Not About Everything (2007)

Daniel Linehan created “Not About Everything” in 2007 in New York shortly before moving to Brussels. It meant his international breakthrough and he has continued to perform his solo to this day.

He reflects on the creation and it’s meaning from today’s perspective:

I made Not About Everything as a young artist in a world with an abundance of information, in search of an answer to the oft-repeated question “What is your work about?”. Any attempt to define this felt like a limitation. The pieces I had created up to that point were about a million things, sometimes in a span of ten minutes. What do I want to talk about?

My answer is a dance. A dance that starts with words. The cadence of sentences triggers a loop of circular movements. And a dance that asks questions as well. What is the value of a piece and what impact does it have on me, the audience and the world outside the theater? The answers work their way through my body and find expression in movement and sound. In all my creations, sound plays a crucial role. The vocal cords are as important as any other muscle and dance continues into words that in turn evoke new movements.

In the solo, I come to an essence by clearing out layers of text and movement, tangible but unspoken.

Allowing unrestricted associations, letting movement lead to sound that again culminate in dance, and coming to a core in that multiplicity, is a process that is in all my creations. Everything that crosses my path influences me and manifests itself in dance. The inspiration and impulses come from different dimensions in space and time but dance brings everything into the present. This paradox is at the same time the nature of our lives.

In “Not About Everything”, I dismantle space layer by layer with my body, from the outside in. I spin in the here and now within a complex and hyperactive world to the rhythm of phrases and movements at shifting tempos. The whole cycle is a process of letting go of extra weight until only a core remains. The piece can also be seen as a reaction to the multiplicity and imperative of news, opinions and hypes. It has the energy of resistance.

In dance I want to let memories, ideas, facts, and dreams play and interact.

The next performance of Not About Everything is at Bozar (Brussels) on January 20 in a Double Bill with Submission Submission by Bryana Fritz.

Click here to book your tickets

Calendar

Show past datesHide past dates

Credits

Creation, Performance Daniel Linehan
Original lighting Joe Levasseur
Dramaturgy Juliette Mapp

Co-prodution Dance Theater Workshop (New York, USA)
Residency Movement Research (New York, USA)

Photography Eva Faché

< >