Eszter Mórocz, Kinga Szemessy

Where does it hurt?
a massage performance

“Where does it hurt? - a massage performance” is a combination of a massage treatment (on two beds at the same time) with object theater elements and storytelling. The performers, both dancers and qualified massage practitioners, research the aesthetic and ethical ambiguities of care, and of performing to an audience while keeping their attention on the recipients’ well-being. They let different genres and practices meet and clash: dance, somatic bodywork, talk show, peep show, world massage championships. Their starting point was to give a massage while conversing about when one shall consider discomfort as a tool for learning, what agency we have over our body in the hands of a “body-expert”, to what extent massage is accessible, how we give feedback to each other, and what hurts us on a larger societal level. Alongside this, the dancers have been experimenting with different haptic, visual, audio and odor affects. Undoing the primacy of vision in performance, and the primacy of touch in massage by the constant shift of perspectives.

Performers, choreographers: Eszter Mórocz, Kinga Szemessy

With the support of:
Redsapata / Sonnenstein Loft, Linz; REZI.DANCE, Komařice; Szendvicsbár community hub, Budapest; Culture Moves Europe

This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Goethe-Institut. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.