You Shall Only Go Up and Not Down

Performance Lecture, 2021 50 minutes
St John's Church, Keswick, Lake District

Written by Sarah White. Performed by tyroneisaacstuart and Sarah White.

This work-in-progress performance was a development of Sarah's previous performance lecture, "Touch Me Not”: The Stand-In, the Decoy and the Redeemer. The work was a semi-improvised performance, utilising a script written by Sarah, which is spoken whilst Sarah and Tyrone move. In this iteration of the work the dancers used radio mics to allow simultaneous movement and speech. The work also incorporated a sofa acting as a prop; and the piece was performed in the aisle, on the stage, and in the balcony of the church. The entire script was simultaneously projected onto the back of the stage area, as rolling text appearing in time with the performance. 

“Sarah’s work is at once visceral and intensely well observed. In a deeply personal, professional and accomplished performance in Keswick 2021, I and the audience experienced an arresting range of emotion, reflection and challenge: characterised through an alliance of intricate choreography and instinctive movement. The seamless and effective melding together of spoken word, soundscape and movement; the thoughtful use of space in the venue - all centred around the presence and heft of the sofa prop - brought to us a tangible sense of burden, wrestling, surrender, triumph and failure. This was a performance of vulnerability and gravitas that spoke of an artist committed to exploring her creative practice and sharing the heart and soul of her work.”