Performance.
- Anticlockwise -
Anticlockwise, designed by Tsoi Huen Wong and Christiano Mere, is a performance in development that mixes ancestral memory, time and body movement to explore resistance. Drawing from Capoeira and Contact Improvisation, the practices that Tsoi Huen and Christiano have, the performance demonstrates how the body resists entropy — returning to complexity instead of declining into disorder. Grounded in interaction, the piece shows how the body becomes a vessel for time, allowing past and future to coexist and reshape the present.
In Anticlockwise, circular movements resist linear progression, much like ancestral forces that challenge our conventional sense of time. Inspired by Capoeira rituals and the improvisational framework of Contact Improvisation, the performers evoke a non-linear flow of time. These anticlockwise movements mirror the body’s capacity to transcend constraints and restore complexity.
Contact Improvisation is crucial to the work, encouraging spontaneous interactions through touch, shared weight, and balance. As the performers respond to each other’s movements in real time, the improvisation highlights how resistance can be fluid and collaborative. This interaction deepens the exploration of survival strategies, as movement adapts to external forces.
The body in Anticlockwise is haunted by ancestral memory, embodying both the past and a future not yet realised. Circular gestures defy the notion of resistance as direct confrontation, instead embracing balance, imbalance, and subtle acts of defiance. The performance is as much about carving out spaces of complexity as it is about resisting entropy and colonisation.
Ultimately, resistance in Anticlockwise is fluid, negotiated rather than forceful. Circular gestures, pauses, and confined movements challenge traditional views of conflict, while being haunted by time allows the body to open itself to new forms of existence shaped by ancestral rhythms.
Bio.
Tsoi Huen
Wong is a performer, maker, and practitioner whose work spans dance, theatre, performance, and participatory contexts. She has a regular practice in Contact Improvisation and Gaga Movement Language, and enjoys exploring how choreography can expand and compose a range of creativity and imagination. She sees the body as an earnest medium and considers improvisation in dance as a practice of life. Tsoi Huen was trained in the Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio’s Physical Theatre Institute programme in 2020/21, then she has pursued a BA in Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a current member of Dance Base's 2024/25 Dancers Emerging Bursary Scheme, under the mentorship of Rob Heaslip.
Christiano Mere
Christiano is a researcher, writer, artist, movement artist, and art technician from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. His artistic practice navigates gaps between actions, materials, and time, rather than pursuing specific themes. He holds an MA in Sculpture from the University of
Lisbon (2019) and a BA in Graphic Design from UNESA, Rio de Janeiro (2010). Christiano has participated in residencies like Projekt Europa (UK, 2024) and Resvés (PT, 2019), and has exhibited internationally. He is also a published author, with works featured in platforms such as Off Flip Literature Prize (BR, 2020) and Mauvaises Herbes (FR, 2020).