Arts by Mori J

04. Expansion

On the gesture, music changes. Suggestion: Difang’s “Visiting Song” from “Circle of Life.” All the dancers seem to hear an awakening call. Their walking pattern suddenly switches into a more orderly and organized form. They begin to breathe and heave according to the rhythm of the music. (In this scene and the next, during the quieter moments, we hear very small sound of clock ticking.) And then they begin to do the following series of movements, with several music transitions in between. During the actions, they try to drag the female protagonist into them. She is curious and fascinated by the actions and tries to imitate them, but does so poorly. Besides, she is visually awkward because she is the only colorless one. Gradually, the intensity and speed of the actions become more and more unbearable and frightening to her. She protects herself with the umbrella occasionally, and more and more towards the end.

The collective actions of the dancers are:

• They gather food.

• They divide into separate groups of men and women.

• The men begin to hunt. The women gather food and take care of babies.

• The men come home. They make knifes, potteries, make necklaces.

• They sow, plow fields and reap.​

Music Changes.

• One man sees something far away. He points at it. The crowd gathers around him, all of them in awe by the wonder on the other side. They fetch a telescope (can be mimed or real). They become sailors. They sail in a crazy sea, lurching wildly, some vomiting, and finally getting to another side. During the process, the protagonist is at the very far end of the crowd and doesn’t know what is going on. But afraid of being alone, she also tries to join the crowd in this voyage. She is bewildered. This voyage is excruciating for her.

• War Occurs.

The music builds up and gradually spins out of control. The protagonist becomes more and more confused and frightened. Her resistance becomes more and more desperate.

• All the people type away ceaselessly on electronic devices.

• People bring out big, bright laptops (or some iconic latest electronic devices with wild provocative colors,) generating some kind of visible elements that eventually swallows them up and drown them (maybe the electronic devices are like ribbon sprays, or generate something string-like – that signifies the words we’ve typed, the signals we’ve sent, the paper we’ve printed out, or the chords of those appliances, which are purveyed endlessly from backstage - to tie up all the performers like making cotton candies with sugar strings – a sweet and colorful entanglement. The things they generate are going to gradually form a heap that looks like a small volcano in which most dancers are eventually buried.) Music segues into a piece that is consisted of little sound effects of skype message alerts, iPhone alerts, Mac e-mail alerts, subway beepings, etc. that builds up from sporadic sounds to full and festive music that makes you want to dance. There can be an element of nostalgic melody if it could work.The protagonist, again and again, gets herself out of all the mess – escapes from all the strings, protects herself with her umbrella, etc. And, as if foreseeing that all this change is going to spin into an irretrievable chaos, she tries to “rescue” people from this deadly entanglement but fails.

​While the expansion scene is going on in the background, people speak (can be spoken by two dancers or played as pre-recorded sounds). Things like:

Woman: An organism doesn’t have to be something that moves, right?

Man: Right. Something can be perfectly still and still be an organism. A plant is also an organism. And it doesn’t move.

Woman: And a stone?

Man: A stone is not.

Woman: So what differentiates an organism from non-organisms?

Man: An organism is something that is alive.

Woman: I think, anything that has self-consciousness is an organism.

Man: Self-consciousness?

Woman: Yeah. Self-consciousness. Like, an awareness of itself.

Man: Self-consciousness only happens when something is alive. And when it’s alive it’s an organism.

Woman: Sperms are also organisms.

Man: What?

Woman: Sperms. They are also organisms.

Man: Why?

Woman: They are alive!

Man: No they’re not.

Woman: They are. And they know what they want! They have a purpose! In their motion! They want an egg!

Man: You know. Sperms are not organisms.

Woman: That’s not fair!

Man: What’s not fair? They’re not alive. They just can’t help moving. You see, like your heart. It is beating. Or the river. It is moving, but it is not alive by itself.

Woman: Sperms are self-conscious of their movement.

Man: Sperms are not self-conscious. They just move. They have no idea what an egg is. They don’t know what they’re looking for. They just move like crazy, like magnets towards metal, you know? And then, Bam! There’s an egg. And they got stuck.

Woman: Like an accident?

Man: Yeah like an accident.

Woman: So. We are all accidents.

Man: You’re right. (beat) Look, things that are alive can grow, and get bigger, and multiply themselves. Sperms can’t.

Woman: (dreamily) Sperms can multiply!…

Man: Sperms can multiply? You mean a sperm can marry a sperm and give birth to little sperms?

Woman: But they move!

Man: (freaking out) Moving doesn’t make them alive!

Woman: Then why do we move?

Man: I don’t know!!!

These can be the voices of a little boy and a little girl. They can start playing games in which they kill each other with machine guns. Or if these are spoken by adults, music washes over their conversation. Or the lines “why do we move?” “I don’t know” can recur as part of music.

• Sigmund Freud can appear (can be an actor who looks like Freud or a man wearing a Freud mask). The chaotic, deadly technology dance goes on.

• A electronic voice can cut in occasionally and recite things like: “y1 = y z1 = z,” “x1 = x - vt y1 = y z1 = z t1 = t,” and then “E=mc².”

• The heap of the volcano starts to form. All the dancers get tangled and buried up by the heap/mountain of strings/ ropes/ cords that they have generated and the protagonist gets thrust out of the volcano again and again like a piece of unwanted rock. She is still trying to rescue people out of this mess to no avail. People are either too tangled or simply unwilling to get out. Finally she has to give up. All the people are buried, struggling. She stands on top of the volcanic heap. And then the volcano also spewed out a bundle. Music slows down, as if the battery is low. She stares at the bundle in stupor, unmoving while the reveling crowd struggles and twitches in their entanglement until they are finally dead and still. The girl stands alone for a long time.

Music of solitude. Maybe “Motion Picture Soundtrack” can come back again. Lights on the dancing crowd begin to dim. The following two things are choreographed to happen simultaneously and end together:

1. She continues to look at the bundle, and looks at the umbrella she carries as if she has never noticed it before. She plays with it. She discovers that it can be used as a walking stick. She takes a last glance at the volcano and the dead people buried inside, sinking into deep sorrow. She takes out the knife the craftsman has given her (as if she has forgotten it is there). She cuts herself in the abdomen. Red blood spurts out and stains her dress. And then she cuts another part of herself. Another red stain. Another cut, but this time, green, or other color spreads. Another cut, another color, another cut, another color, until her dress becomes a beautiful, daintily-colorful piece. She does this in completely dignified silence, like a martyr. When she’s finished, she takes up the walking stick and bundle, and begins her journey.

2. A thousand people (silently and very slowly getting out of the volcano, gracefully as ghosts) whisper quietly on their smart phones, and then they hang their phones on a tree, and all lean on the tree and make a wish.

The scene ends. Lights out on the dancers. The female protagonist is alone on stage.