Jacuka (replaced by Eveli Ojasaar at 2024 performances), Anumai Raska, Liisa Saaremäel, Johanna Vaiksoo
Sound artist: Mihkel Maripuu
Light artist: Sasha Mirson
Stage artist: Kairi Mändla
Materials dramaturge: Juss Heinsalu
Dramaturge: Laura Cemin
Production: Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava
Coproduction: Gertrudes Ielas Teatris
Residency: Contemporary Art Space Kutomo
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, Tallinn Culture & Sports Department, Culture Moves Europe

Duration: 80 min
Premiere on the 25th of Augustil 2023 at 19:00 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL).
Performances on the 28., 29., 31st of August and 1st of September at 19:00 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL).

The performances will be both indoors and outdoors so we suggest to dress accordingly. The performance uses smoke, plaster dust, loud sounds, and nudity.

Read an essay by the dramaturg Laura Cemin “PAUS ISTU MINE: a standstill that oscillates”

The performance PAUS ISTU MINE (Standstill) is a fragment of time, stolen from the daily flow, placed under a magnifying glass with the desire to reach a pause, a still point. The performance searches for the moment of pause charged with tension through the uncanny and the sublime. Either by experiencing the slightly off-key familiarity or by being carried by the perverted sublime ecstasy, reality is displaced: a standstill appears exposing the experience in its bare essence, free from any meaning attached to it.

6 beautiful bodies seem to be preparing for something, but the purpose is hard to grasp, they seem to move almost just to structure time. A washing machine starts its cycle, plaster heels crumble under the weight of gravity, an ice chandelier drips from the ceiling creating a fake lake on the iridescent floor, a large net is used not to catch but to lean on.

The audience and the performers find themselves searching for the moment of silence between thoughts and seek it through absurd a(u)ctions, slightly unfamiliar objects and the sense of awe hinted at by shimmering lights.

Inside and outside, natural and artificial coexist: a request to stop and look slower.

Look again.

Look closer.

*pause*

Ready to bid? Decided? Those little hands need to be raised quickly! Bid today, pay tomorrow. Come on!

We will start the bidding with the sound works created by Mihkel, hot context photos of the performers, posters of the performance, ceramics made during the rehearsals, props are also on special offer today, starting from tomorrow the whole production, for example, yesterday we selled emptiness, today it will be…

Item no.1, unique!

We start at 1. Anybody wanna give 2? 2 …

/ maybe I should have changed the … /

2 … anybody wanna give 3? Now 3 … Don’t stop! 3 …

/ I can’t remember what was /

… 3 … say the … bid the … give the …

/ I felt a drop on my … /

I am bit at 3 … anybody wanna give 4? Make it 4 … 4 … deal of the day!

/ Did I program the wash? /

Anybody 5? Bid now or lose out! 5 … bit it 5 …

/ I am too tired to … /

I’m at 5 and I want 6 … bid on 6 – 5 … com’on! Still 5 … would you go 6?