tracking dog

The dance performance titled Tracking Dog is a continuation of the choreographic investigation under the working title Monstrum, initiated by Zrinka Užbinec and Mila Pavićević as part of the residency program of the Domino Association, and presented to the public at the Perforations Festival in 2015. 

The dance performance Tracking Dog explores collaboration as a working model, starting with the detection of the field of our friendly-professional relationship. Within the dynamics of the professional and collaborative field, friendship, as an important component of our relationship, often remains elusive. This performance reflects on choreography as an environment for the encounter of dramaturgy, friendship, and dance. In this environment, Mila and Zrinka both participate as authors and performers. By shifting from their usual positions (positions of dance performance and positions of observing dance), they approach collaborative dance without negating the specificities of their own disciplines.

The work on the performance follows the idea of searching for the elusive choreographic object constructed depending on the environment, and bodies in dance as an integral part of that environment. Elements of this choreographic object are drawn, on one hand, from the fields that define our artistic relationship: dramaturgy, dance, and friendship, considering the different paths and proportions within those fields. We ask ourselves: How can we establish and shape the performative body through its immersion in the performance environment, especially one that is constantly shifting?

The performance itself unfolded in two stages: the archaeology of relationships and the search for choreography in the shifting environment. The archaeology of relationships involved a transhistorical exploration of our friendly-professional relationship and the history of the places where we reside and work through written work and practical work in the studio. Through studying the friendly dimension, we explored memories, gestures, and affective situations. The search for choreography was the archaeology of relationships and a fictional framework of the environment. We took this environment from the cult comic Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, specifically from the episode Going Underground in which the character Cliff Steel embarks on an underground journey through the mind of Crazy Jane, who suffers from multiple personality disorder. The underground subway serves as an interesting choreographic framework for exploring nonlinear, transhistorical, affective relationships.

Otvorile su vrata, pustile su ih da uđu jedan po jedan. Penjući se uz stube, pogledavali su oko sebe i oprezno napredovali prema naprijed. One su ih razmjestile po pozicijama. Jedna je tečno čitala upute. Druga je pazila da svi dođu na za njih predviđeno mjesto. S vremena na vrijeme su se pogledavale. Nakon što je bila sigurna da su svi na svome mjestu, druga je donijela prvi objekt i sjela. Zabilježila je poziciju. Dobili su fascikle s dokaznim materijalom. Jedna je krenula opisivati okoliš. Druga je krenula opcrtavati mjesto incidenta. Jedna je počela govoriti, druga je legla u prostor. Obje su na trenutak mirovale. Jedna je zatim opcrtala tijelo žrtve. Druga je ustala, zabilježila poziciju, pa se zatim vratila na isto mjesto, legla je. Jedna je nastavila unositi objekte. Donijela je drugi objekt, pa treći. Druga je nastavila ležati. Druga je naposlijetku ustala i nastavila se kretati užurbano po prostoru. Jedna je izišla van. Druga se obratila prisutnima.