Extras | Women in Lighting: The live performance, Pretty in Pink on a Dark Street, is a collaboration between designer Marina Menéndez-Pidal and dance artist Anastasia Bezruchko. The work is just as much about femininity as it is about the role lighting plays at night. Marina received guidance and support from the MA Information Design department at Design Academy Eindhoven in Eindhoven, the Netherlands to complete the work. The live performance has been shown at Dutch Design Week and the Walking-with Amsterdam WARP Conference in 2022.
3 comments:
This is such an interesting concept for a performance piece, and it's definitely something that I would want to go see. The idea of creating movement piece around the experience of walking alone at night as a fem presenting person is one that I could see one drawing a lot out of and I think you could go in a lot of different directions. I think the fact that the piece relies heavily on lighting was a really cool choice, because anytime the light changes, it represents the change in the environment, or rather, the subject viewing the environment in a new way. When the light goes from unmoving to dynamic, the environment becomes harsher, more of a threat. This is exactly what it feels like walking alone at night as a fem presenting person. Even the choice to make the light hot pink speaks more to the feminist themes.
This production is so interesting in how it uses light and to demonstrate femineity. This production is also so meaningful in showing how women struggle to feel safe in society and living in a place. Being someone who is recently looking for an apartment, I often think about how I will be able to walk back home and feel safe at the same time. This production is so meaning in demonstrating such information and showing this side of the struggle that women are facing in modern society. The use of dance and light shows the mysterious and the tension between women in society and the surrounding environment. In addition, the costume also shows the ordinary women’s struggle in how it is all white, which naturally is the center of the focus and reflects the light well. Blending into the surrounding light and to show body posture and the figure which the dancer is demonstrating.
The implications of this piece are fascinating. I’m especially interested in the long research process. The thought of walking for an hour with someone who might be a stranger might offhand seem like something scary or disconcerting, but for women and feminine-presenting people, the thought of walking alone is much more threatening. I have definitely had the nerve-wracking experience of walking home alone at night in the dark, and so many feminine presenting people have a lot of anxiety about that, and so this is a really compelling piece to explore that feeling. The idea of structuring a dance around it is something I’d love to see. It’s so interesting how you can play with light to convey different moods, and since this piece is really just an exploration of one very specific moods, how you can really get the nuances of that moment on a deeper level by enhancing it with light.
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