Predictable Dances is an ongoing project where for each performance I engage the services of a psychic to predict what will happen during the performance. Then I perform the prediction. It is very simple. There is nothing else to really understand about it other than that a dance is prophesized and that it comes true, and so it is just a dance that is meant to be. It opens up a situation where the desires, needs, and expectations of both performer and audience are dismissed in the wake of a singular aim, for the dance to fulfil its own prophecy. It moves the future into the present and passes the dance through the medium of the psychic, through the medium of the performer, through the medium of the audience, and back into the world.
Predictable Dances is not surprising nor seductive, it just is. There is nothing to fight for or to figure out, all that is needed is to sit back and let the future breeze past the present for a moment, without desire or meaning, but together with a dance that does nothing other than fulfil its own prophecy. In this moment, we don’t have to ask anything of the dance, like why it exists, what it means, or what it is doing here, because for a moment dance just becomes another given fact. It is just here, and that is the only reason it is here. Just because.
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Performances:
13 September 2019 – My Wild Flag Festival – Stockholm, Sweden – https://www.mywildflag.com/schedule
14-16 March 2019 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival, Oslo, Norway
2 August 2018 – as part of the exhibition Lessons From Dancing, curated by Zoe Theodore, Bus Projects, Melbourne – https://busprojects.org.au/program/lessons-from-dancing
6 May 2018 – as part of PRECOG, curated by Sezzo Snot and Makeda Zucco, The Tote, Melbourne – https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/precog/
22 August 2017 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – Saal Biennaal – Tallin, Estonia – https://www.saal.ee/en/performance/4880
29 April 2017 – The Big Bounce, curated by Matt Cornell, PACT, Sydney, AU – http://www.pact.net.au/whats-on/2017/1/24/pact-salon-the-big-bounce
23-25 March 2017 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – Menagerie de Verre – Paris FR – http://www.menagerie-de-verre.org/spectacles/group-show/
22-25 February 2017 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – Dansehallerne – Copenhagen DK – http://www.dansehallerne.dk/en/performance/group-shows/
21-22 January 2017 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – Jan Mot Gallery – Brussels, BE – http://www.janmot.com/previous_exhibitions/index.php
22 September 2016 – as part of Galerie International’s Group Show – La Biennale de la Danse – Lyon FR – http://labf15.org/fr/140/group-show-the-matinee
20 August 2016 – Indigo Dance Festival – Performing Art Forum Summer University – St Erme, FR – http://indigodancefestival.tumblr.com/post/148828689935/i-d3-feat-angela-goh-predictable-dances
19 June 2016 – Around the Outside: Dance and Choreography in the Gallery – Firstdraft Gallery – Sydney – http://firstdraft.org.au/exhibitions/newpositionsdancechoreographyinthegallery/
14 September 2015 – Movement Research at the Judson Church Fall/Winter season – NYC, US – https://movementresearch.org/events/series/movement-research-at-judson-church
7 November 2014 – ReadyMade Works, Sydney
13 June 2014 – Brand X Central, Sydney
photos by Keelan O’Hehir, Carla Zimbler, David Gonsier