A body does not re-organise alone. Directed by Kelly Nash, The Room Would Split Open is a surreal choreographic world of strange bodies, unstable identities and awkward encounters.
Growing from Nash’s earlier work MEME skin, the piece revisits its heightened characters, fractured images and transformations through new bodies and new relationships. The past appears, but it doesn’t behave properly.
Humour, absurdity and theatrical play sit alongside questions of memory, adaptation, desire and protection. Bodies distort, imitate, resist, collapse and recover. A gesture can become ridiculous, tender or threatening depending on who receives it.
The work forms part of Nash’s ongoing Somatactics research, with Hono emerging as a practical methodology for bodies in relationship.
Rather than choreographing the body alone, The Room Would Split Open asks what happens when the relationship itself becomes the choreography.
Please note: Contains references to hospital surgery. Recommended 12+
Presented as part of Tempo Dance Festival 13–18 October 2026. For the full programme visit: www.tempodancefestival.co.nz
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