choreographic work | variable length |

facehooked is a choreographic setup that connects two performers through a unique body extension - a reinforced fabric tube attached to their faces like masks. Bound together, the performers must continually negotiate their movements, relying on one another for balance and coordination.

The physical connection serves as both a limitation and a source of support, allowing for movements that rely on the partner’s counterbalance. This unearths a unique and uncanny movement vocabulary, blurring the lines between individual and shared bodily experiences.

The boundaries between the bodies dissolve as each performer becomes an extension of the other’s body schema - the mental map of the physical self in space. In this shared state, the other becomes a part of oneself—a symbiont, an uncanny mirror. This raises a central question: Where does one body end, and where does the other begin?

Facehooked explores the human struggle to balance the desire for connection with the need for independence. It suggests that through connection, we may discover a new kind of freedom - one that transcends the limitations of solitary action.

Facehooked serves as an adaptable framework for evolving performative formats, with each iteration potentially varying in duration, theme, and choreography - yet always anchored by the central system of connection.

Choreography: Alva Morgenstern

Performance: Maria Waldinger, Alva Morgenstern