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 becomes just another given fact. It is just here, and that is the only reason it is here. Just because.
Concept and performance by Angela Goh
Performances:
19 October 2024 – Fine Arts, Sydney, Sydney, Australia
13 September 2019 – My Wild Flag Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
14-16 March 2019 – Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival, in Galerie International’s Group Show – Oslo, Norway
2 August 2018 – Bus Projects, in ‘Lessons From Dancing’, Melbourne, Australia
6 May 2018 – The Tote, Next Wave Festival, in ‘PRECOG’, Melbourne, Australia
22 August 2017 – Saal Biennaal, in Galerie International’s Group Show, Tallin, Estonia
29 April 2017 – PACT, in ‘The Big Bounce’, Sydney, Australia
23-25 March 2017 – Menagerie de Verre, in Galerie International’s Group Show, Paris, France
22-25 February 2017 – Dansehallerne, in Galerie International’s Group Show, Copenhagen, Denmark
21-22 January 2017 – Jan Mot Gallery, in Galerie International’s Group Show, Brussels, Belgium
22 September 2016 – La Biennale de la Danse, in Galerie International’s Group Show, Lyon, France
20 August 2016 – Indigo Dance Festival, PAF Summer University, St Erme, France
19 June 2016 – Firstdraft, in ‘Around the Outside: Dance and Choreography in the Gallery’, Sydney, Australia
14 September 2015 – Judson Memorial Church, in ‘Movement Research at the Judson Church Fall/Winter season’, NYC, United States
7 November 2014 – ReadyMade Works, Sydney, Australia
13 June 2014 – Brand X Central, Sydney, Australia
photos by Keelan O’Hehir, Carla Zimbler, David Gonsier