The Body Politic

by Yao Xu

We question how highly concentrated power trickles down to private life and how tactics such as coercion, isolation, and fear-mongering affect the ways the physical bodies occupy time and space. This work features original music composed by award-winning composers Hannah Selin and Sepehr Pirasteh. The music incorporates recorded voices from political prisoners in Sepehr's home country, Iran, as well as clips from US President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address. Woven together with synthesized and acoustic percussion sounds, the music oscillates between violence and stillness, pushing the boundary between technology and nature.

Choreographer: Yao Xu in collaboration with dancers
Composers: Sepehr Pirasteh and Hannah Selin
Dancers: Yuying Chen, Michaela Delaney Guthrie, Garamh Kim, Ella-Gabriel Mason, Sabrina Miller, Liz Siani, Boram Yi

This performance is partially funded by a Vice Provost for the Arts Research and Creativity grant from the Center for Performing and Cinematic Arts, Temple University.

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