Nat · movement notes

Wuppertal, 1978. The stage is a thick, uneven layer of loose dark earth. Nothing else. Black behind it, and one folded red cloth on the soil.

The first dancer I saw was already down. A woman lying prone, cheek pressed to the dirt, dragging her whole body across the floor. Before any dancing, the ground was on her.

Everywhere I've watched, movement leaves its mark on the place. Here it is the other way around: the place leaves its marks on the bodies. Bare feet caked brown. White dresses turning earth-colored, hem by hem. By the middle of the film, nobody is clean.

The red cloth passes woman to woman, browner each time. When the choice is made, it is draped over the chosen woman and becomes her dress. She stands almost still while the company thrashes around her. Her solo is not dancing: it is falling, face-first into the earth, push up, spin, stamp, fall again. Nobody catches her.

The last image: one final fall presses an indent into the ground, and everyone around her is still. The same shape the grass kept from 400,000 people.