Transformation

Transformation is a dance/physical theatre work written, directed, performed and lived by gemskii. She takes us through her life from abusive beginnings, abandonment, rape and self-harm, to her pursuit of a daddy (“Daddy number 5?”) and finally to processing her past in order to heal.

But it does not feel horrific, the audience does not feel confronted with her misery or her scars, nor is this a plea for self-pity. The introduction even encouragement to laugh. Instead there is an eagerness to hear how she has transformed to this woman of pride and beauty.

Performed in a rectangular box, the audience sits on the same level as the performer and are greeted by her trackpant-bedecked person at the door. After a short hello, she turns around to become… herself. Performed in the tiresome drama-school style of over-acted text, which is somewhat saved by her physicality and technical precision. Perhaps it is the intimacy of the space that simultaneously makes her earnestness contrived yet also engaging and touching. The audience is part of her leaps and lunges, her gesticulations, and her greetings to the sky. She sings, she acrobatically tumbles and she beats her chest: she is a creature of strength.

Thus the over-dramatic voice and continued formula of talk, move, talk, move, talk, move do not take away from this special presentation of a woman’s journey from a life of chaos to now, this moment of performance and consciousness.