Rival

2018

My hand meets hers.
Something stirs—familiar, as if I  had felt this before.

As if I had always known how to touch,
and yet… forgotten.
I begin to dissolve,
drawn into the quiet of her fingers tracing on my skin—
the last border, ancient and trembling,
unsure whether to resist or surrender.

Intimate in a place that has long forgotten how.
Here, your skin is no surface—
it is armour,
it is weapon,
it is the first language, waiting to be spoken again.

A person standing under a red neon light against a dark background.

Choreography: Pascal Marty

Costume design: Jérôme Delbey

Lighting design: Lucy Mitchell

Music: Rival Consoles

Performers: Rebecca Egan - Kaya Selby - Maddie Trotter - Amelia Walmsley

Commissioned by Lisa Heavens and Peter Sheedy for the Adelaide College of the Arts

Two women in dresses conversing in a dark room illuminated by red lights.
Two dancers perform on a dark stage illuminated by red lighting with spotlights above.
Dance performance with three dancers illuminated in red lighting, with one dancer bowing or bending forward in the center.
Three dancers performing in a dimly lit space with red lighting, one on the left mid-dance, one standing in the center, and one crouching or bowing near the right.
A hand-drawn fashion illustration features a woman with platinum blonde hair and red gloves, with a smaller sketch of the back view of the same dress. The notes indicate it is a design by Porcel Mardy from Australia, dated 20.10.16.

Sketch (c) Jérôme Delbey

Photos (c) Sofia Calado